And so it was when middle linebacker Torrance Marshall picked off a pass and tip-toed 41 yards down the right sideline for the winning touchdown with 7:18 left to play to give Oklahoma a 35-31 victory over No. 23 Texas A&M -- keeping an undefeated season alive.

Sooner Magic was back.

Torrance Marshall weaves through the Aggies defense after his big interception. (AP)

Moments later, the Sooners' defense stopped A&M at the 4-yard line when Ontei Jones got a hand on a pass from Aggies quarterback Mark Farris intended for Chris Taylor. And yet again before the game would end, the Sooners stopped A&M's final, frenetic drive on four plays, allowing Heisman Trophy hopeful Josh Heupel to end one of his must frustrating days by taking a knee as time ran out on an orange-covered Kyle Field.

"They call themselves the Wrecking Crew, and they played pretty good," Marshall said. "Nobody talks much about our defense. They say it's just all right."

Maybe it's better than that. Maybe it hasn't gotten the attention it deserves in this 9-0 season, with all the klieg lights on Heupel and the most prolific offense in major college football. Maybe it deserves a nickname, too.

"Well, I'll call it the No-name Defense."

Call them whatever you want, but call Oklahoma a complete football team.

On a day the offense struggled, falling behind at halftime, 17-10, for the first time all season, the defense prevailed when it mattered. On a day Texas A&M scored 17 points following two interceptions and a fumble recovery -- and seven more after a blocked punt -- Oklahoma's defense scored the points that mattered most on a turnover.

Trying to regain momentum after Quentin Griffin's second TD run and a two-point conversion cut the A&M lead to 31-28, Farris attempted a pass down the middle to Porter, the slot receiver. It was a play the Sooners had been expecting all game.

"We practiced it all week long," Marshall said. "He just ran a little banana route, and I just dropped back. In practice, I dropped a couple. This time, I was lucky enough to catch it."

Then he ran for daylight, straddling the sideline like a high-wire performer.

"I thought I had stepped out of bounds, but I didn't hear a whistle so I kept running," he said.

Sooner Magic was back. It was witnessed by a sold-out Kyle Field crowd of 87,188, the largest ever for a football game in Texas. It surpassed the 86,128 who saw the Aggies beat Texas last November.

And most of them were stunned to see Marshall step into the end zone, and in the process make a reluctant prophet of his coach, Bob Stoops.

"Coach told us all week long that the 'D' was going to win this game," Marshall recalled.

"We told our players all week long that this game was going to be close and that it might come down to the last series of the game -- for the offense or defense," Stoops confessed. "And sure enough ... I've got to quit making speeches like that. Sometimes I tell them, 'You know guys, it doesn't have to be close.'"

The Sooners' average of 45.9 points per game ranked first in the nation, and they had beaten opponents by an average of 31.3 points per game.

"I guess they have a way of listening to me," Stoops said, finding a silver lining in the clouds that darkened the November sky so much the lights were needed in the early afternoon.

"It's good for us to be in a close type of game like this," Stoops said. "We learn from it. We'll grow from it."

Rocky Calmus, perhaps the biggest name on the no-name defense, concurred.

"You need games like this. You can't expect to win them all easily," said Calmus, a junior linebacker who is a finalist for the Butkus Award. "We showed great character today, to overcome the kind of adversity we faced today. Great teams do that. I think we showed we have the heart of a champion."

So, too, did Heupel, whose offense struggled so much early that he was forced to take a knee to end the first half just so he could send his team into the intermission trailing by a touchdown. Nevertheless, he rallied his team when it needed him most, leading three second-half scoring drives that put his team back into contention before Marshall's heroic pick.

Heupel completed 28 of 42 passes for 263 yards. He threw two interceptions, one touchdown and added a critical two-point conversion that made it a 10-point game early in the fourth quarter.

"If anybody has any doubts about Josh Heupel, just put in a tape and watch him play," Calmus said. "He was struggling in the first half, but he overcame his own adversity. He was there when we needed him."

Added Stoops: "I really don't know what else anybody is looking for. He's undefeated. We're undefeated. We're in the driver's seat of the Big 12 South. I don't think there's any question that Josh Heupel has to be the leading candidate for the Heisman Trophy. He's responsible for us being where we are."

Heupel, and now a proud group of players on the other side of the ball.

"We just got in the huddle and said, 'Who's going to fight the fire and who's going to shy away?'" Marshall said. "We looked forward to being able to prove ourselves in that kind of situation."

In fact, nobody on either side ran for cover.

"Our kids played extremely hard, and I credit Oklahoma for making the plays they needed to make to win the football game," Aggies coach R.C. Slocum said. "They did what is expected of a No. 1 ranked football team, and our hats are off to them."

In the visitors' locker room, former Oklahoma coach Barry Switzer was leading the cheers, whoopin' and hollerin' as Sooners fans are known to do when times are good.

"Sooner Magic! Sooner Magic is back!" Switzer kept yelling.

Even the normally reserved Stoops admitted to getting caught up in the moment. Did he believe he had just witnessed a little of that old Oklahoma charm?

"Maybe a little," he said, smiling like a man who had just found an ace up his sleeve.