• Thompson thrives with game in his hands

By Clay Horning

Transcript Sports Editor

KANSAS CITY, Mo. — A week earlier, at Boone Pickens Stadium, with the game on the line, Oklahoma coach Bob Stoops turned to his defense. Even if it took the ball out of quarterback Paul Thompson’s hands.

Saturday night at Arrowhead Stadium, playing Nebraska in the Big 12 championship game and sporting a running game that would finish with only 42 yards on 28 carries, Stoops had no choice but to turn to Thompson and whoever the fifth-year senior might find to throw the ball to.

It worked.

By way of a 21-7 victory, OU earned yet another conference championship. And while the defense came up big, the offense got it done through the air.

“There’s a lot of different ways to win,” Stoops said.

Thompson completed 19-of-34 passes for 265 yards. Two went for touchdowns, one was picked off. But even then, Thompson had to throw it up for grabs or give up a safety.

And while Thompson was excellent, Malcolm Kelly may have been even better, catching 10 passes for 142 yards and both touchdowns.

The first hook-up between the two was a home run, when Thompson hit Kelly in stride, a step beyond a defender, and Kelly took it the rest of the way for a 66-yard first-quarter touchdown.

That put the Sooners up 14-0, yet even though Thompson had already thrown for 153 yards by the half, it was still just 14-7 with 4:46 to play in the third quarter when Thompson and the Sooners found themselves pinned at their own 1-yard-line, already having gone nowhere their two previous second-half possessions.

Afterward, this is what Stoops said of what was about to happen.

“Paul was sensational throughout that drive,” he said.

Maybe not at first. At first, he overthrew Kelly. Then, Allen Patrick went nowhere. Then the show got on the road.