ANN ARBOR, Mich. - Oklahoma had the ball with a chance to steal it late, and John Mateer simply couldn’t make it happen.
Down by a touchdown with a little over three minutes left, the Sooners needed one clean drive to keep themselves alive. Instead, the possession evaporated in less than a minute. Xavier Robinson opened it with a 3-yard run, then Mateer misfired three straight times, including a throw intended for Rocky Beers over the middle and another aimed at Isaiah Sategna III that sailed over his head.
That was the end of it.
Mateer finished 17 of 33 for 189 yards with one touchdown and a costly interception in Oklahoma’s 17-10 loss to unranked Michigan on Saturday. His 103.6 passer rating was his lowest since last season’s Texas game, when he threw three interceptions.
The biggest issue for OU was hard to miss: the quarterback wasn’t sharp enough to win on the road.
“Just a little uneven at times and a few missed throws,” Brent Venables said after the game.
Mateer had spent the offseason trying to clean up his mechanics and footwork after breaking his thumb last season. He studied his mistakes from a year ago with Venables, offensive coordinator Ben Arbuckle and OU Heisman Trophy winner Sam Bradford. None of that work showed consistently in Ann Arbor.
“My eyes weren’t great,” Mateer said. “I’ll go back and watch it. I missed a lot of throws I normally don’t miss.”
The fourth-quarter interception loomed large as well. It may have been tipped, but in a tied game and in OU territory, it was the kind of mistake that can’t happen.
Venables was blunt about the moment and the performance around it. He said protection could have been better at times, but also pointed to Mateer needing to get through his reads more cleanly and get the ball out with better timing.
“We need to do a better job of slowing down, not being hurried to make some of the throws,” Venables said. “We were high, consistently, throwing the ball today, so we've got to settle down and make several of those balls. Got to be more catchable.”
Oklahoma also dealt with a shuffled offensive line. Jake Maikkula returned at center, Ryan Fodje filled in for Michael Fasusi at left tackle, and Eddy Pierre-Louis had trouble inside. The run game never really got going, and the Sooners’ backs carried it only 13 times.
That fit with what Venables saw up front.
“Obviously, not good enough,” Venables said when asked about OU’s blocking Saturday. “Not good enough in any way.
So we’ve got to be able to sustain drives. We got to knock people backwards.
We’ve got to execute better. We’ve got to be a little more physical and we’ve got to stay away from the negative plays.”
Michigan, meanwhile, didn’t need much through the air. Bryce Underwood threw only 17 passes, ran 18 times for 87 yards and scored on a 38-yard touchdown. The Wolverines attempted just five passes in the second half and completed two, but still controlled enough to finish the job.
Mateer did offer something as a runner, finishing with 45 yards on 13 carries. After what happened Saturday, Oklahoma may decide it needs more of that and less of the burden of asking him to throw it 30-plus times.
The scrutiny around Mateer was already there after last season’s uneven stretch, with some of it tied to his injury. This latest outing figures to bring even more heat, especially with Georgia on the road and Texas at the Cotton Bowl coming in a matter of weeks.
“He's got to be inside out,” Venables said. “He's got to focus on the things that he can control and we’ve got to focus on the things that we can control and find the ways.
Use them with the magnifying glass the right way to find out how we can get better. And I know he'll do that, and we'll do that.”
Mateer didn’t try to spin it afterward. He sounded like a quarterback owning a rough day and looking ahead to the next one.
“I don’t have a choice,” Mateer said. “This team needs me. This university needs me.”
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