NORMAN, Okla. — With a dominant defense and Sam Bradford's pinpoint passing, Oklahoma is on its way back to No. 1.

Bradford threw for a career-best 411 yards and four touchdowns, Manuel Johnson set a school record with 206 yards receiving and the second-ranked Sooners avenged their last loss at Owen Field by beating No. 24 TCU 35-10 tonight.

With top-ranked Southern California and three other top 10 teams losing, Oklahoma (4-0) made as strong a case as anyone to get back to No. 1 for the first time since it lost to Kansas State in the 2003 Big 12 championship game.

It didn't matter that the Horned Frogs (3-1) felt they'd been called cheaters following their 2005 upset in Norman, or that they brought in the nation's top-ranked defense. Oklahoma aired it out behind Bradford and found the same success it had in winning its first three games by a 164-42 margin.

Bradford found Johnson for first-half scores of 73 and 55 yards on plays when his defender stumbled, and Johnson added another 63-yard TD in the third quarter on a screen pass to push the lead to 35-3.

By then the Sooners' 21st straight home victory was as good as locked up.

Bradford went 19-for-34 and pushed his touchdown total for the season to 16, against only two interceptions, in Oklahoma's new no-huddle offense. Coach Bob Stoops called that scheme the reason the Sooners closed scrimmages this year, but TCU was left with the impression that Oklahoma thought they'd cheated by spying on practice prior to their 17-10 upset in the 2005 season opener.

The Frogs were never close to pulling off a repeat.

TCU, which had controlled the ball for an NCAA-best 37 minutes per game, got only one first down on its first four drives and fell behind 21-3. The only score came on Ross Evans' 32-yard field goal that followed Aaron Brown's 75-yard kickoff return.

By the end of the first quarter, Bradford had 202 yards passing — the most by an Oklahoma quarterback in a first period — and he just kept adding to it. Johnson passed Mark Clayton's record of 190 yards, set in 2003 against Texas, as he zipped downfield after catching the screen pass.

After that, the Sooners spent most of the time pounding the ball up the middle and trying to run out the clock.

It was a luxury USC, No. 4 Florida and No. 9 Wisconsin didn't have. All three had been upset by the time the Sooners took the opening kickoff, and eighth-ranked Alabama was playing third-ranked Georgia.

That left a scramble for the top spot, and the Sooners capitalized.

They didn't seem to miss injured defensive tackle Demarcus Granger (left foot) and created three first-half takeaways against a TCU offense that had only one turnover through its first four games. Lendy Holmes recovered a pair of fumbles and cornerback Brian Jackson snagged his first interception of the season.

The Frogs also hurt themselves with 12 penalties, and backup quarterback Marcus Jackson threw another interception in the final minute after Andy Dalton had been taken off with an injury.

Dalton ended up with 212 yards on 16-for-39 passing. TCU was held to 102 yards rushing, less than half its 249-yard average, on 35 carries.