Bradford had some help

Clay Horning
The Norman Transcript

September 02, 2007 01:51 am

— Though the subject of his remarks was a different player, Oklahoma football coach Bob Stoops repeated something he said a year ago in the week leading up to Saturday’s season opener against North Texas.
Then, it was about how Paul Thompson stood a great chance of making a difference at quarterback as long as the players around him played “in a great way” themselves. Thompson was a senior and Sam Bradford is a redshirt freshman, yet it all made perfect sense. Just like Thompson, Bradford was running the Sooner offense for the first time.
The final tally?
OU crushed North Texas 79-10.
Stoops was proved right.
Bradford was great, but, at least for one night, was surrounded by greatness, too.
Not once was he sacked, so he had time to complete 21 of 23 passes for 363 yards and three touchdowns. He was on target, yet suffered no drops, allowing the Sooner offense to run at peak efficiency (14.4 yards per pass attempt). The ground game was effective, averaging 5.9 yards per rush, so when it was over the Sooners had 668 yards of total offense.
“There are some playmakers that can make plays and I think that was evident,” offensive coordinator Kevin Wilson said.
DeMarco Murray ran for 87 yards and five touchdowns and Mossis Madu, the Norman High product seeing his first action as a Sooner, ran for 87 and one touchdown (on only nine carries), but more than anybody, Wilson had to be talking about his receivers.
Juaquin Iglesias caught seven passes for 128 yards (and another that was ruled a lateral that accounted for 41 rushing yards) and Malcolm Kelly caught four passes for 118 yards and two touchdowns. A few of the catches were tough, a few of the runs after the catch were sights to see.
Though Bradford claimed to be nervous before the game, Iglesias observed he hardly looked it. Even though, Iglesias understood the importance of making big plays for a rookie quarterback.
“If we catch the balls he throws to us, that makes it easier on him,” he said. “If we make the hard catches, then we know that’s going to help his confidence.”
If Iglesias’ calling card was making Mean Green defenders miss, then Kelly’s was making the great catch, including one for 24 yards that required his not breaking stride while grabbing the ball below his knees and another, for 24 yards and six points with a minute to play in the first half, when Latif Nurudeen’s coverage couldn’t have been any tighter.
“There’s good receivers out there,” Stoops said of Kelly, “but I’ll say he’s second to none.”
Bradford understood his place as the beneficiary of so many other strong performances.
“I played all right, but they really made me look good tonight,” he said. “They probably made me look better than I was.”
Clay Horning
366-3526
cfhorning@normantranscript.com