Longhorns cornerback Williams in on big plays

Published Oct. 17, 2009 11:50 p.m. ET

foxsports

It wasn't a good one for the Longhorns.

Williams, who had knocked Oklahoma quarterback Sam Bradford out of the game in the first quarter, was beaten for the tying touchdown in the third. He lunged for a tackle on Oklahoma's Ryan Broyles who easily sidestepped him and coasted for a touchdown.

Momentum, it seemed, was lost.

Not for long.

Heading back to the bench, Williams knew he had some making up to do.

After Texas retook the lead at 16-13 on Hunter Lawrence's third field goal of the game, the Longhorns flushed Bradford's backup, Landry Jones, out of the pocket and forced him to throw on the run. Williams made an acrobatic interception on the sideline at the Oklahoma 20.

"Once you make a mistake, you have to come back with a big play," Williams said.

Williams had made arguably the biggest play of the game for the Longhorns with the hit on Bradford, the first of two sacks by Texas.

With Oklahoma worried about picking up defensive end Sergio Kindle to Bradford's left, Williams blitzed from Bradford's right and threw him down on his right shoulder. The hit aggravated the same injury that knocked Bradford out of the Sooners' first game and made him miss the next three.

"I don't think he was looking for me or something. Most of the game, they were picking up my blitz. For some reason, on that one play, they'd didn't get me," Williams said.

Williams said he didn't know Bradford was hurt.

"I was celebrating with my teammates and it wasn't till I saw we weren't calling any plays that I saw that he was hurt," Williams said. "It's unfortunate, but it wasn't intentional."

Texas appeared to have the game in control until Williams' gaffe on the missed tackled.

Jones threw a short sideline pass to Broyles, who looked an easy target for the tackle. But Williams went in with his head down, Broyles stepped to his right and bolted 35 yards to make it 13-13.

"I was really upset with myself, but in a big game, a big situation like that, you have to have a (short) memory and let it go. The coaches were made at me and was mad at myself," Williams said. "A missed tackle for a touchdown, you'd better do something big."

The secondary came up with another in the fourth quarter.

Texas squandered Williams' interception when Colt McCoy threw one right back to the Sooners. Oklahoma moved the ball close to midfield before safety Thomas picked off Jones' final pass with 3:31 to play. The Longhorns ran out the clock to get the win.

"I was like, 'I can't believe it's coming,"' Thomas said. "It kind of floated a little bit and I was able to pull it in and make a play."