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Bedlam Memories: Sam Bradford Flips Oklahoma to Victory

Originally posted on FanNation All Sooners
By John E. Hoover | Last updated 11/4/23

NOTE: This is the sixth in a series of memorable Bedlam matchups between Oklahoma and Oklahoma State leading up to Saturday's game in Stillwater, the last in a rivalry spanning more than 100 years. The AllSooners staff picks its favorite games we either covered or watched live.

Not all Heisman moments look the same.

From Sam Bradford’s angle, his looked … kind of upside down.

Bradford took No. 3-ranked Oklahoma to a dramatic Bedlam victory in 2008 with a scramble, a head-over-heels flip, a busted thumb, a fumbled snap and a touchdown run that gave the Sooners enough separation late in the third quarter to build a pulse-pounding 61-41 victory in Stillwater.

That win pushed OU to a third consecutive Big 12 Conference Championship Game and a familiar spot in the BCS National Championship Game.

It also put Oklahoma’s unassuming third-year sophomore quarterback firmly in contention for the Heisman Trophy, which he squeezed in between title games — and surgery to get that thumb fixed.

Bradford’s makeshift touchdown run — he fumbled the snap under center at the 2-yard line because he’d torn ligaments in his non-throwing thumb on the third possession of the game, then quickly scooped it up and scooted into the end zone — finished off a 12-play, 74-yard drive that took nearly five minutes off the clock and gave the Sooners a 37-26 lead going into the fourth quarter.

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Watch highlights from the 2008 Bedlam game

Running offensive coordinator Kevin Wilson’s tempo offense, Bradford didn’t have time to think about his busted digit after landing hard on the Boone Pickens Stadium turf.

The whole thing was quite the spectacle.

On third-and-goal from the 9, Bradford dropped back to pass, but couldn’t find a receiver. He scrambled to his right, stiff-armed a blitzing defender while keeping his eyes downfield, then reached the sideline and decided to take it himself. He cut up, planted at the 4-yard line and went airborne. At the same time, Bradford collided with two Cowboy defenders and catapulted, his feet rotating skyward, pointing like skinny antennae on some wayward satellite.

The thumb snapped and the ball came out (out of bounds), and Bradford hurried on to the next play, which he collected off the turf and coolly took in for a more comfortable lead.

It was almost a microcosm of the game itself.

DeMarco Murray ran in from 20 yards after a Dominque Franks interception for a 7-0 lead, but a field goal and a 23-yard touchdown pass from Zac Robinson to Kendall Hunter put the Cowboys up 10-7.

On the next drive, Bradford went 3-for-3 on third-down throws and Chris Brown converted the fourth to set up his 2-yard TD run to make it 14-10.

OSU added another field goal, but Bradford converted three more third-down throws, including a 3-yard TD toss to Jermaine Gresham to put OU up 21-13 at half.

Both teams were only getting warmed up.

OSU opened the third quarter with an 81-yard touchdown drive to make it 21-19 — Robinson found Dez Bryant for 36 yards up the left hash, then avoided a sack and dumped it to Bryant for a 6-yard touchdown on third-and-5 — but Jeremy Beal stripped Robinson on the 2-point conversion, and Frank Alexander scooped up the fumble and went 90 yards the other direction for a 2-point conversion and a 23-19 lead.

That was the first of eight touchdowns exchanged on consecutive possessions: Bradford to Gresham on a 73-yard deflected catch, Robinson on a 31-yard TD run, Bradford’s flip and improv scoop TD, Robinson’s 17-yard TD pass to Bryant, Bradford’s 1-yard TD pass to Brody Eldridge (which came after Murray’s 68-yard kickoff return), Perrish Cox’s 90-yard kickoff return TD, and Bradford’s 17-yard TD pass to Juaquin Iglesias.

All that left the Sooners with a 51-41 lead, and they still weren’t done.

The Sooner defense turned in a three-and-out on O-State’s next possession — OSU netted minus-6 yards — and in the context of this game, it felt like a drive out of the 1930s.

OU answered with a Jimmy Stevens field goal, then Robinson was sacked and separated from the football one last time by Beal. Adrian Taylor’s recovery at the 38 set up the inevitable — another OU touchdown, this one a 28-yard burst by Brown with 32 seconds on the clock.

Oklahoma was 12-of-18 on third downs and racked up 557 yards, while OSU was 7-of-12 and finished with 452.

Brown ran for 98 yards and two TDs, and Murray had 157 all-purpose yards and a score. Gresham caught nine passes for 158 yards and two TDs, and Iglesias had eight for 86 and a score.

But the real star was Bradford, who completed 30-of-44 passes for 370 yards and four touchdowns — and also ran a couple times for an improbable, impossible, unforgettable Heisman moment.