Mike Finger: OU's Peterson can't hide disappointment after loss

Mike Finger: OU's Peterson can't hide disappointment after loss

DALLAS — Adrian Peterson forced a few smiles Saturday evening, and some people might have even found them convincing. He will, after all, be a millionaire next spring, and he still might wind up with a Heisman Trophy.

But behind the made-for-TV grin that undoubtedly will be used to hawk sneakers and soda sometime soon, there was the genuine disappointment of a player whose Red River legacy had peaked way too early.
Two years earlier, Peterson scorched Texas — the team he had spurned in the recruiting process — to officially announce his arrival as a superstar. With Oklahoma's 28-10 loss Saturday, he had been humbled by that same team for the second October in a row, albeit through little fault of his own.

Not far away from where Peterson was putting on his happy face outside the Cotton Bowl, UT linebacker Robert Killebrew was gushing about his adversary. Still sore from his repeated attempts to bring Peterson down, Killebrew called him the best player he had ever faced, and said he hoped Peterson wins the Heisman. Later, Killebrew added a few words Peterson might have appreciated.

"The higher you go up the ladder," he said, "the more of your ass that shows."

Killebrew wasn't referring to OU's star running back with that bit of philosophy, but he might as well have been. Peterson's trip up the ladder of college football's premier players has been undeniable, but he also has become more vulnerable in the process.

First he lost Jason White, his Heisman-winning quarterback, then he lost the cachet that came with playing for a national championship contender. Now, he's a brilliant performer on a mediocre team, a situation that can lead to sprained ankles and front-loaded defenses, and sometimes both.

Peterson missed most of last year's UT loss with an injury, and the general feeling in Oklahoma was that he was targeting this game as a chance to make up for that. And for a while on Saturday, it looked like he would.

He returned a kickoff 59 yards in the first quarter, hurdled over a teammate and outraced the secondary for a 29-yard touchdown in the second. As the teams headed for the locker rooms, the entire stadium was bracing for his typical second-half surge.

But a play right before halftime turned out to be the precursor to what was to come. On a third-and-2 from deep inside UT territory, Peterson took a handoff and cut to the outside. But instead of finding daylight, he stumbled over quarterback Paul Thompson's feet, and the Sooners were forced to settle for a field goal.

"It was there, man," Peterson said. "I thought that one was going to the end zone. But you can't get it back."

Nor could he get back his struggles in the second half, when he was held to just 38 yards — he finished with 109 — and was swarmed by an inspired Longhorns defense determined not to let him run roughshod.

"We'd seen him destroying teams," UT defensive tackle Derek Lokey said. "We didn't want that to happen to us."

Afterward, Peterson admitted he was frustrated, but more by the Sooners' repeated mistakes than by his individual struggles. The Palestine native said he was "pumped up" to play in his home state, but when asked if the Red River Rivalry was one of the reasons he wanted to play at OU, he shook his head.

"Nah, I wouldn't say that," Peterson said.

Then, he smiled again, because he was still pretty far up the ladder.

But he knew what was showing.

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