Published: October 09, 2005 12:01 am            

No Peterson hurts Sooners

DALLAS — The Red River Rivalry has always been akin to a heavyweight title fight. Whichever team can land the most haymakers will usually tote the Golden Hat back up the Cotton Bowl ramp.

OU’s problem was Adrian Peterson’s ankle injury left them without any knockout power in the Sooners’ 45-12 loss to Texas.

The sophomore running back injured his right ankle against Kansas State last week. OU coach Bob Stoops was optimistic that his star would recover well enough to be a factor against Texas.

His optimism proved to be fleeting and he knew Peterson wasn’t going to be much of a factor as soon as he tried to warm up Saturday.

“He was OK downhill, but we didn’t feel he was strong enough, good enough, side to side,” Stoops said. “We didn’t feel he was going to be as productive as he needed to be on top of maybe continuing to injure it.”

He only carried the ball three times and was only on the field for two plays in the second half.

The Sooner offense wasn’t able to do much without their big-play threat in the running game. Kejuan Jones, Jacob Gutierrez and Donta Hickson totaled 56 yards.

“As an offense and as a team, you can never count on just one guy,” Jones said. “ But we know not having Adrian probably hurt us a little bit.”

Without much of a running threat, Texas teed off on the Sooner passing game.

OU quarterback Rhett Bomar only threw for 94 yards and didn’t have a completion longer than 9 yards until the fourth quarter. His longest of the game went for 17.

Still, the Sooners deflected any notion that Peterson’s status was a blow they couldn’t overcome.

“We had the guys to do it, but we weren’t physical enough to knock guys off the ball,” offensive tackle Davin Joseph said.

But it helps when you have a running back that can turn a crease into a touchdown. That was the recipe for what turned into a disaster for OU Saturday.

        

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