Sooners Rout Texas Tech Behind Strong Defensive Performance

After falling to Kansas State at home two weeks ago, the Oklahoma Sooners have been questioned and scrutinized in every way possible.

Saturday in Lubbock, the Sooners responded in a big way, using a dominating second half defensive performance to rout the Texas Tech Red Raiders, 41-20.

Landry Jones bounced back from a poor performance against Kansas State by throwing for 259 yards and two touchdowns with no turnovers.

Damien Williams had 130 all-purpose yards on 20 touches, something Bob Stoops talked about wanting to see all week.

The story of the game for OU was the defense, which intercepted Texas Tech quarterback Seth Doege three times, and held the Red Raiders, which came in averaging 547 yards to 360 yards.

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The Sooners took the opening kickoff and drove 75 yard in four minutes, scoring on a 13-yard pass from Jones to Justin Brown. The Sooners were clicking offensively, mixing up the run with pass, and using screen passes effectively.

Texas Tech came back down the field and scored a touchdown on a seven-yard Kenny Williams run. Texas Tech quarterback Seth Doege was able to pick apart the OU secondary since the Red Raiders' offensive line gave him more than enough time to throw.

Near the end of the first quarter, the Sooners appeared to catch a break when defensive tackle Jamarkus McFarland intercepted a tipped Doege pass, and headed for the end zone. However, McFarland fumbled, and Texas Tech recovered. The Red Raiders would turn that into a field goal for a 10-7 lead early in the second quarter.

The Sooners responded with a touchdown drive of their own, powering down the field behind the running of Williams and Dominique Whaley, and pass-catching of Sterling Shepard. After another Texas Tech field-goal drive, aided by a couple of OU penalties, the Sooners came back down the field, scoring on a 13-yard touchdown pass from Jones to Kenny Stills, Jones' 100th touchdown pass of his career.

On the ensuing Texas Tech drive, Aaron Colvin made a leaping interception at the line of scrimmage to give OU the ball at the Texas Tech 40 yard-line with 1:38 in the half. OU converted the turnover into a field to take a 24-13 to the locker room.

Texas Tech's first series after halftime ended with Sooners linebacker Frank Shannon sacked Doege on fourth and five from the OU 36. The Sooners then went on a 54 yard drive, with 38 yards coming on a screen pass to Damien Williams. Blake Bell scored from one yard out to give OU a 31-13 lead.

The very next possession, Colvin tipped a Doege pass into the waiting arms of Javon Harris, who took it 45 yards to the house for a 38-13 lead that began sending the Texas Tech record crowd of 60,800 to the exits.

Texas Tech scored a touchdown with less than a minute remaining to account for the final margin.

The Sooners now turn their attention to the Red River River Rivalry next week in Dallas, where they'll take on Texas at 11 a.m.