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Sooner Gameday Central: OU vs. Texas | Scouting Report: Texas Longhorns | Boomer Bytes  OU & Texas Game Notes (PDF) | OU Depth Chart | 2007 OU Football Guide

NORMAN, Okla. (AP) -- Malcolm Kelly has a point to make. It wasn't on a whim that he crossed the state line to play at Oklahoma, spurning the Longhorns and choosing not to follow his brother to the campus he'd grown familiar with over years of visits.

"The main reason why I came to Oklahoma was because Texas hadn't beaten Oklahoma in the last five years, and I get up here and we haven't beaten them in two years,'' Kelly said. "That's going to be a big deal for me going in. The main reason why I crossed the Red River was because Oklahoma beat Texas and they usually made it to the Big 12 championship game.''

Kelly has an extra reason to be fired up for this week's game against the No. 19 Longhorns (4-1, 0-1). For the first time since he emerged as Oklahoma's top receiver midway through his freshman season in 2005, Kelly played a full game without a reception in the 27-24 loss at Colorado last week that dropped the Sooners to No. 10.

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The only other game in which he didn't have a catch was Oklahoma's 43-42 loss to Boise State in the Fiesta Bowl this January, when a knee injury knocked him out of the game early.

"I've kind of got a chip on my shoulder. I didn't play as well as I wanted to Saturday,'' said Kelly, who had two catches for 31 yards in last year's Red River Rivalry. "Going into this game, there's a lot of people back at home that's mad at you for being up here, so you want to go down there and show them why you came up here.''

Kelly isn't entirely to blame for his zero-catch performance. Quarterback Sam Bradford didn't throw in his direction the whole game, and then ran out of chances after three second-half turnovers limited the Sooners to 19 offensive plays after halftime.

"That's what no one wants to talk about. That's part of it,'' Oklahoma coach Bob Stoops said Tuesday. "Part of it was he's double-covered a fair amount of time. ... Other times Sam had the option, could have went to him and chose somebody else. That happened a few times as well. So it's a little bit of all of that, and the few snaps we had.''

The failure to get Kelly involved was one of many reasons for the Sooners' downfall. Two interceptions and a muffed punt fueled Colorado's comeback from a 24-7 deficit, and the defense couldn't get a stop and then seemed to wear down from being on the field so long.

The lack of catches for Kelly could've been overlooked if others had picked up the slack.

Kelly had seven touchdown catches in Oklahoma's first three games, but even when he had three catches and no touchdowns against Tulsa, the Sooners still managed to score 62 points. Against Colorado, Stoops counted four dropped passes by other receivers.

"I think it's fair to say we've got a lot of good offensive players, and they need to step up in those instances and make plays,'' Stoops said. "To think you're going to put Malcolm in a certain position and people don't know where he's at, that's not very realistic. They know where he's at.''

Offensive coordinator Kevin Wilson echoed Stoops' sentiment that occasionally moving Kelly from his usual position on the perimeter into a slot position wouldn't solve the problem because defenses would simply adjust. Instead, he said the Sooners need to run the ball better if future opponents mimic the Cover-2 scheme Colorado used much of the game.

"We didn't execute the run and we didn't execute it against a very simple defense with basically six guys in the box,'' Wilson said.

Kelly agreed, and said "you need to be able to run the ball to open up the passing offense,'' and not simply throw more passes to him when he's covered.

"I hate that it happened, but it opened this organization's eyes I think - all the way through the coaching staff and the players,'' Kelly said.

Wilson said he didn't want Bradford to feel like he had to throw in Kelly's direction because that could force him to hold onto the ball and get sacked while waiting for Kelly to get open.

But other players will be important to the Sooners' success, too.

"I believe, and always will, when we have good players in all these positions that you spread them out and you make them defend the whole field,'' Stoops said. "We're not one of those teams, and never have been, where we're just going to sit here and go to one guy.

"It's too easy to take away one guy.''

And if other teams try to do that by using the same defensive approach as Colorado?

"We'll beat it next time,'' Kelly said. "I'm sure we'll beat it next time.''