All Sports All The Time

It was a great day for football in Norman, Ok; cool and overcast for the opener of the 2006 college football season. Unfortunately, things didn’t go as planned for the Sooner fans that were in stands at Memorial Stadium on the University of Oklahoma campus. The Sooners should have easily taken care of the UAB (University of Alabama at Birmingham) Blazers, but it was anything but easy for the Sooners on Saturday.

The game started with both defenses forcing punts and on the Sooners second drive, QB Paul Thompson only needed to passes to get the Sooners on the scoreboard. With passes of 25 and 21 yard, respectively, both catches were made by TE Joe Jon Finley. It looked like the Sooners were off to the races, but UAB had other plans for the Sooners. They replaced their starting QB in the second quarter ad they were able to jump start their offense. While the Sooners offense really didn’t do a whole lot in the second quarter. UAB was able to get on the scoreboard thanks to a 15 play nearly 8 minute drive to tie the score at 7.

The second half was when Sooners super star runningback Adrian Peterson got on track and put Sooners ahead 14 -7 early in the second half. He carried the ball all six times on the 39 yard scoring drive including a 19 yard run and capped it off with a 4 yard touchdown run. On the following possession, the UAB Blazers tied the score with a 24 yard touchdown pass from Sam Hunt to Cory White. UAB broke the tie with a field goal, it was made possible when the ball was knocked out of the hands of Peterson by a defender that was lying on the ground after being blocked.

Fortunately for the Sooners Adrian Peterson quickly forgot about the fumble on his last carry, because on the very next play the Sooners had the ball, Peterson made them pay. He took a swing pass from Paul Thompson and turned it into a spectacular 69 yard touchdown run. He ended up with 139 yards rushing and 69 yards receiving, with 2 TD (1 receiving and 1 rushing).

Senior QB Paul Thompson has a decent game with only a couple of bad throws that ended up being picked off. He was only making his second start at the college level and he did pretty well. The biggest problem in the game for the Sooners was on the defensive side of the ball, they couldn’t seem to get a really good read on what UAB was going to do from play to play. Fortunately, our defensive coaches are very good at what they do and they were able to get our players to bend but not quite break when it really counted.

I believe the Sooners will have plenty to build on when they sit in the film room and watch the tapes of the game on Saturday.