Published: October 04, 2008 04:26 pm            

No. 1-ranked Sooners trounce Bears, 49-17

WACO, Texas — Oklahoma remembers how to play the role of No. 1.

Sam Bradford threw for 379 yards with two touchdowns, DeMarco Murray ran for two scores and four other Sooners got into the end zone in another lopsided victory over Baylor, 49-17 Saturday in the Big 12 opener for both teams.

Bradford threw a 53-yard TD to Manuel Johnson only 70 seconds into the game for the Sooners (5-0), who built a 28-0 lead by the end of the first quarter.

The Sooners have never lost to Baylor (2-3), winning all 18 games in the series. The last five in Waco have been decided by an average margin of 36 points.

Oklahoma this week moved into the No. 1 spot of the AP poll for a record 96th time, but first since 2003, after an upset-filled weekend when the Sooners were the only one of the top four teams to win. They appeared intent on making it 97 with a quick start against Baylor.

Next week, the Sooners have their traditional second-Saturday-in-October meeting against No. 5 Texas at the Cotton Bowl — in the middle of the State Fair of Texas.

This trip across the Red River was more like a glorified practice session for them.

Johnson, coming off a school-record 206 yards receiving in last week's 35-10 victory over TCU, got open behind the secondary for a 53-yard catch on Oklahoma's third play of the game for its quickest opening TD of the season — after Baylor went three-and-out in only 31 seconds.

Bradford was 23-of-31 with an interception, his only one in the last three games to go with 11 TDs. He was coming off a career-best 411-yard passing game at TCU.

After sneaking in for a 1-yard touchdown, Bradford added a 42-yard scoring strike to Juaquin Iglesias to make it 35-7. Iglesias had six catches for 133 yards.

Murray, who ran 26 times for 96 yards, had TD runs of 2 and 1 yards. Mossis Madu (1 yard) and Chris Brown (3 yards) also had scoring runs.

While Bradford got plenty of help, true freshman quarterback Robert Griffin scored both of Baylor's touchdowns on short runs and accounted for 177 of the Bears' 269 total yards, running 21 times for 102 yards and going 11-of-26 for 75 yards.

Oklahoma scored on its first four possessions, and the only of their six first-half drives without a touchdown ended with a strange interception.

Bradford threw a deep pass to Iglesias, who had to come back to get the ball and bobbled it as he fell onto his back. The ball was on his chest, but never hit the ground and was pulled away by Jordan Lake for an interception at the Baylor 10.

The Bears went three-and-out, and Bradford hit Iglesias for a touchdown on the next drive.

Another pass intended for Iglesias, on the Sooners' second drive in the first quarter, was intercepted by Joe Pawelek near the goal line. The turnover was nullified by a pass interference penalty against the defender trying to cover Iglesias in the end zone, setting the ball at the 2 for Murray's TD and a 14-0 lead.

Griffin, at 18 the youngest starting quarterback among the 119 FBS schools, was under pressure early and often.

After scrambling from one side to the other and back on one pass play in the first quarter, Griffin hurled a pass about 50 yards across the field and just short of the first row of seats. That came a play after he was tattooed for a 2-yard loss after rolling right and turning up field thinking he had a running lane.

Ben Parks kicked a 32-yard field goal for the Bears, whose losses have all come against Top 25 teams, the others being Wake Forest and Connecticut.

        

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