Game Grades: Oklahoma Sooners 44, Kansas Jayhawks 7

History was made in the Oklahoma Sooners 44-7 win over the Kansas Jayhawks, as running back Samaje Perine ran for a new NCAA FBS single game rushing record 427 yards. It was a record that had stood for 15 years until Wisconsin’s Melvin Gordon broke the record last week with his 408 yards rushing. Gordon would only be the rushing king for one week before losing that title to Perine.

Lost in all the history making was a much-needed dominant performance by the Oklahoma defense. The Sooners graded out pretty well in their win over the Jahawks, but we all know who really shined in the rain on Saturday.

THE OFFENSE

Cody Thomas: C

When you consider the fact that we can’t have different rules when it comes to how we grade one quarterback versus how we grade another, it seems more than fair that Thomas get a poor grade. The freshman continued to look very shaky in the passing game and this time around failed to rack up the big rushing numbers to make up for it.

Thomas completed 3 of 13 passes for just 39 yards. Thomas didn’t turn the ball over and finished without a touchdown. The quarterback ran for 21 yards on three carries.

Fans grumbled a bit about some overthrows and errant passes from starter Trevor Knight throughout the year, but Thomas was even more inaccurate and missed badly on some very easy short passes. It took a while, but eventually offensive coordinator Josh Heupel began to realize that putting the passing game on the shelf and just handing the ball off to Perine was the ticket to victory.

Running Backs: A

If ever there was a grade better than an A this would be a good time to use it. The 427 yards by Perine were not only an Oklahoma and Big 12 record, but it was also the best performance ever by a FBS running back. Names like Adrian Peterson, Barry Sanders and Ricky Williams all fall well short of Perine on the list of top single game rushing performances.

Perine also became the first running back to run for at least 200 yards in each half of a game. One amazing thing about the freshman’s day is the fact that at this time last year Perine was playing high school football. Even more amazing is that Heupel only handed the ball to this beast five times against Baylor.

While the backs got lost in the historical day and Keith Ford became the first Oklahoma running back to fumble this season, it was still a solid performance by the other backs. Aaron Ripkowski was magnificent in his blocking duties and was a major reason for Perine’s success. The running backs also collected all three of the Sooners completed passes.

Receivers: Incomplete

This grade was about all I could come up with. How do you give a grade to a unit that wasn’t really allowed to participate. Sure, you could give a little critique to some guys who dropped a couple passes, but in the rain we saw in Norman it can be forgiven. Other than that, most of the other passes thrown to the receivers were never thrown anywhere close enough to be caught.

I guess I could say they did a great job blocking down field for Perine, but let’s be honest, who noticed what the receivers were doing while Perine was breaking records?

Offensive Line: A

I’ve once again added this section to our grades for this week. Mostly because if Perine were to see this, the humble freshman would probably not be happy. I don’t know about you, but I don’t want to be the one that makes that guy angry. When you consider that many of Perine’s longest runs were through huge running lanes, you have to say the offensive line with all their size and talent thoroughly dominated the game from start to finish.