Oklahoma’s sophomore quarterback Sam Bradford is widely considered to be a candidate to win this year’s Heisman Trophy and he did nothing against TCU that would make anyone think any different.
Bradford opened the No. 2 Sooners’ first game against a ranked opponent by throwing for 199 yards in the first quarter, a school record, on his way to a 411-yard and four-touchdown performance in the 35-10 victory.
“You got to give it to Bradford,” senior linebacker Jason Phillips said. “He made some great throws.”
TCU head football coach Gary Patterson said he takes responsibility for some of the defensive calls that were made in the first quarter that Oklahoma scored 21 points in.
“A lot of that was my fault,” Patterson said. “We were trying to blitz and get them into some fourth downs and make them punt and they made big plays.”
Bradford’s favorite target of the night was senior wide receiver Manuel Johnson, who set the school’s receiving yards record with 206 on five catches. Johnson also had three touchdown grabs.
The Horned Frogs came into the game with the No. 1 ranked total defense in the nation, allowing just 183 yards of offense per game, but TCU will relinquish that top spot after giving up 436 total yards against the Sooners.
“(Oklahoma) came out to play and we didn’t match it,” Patterson said. “They are very athletic. I think what they are doing on offense with the hurry-up, is going to cause a lot of teams some problems. Just the tempo of their offense bothered us.”
The brightest spot of the Frogs’ defense came from the run defense, which allowed just 25 yards on the ground.
TCU continued to struggle in the penalty department committing 12 penalties that cost them 66 yards. The Frogs came into the game as the fifth most penalized team in the country. The Frogs also lost the turnover battle for the first time of the season, giving the Sooners the ball four time, twice on fumbles, and never taking the ball.
“When you play against good teams, you can’t turn the ball over and you can’t have penalties,” Patterson said. “You can’t play at second-and-15. We have been talking about that for two weeks.”
Oklahoma will likely be the No. 1 team in the country when the new AP polls are released Sunday after the No. 1 University of Southern California Trojans lost to the unranked Oregon State Beavers on Thursday night.
“They are deserving,” Patterson said. “In this day and age, if you win all of your football games you deserve the right.”
The 85,158 fans in attendance marked the fourth largest in school history.
The Frogs will return to Mountain West Conference action when they host the San Diego State Aztecs next Saturday at 5 p.m.
“I believe this is a very good football team at TCU,” Patterson said. “I believe that before it is all said in done, if (TCU) decides to play four quarters and compete when they go on the road, they will win a lot of football games.”