Sooners Bash Wildcats 43-21

The Sooners and the Wildcats both set the tone early for the way they would play against each other Saturday night. For the Sooners it was dominating defense, 6 sacks, two turnovers and only 35 rushing yards allowed.

For the Wildcats it was something totally different, miscues. On the Wildcats first possession quarterback Allen Webb appeared to be checking off of a play when the center snapped the ball past him. Two possessions later Kansas State lined up to punt the ball, but there was no punter. The ball was snapped through the back of the end zone for a safety. The rout was on after that point as the Sooners cruised to a 43-21 victory.

Signs of a Passing Game
We saw against UCLA that the Sooners were actually able to pass the football. Against Kansas State, redshirt freshman quarterback Rhett Bomar threw the first touchdown pass of his career, the first TD pass of the year for the Sooners, to tight end Joe Jon Finley.

Bomar has obviously matured a little as he committed no turnovers, for the first time, made solid reads and ran the ball at appropriate times, 8 rushes 67 yards 1 TD. A big factor to his improvement was the improvement of the offensive line, only one sack and over 200 yards rushing. Bomar actually had time to make his reads and find the open receiver. The Sooners should continue to improve in these areas each week.

Running by Committee
The Sooners lost running back Adrian Peterson in the first half but continued to roll up rushing yards on the Wildcats. Six Sooners ran the ball for a total of 232 yards. ``We never try to rely on one guy to win a ball game for us,'' back up running back Kejuan Jones said. ``As running backs, we know anytime (Peterson) goes down, we've got to step our game up.'' Jones ran for two touchdowns Saturday night.

Young Defense
OU started two true freshman safeties Saturday night and they both made big plays. Reggie Smith picked off the first pass of his career and Nic Harris made some key tackles from the free safety spot.

The Sooners linebacking corps seems to get more impressive each week and has become the heart of the defense. Hard hitting junior linebacker Rufus Alexander has become the vocal leader of the defense.

Adventures in Punting
Okay, explain this to me. How do you snap the ball to a punter who is not there? First, the special teams coach should have noticed there was no punter. Second the up-back who makes the snap count should have noticed there was no punter. Third, the deep snapper who snaps the ball to the punter should have noticed there was no punter. Finally, the punter should have noticed there was no punter on the field. KSU Punter Tim Reyer to fellow members of the punt team, “Hmmm, fourth and long from inside our own 10, I wonder what play coach is going to call here? Hey, where did everyone go?” What world was this guy in?

Reyer should have stayed on the sideline longer because after that incident he had a punt blocked and another punt of 8 net yards.