LINCOLN, NEB. ? Adrian Peterson says he isn’t 100 percent yet, but his Oklahoma teammates and Nebraska never would have known Saturday.
Peterson ran for 146 yards and two touchdowns, and Oklahoma held off Nebraska’s comeback bid to win, 31-24, Saturday, giving the Cornhuskers back-to-back home losses in the same season for the first time since 1968.
Peterson, coming off an ankle injury that limited him for a month, scored a 36-yard touchdown on his first carry. He added a two-yard TD run in the second quarter as Oklahoma broke out to a 24-3 lead.
“It was great to have him back,” OU coach Bob Stoops said. “Everyone talks about how talented he is, and to me he is just so tough and competitive. To have him out there, I think everyone feeds off him, too. He just has a tough, hard-nosed presence to him. He was big.”
Peterson was injured Oct. 1 against Kansas State and played a limited amount the next two weeks. Last week, he sat out the Baylor game because he couldn’t make cuts on his right ankle.
“I just played my heart out and came out with a big game,” Peterson said. “I’m only about 90 percent, but that’s football. I had to be tough and play through it.”
Nebraska put together two straight TD drives in the second half to pull within a touchdown before the Sooners escaped with their first victory in Lincoln since 1987.
The Huskers, who lost, 34-31, to Texas Tech on Oct. 8 in Lincoln, dropped consecutive home games for the first time since losing three in a row 37 years ago.
Oklahoma (5-3 overall, 4-1 Big 12 Conference) won its third straight and extended its regular-season winning streak over North Division opponents to 12. The Sooners haven’t lost to a North team since a 20-10 defeat at Nebraska in 2001.
Nebraska (5-3, 2-3) now has lost three of its last four after a 4-0 start.
“They just didn’t have enough at the end, and the other team made the plays we didn’t make and certainly deserve the credit,” Nebraska coach Bill Callahan said.