Second Half Dominance Leads Sooners To Blowout Win

Corey DeMoss, News9.com

MANHATTAN, Kansas – The No. 9 Oklahoma Sooners recovered from a disappointing loss with a 58-17 blowout win over No. 8 Kansas State Saturday.

The Sooners lost starting running back Dominique Whaley on their first play from scrimmage with a broken ankle, but still scored touchdowns on their first two drives to take an early 14-0 lead. But the defense began having trouble stopping the run in the second quarter.

Kansas State gained 147 yards on the ground in the second quarter and scored 17 unanswered points to take the lead with 12 minutes left in the first half. The Wildcats did not score again.

The Sooners scored nine points to take a 23-17 lead into halftime, and then dominated the second half on both sides of the ball. The Kansas State running game disappeared, while OU quarterback Landry Jones reached two different milestones.

Jones completed 12 of his 14 second-half passes and finished with 505 yards, becoming the first player in OU history to have more than 500 passing yards in a game. He also threw five touchdowns to reach 90 in his career, passing predecessor Sam Bradford on the school's all-time list.

While Jones and OU offense moved the ball at will, Kansas State could not get anything done. After gaining 208 yards in the first half, the Wildcats only mustered 32 total yards in the second half and had four first downs. After halftime, OU had more points than Kansas State had yards.

With Whaley out, the Sooners abandon the running game for much of the day. Roy Finch led the team with 73 yards, which included a 31-yard touchdown. Fullback Trey Millard broke OU's biggest run with a 61-yard touchdown that marked the final score of the game.

Ryan Broyles finished with 14 catches for 171 yards to bring his career total to 4,499 yards, the most in Big 12 history. Kenny Stills also had 101 yards, while Jaz Reynolds had two touchdowns to go along with two highlight-reel catches.

Oklahoma still has not lost back-to-back regular season games since 1999, and Bob Stoops has a record of 24-1 after regular season losses in his career at the school. The loss was Kansas State's first of the season; it rose to No. 8 last week after being unranked to start the season.