Final ticks turn into a nightmare.

Byline: Bob Rodman The Register-Guard

OREGON FOOTBALL

The Sooners likely will wonder all the way back to Oklahoma how a dream can so quickly become a nightmare.

With a shade more than three minutes left and a 33-20 lead in Saturday's titanic struggle at Autzen Stadium, one of college football's major powers sustained one powerful, fourth-quarter meltdown.

Eighteenth-ranked Oregon scored two touchdowns in a 26-second stretch, a surge fueled by the controversial recovery of an onside kick, fanned by an Oklahoma secondary breakdown and capped by the blocking of a Sooner field-goal attempt.

The Ducks skipped away with a 34-33 victory and a noisy Autzen-record crowd of 59,269. They all loved it. The Sooners did not.

"It was frustrating and it was maddening," said Bob Stoops, the OU coach with a 77-17 record. "We finally took control of the game and then lost it."

In the second half, after trailing 13-6 at the break, the Sooners scored 27 points, Adrian Peterson ran for 161 of his 211 yards and the OU defense yielded 21 fourth-quarter points to Oregon.

"We've got a 13-point lead with two minutes left," Peterson said. "All we had to do was execute."

Garrett Hartley's fourth field goal of the game nudged Oklahoma to a 33-20 advantage with 3:12 left but his ensuing kickoff went out of bounds. With the ball at the UO 25-yard line, the Ducks made it 33-27 on quarterback Dennis Dixon's 16-yard touchdown run.

Oregon's Luke Bellotti delivered the onside kick and the Sooners initially believed their Allen Patrick recovered it, and even if he didn't the Ducks had interfered with the catch.

Oregon's Brian Paysinger, who would make the game-winning touchdown catch seconds later, said he touched the ball that was ruled recovered by teammate Patrick Chung.

The Sooners, who had drives to the Oregon 24-, 3-, 3- and 5-yard lines finish in field goals, said it should have been their ball.

"My argument was that you are not to be contested inside the 10 yards," said Stoops, whose team scored 16 points off Oregon turnovers. "We felt our guy was run into."

Peterson said he believed "we had the onside kick but we didn't, and it got real ugly from then on."

Twenty seconds and three plays later, Dixon threw that 23-yard scoring pass to Paysinger, Paul Martinez kicked the extra point and Oregon led 34-33.

"I was not expecting the ball to get thrown to him," said Nic Harris, the OU sophomore defensive back burned on the play but with two interceptions in the game.

"You've got to play disciplined, technique football or you'll get exposed."

Reggie Smith took Oregon's kickoff 55 yards to the Duck 27 with 46 seconds left and no timeouts. Hope sprang eternal again.

Two plays later and with two seconds to go, Hartley - with field goals of 41, 20, 20 and 22 yards in the book - was ready to win one for the Sooners with a 44-yarder.

"I was relaxed, the snap was good, the hold was good and I thought I hit it well," he said, "but when I came up from my follow-through, I saw him bat it down. It was the worst feeling in the world."

Oregon's Blair Phillips turned the Sooners' panic-riddled hope into stunned dismay when he reached up and swatted away Hartley's kick.

"We should have been getting touchdowns instead of threes," Oklahoma quarterback Paul Thompson said.

"We were right there. It's not like we came out here and got crushed."

Except, emotionally, they did.