Sooners' Safety Peyton Bowen Named National Defensive Back of the Week

Peyton Bowen just keeps making it obvious.

On Tuesday, he was named the Thorpe Award National Defensive Back of the Week after Oklahoma’s 27-24 win over No. 1 Texas, and that came right after he had already won SEC Defensive Player of the Week.

So the league noticed. The national people noticed too.

Hard not to when your safety is the one who flips a rivalry game against the top team in the country.

The play everybody remembers is the pick-six, and for good reason. Oklahoma had trailed 17-7 at half and still had not led yet when Bowen broke on Arch Manning’s throw and took it 42 yards the other way. That made it 24-17 and completely changed the afternoon.

He caught it at the back of the defense, got upfield, and forced his way in from there. First interception of the season. Third of his career. First one he has taken to the house. All three of his picks have come in the last two years, and he has 79 return yards off them.

That is not luck. That is a player who keeps finding the ball.

He was not just a one-play guy either. Bowen finished with seven tackles, six solo, which was a season high. That is the part that always stands out with him. The highlight is loud, but the rest of the tape usually backs it up.

He is physical. He is around the ball. He plays like the defense’s emotional center. Oklahoma needed all of that after a first half that looked way too familiar.

And the setting made it bigger. This was Oklahoma’s first win over a No. 1 team since 2007, the first over an AP No. 1 while unranked, and the first over Texas as the AP’s top team. Those wins do not just happen because everybody played fine.

Somebody has to create the moment. Bowen did.

This was also his second Thorpe weekly honor. He got one last year after the Missouri game too. This means he is not just catching people in one big rivalry flash. He is producing enough on a regular basis that the same awards keep finding him.

The only downside is the calendar. Oklahoma is 3-2 and 1-1 with Kentucky coming to Norman this weekend, so nobody gets to sit with the honors for long. Bowen deserved every bit of this one though. Against No. 1 Texas, he played like the best defensive back on the field and maybe the most important Sooner on it.

The award just confirmed what the game already showed.