Oklahoma’s offense has reached the point where every supposed fix runs into another wall.
That’s the problem Brent Venables is staring at after the Sooners fell to 2-2 and got blasted 41-13 by No. 2 Georgia on Saturday.
A bye week can calm things down, maybe help a team reset, but it can’t turn this group into something it isn’t. Venables made it clear Sunday that he doesn’t believe a major shake-up is coming.
“If we get out of our own way, continue to make the incremental improvement, we have what we need to have a heck of a season,” Venables said. “We’ve got a really good football team.
“We haven’t been a really good football team yet.”
He repeated that confidence on his coach’s show, and the message was the same: Oklahoma already has what it needs. The issue is getting out of its own way.
That sounds optimistic because it has to. The Sooners still have eight SEC games left, and the schedule isn’t going to soften up. But the more you look at this offense, the harder it is to point to one clean solution.
It’s tempting to blame offensive coordinator Ben Arbuckle, especially after the loss to Michigan and the ugly showing against New Mexico. A lot of people would have looked at Georgia and immediately jumped to the same conclusion: fire the coordinator, bring in Kevin Wilson, and hope the whole thing snaps into place.
But Saturday didn’t really support that theory. Arbuckle actually called a strong game against Georgia. The offense still managed only 13 points, and the reason was bigger than play design.
Oklahoma moved the ball on its first real chance, driving 73 yards and getting to the 2-yard line with a chance to cut the deficit to 14-7. Then John Mateer lost the ball while trying to throw to an open man in the end zone, and Georgia scooped it up and returned it 85 yards for a touchdown. Instead of a close game, it was suddenly 21-0.
From there, the whole thing unraveled. Mateer started pressing, and the second quarter turned into a disaster. He turned the ball over on three straight possessions, and Oklahoma went into halftime trailing 28-0.
That doesn’t mean Arbuckle is off the hook. His offense is clearly tied to Mateer, and that connection is part of the problem. But Georgia also exposed how many deeper issues are baked into this unit.
There isn’t a safer answer behind Mateer, either. Mercer transfer Whitt Newbauer wasn’t outstanding at the FCS level, and freshman Bowe Bentley hasn’t shown he’s ready after losing the backup job to Newbauer. If this offense is already struggling with Mateer, it’s hard to see it surviving a switch to either of the alternatives.
Then there’s the run game, which has been stuck near the bottom of the sport. Oklahoma is No. 129 out of 138 FBS teams in rushing offense at 99 yards per game. Among Power 4 teams, only Stanford and Arkansas are worse.
And no scheme can hide what’s happening up front. The offensive line keeps missing assignments, and according to PFF, it has allowed more pressures than any other SEC unit this season. That makes everything harder - the run game, the passing game, the quarterback, all of it.
So yes, the next instinct is to look at offensive line coach Bill Bedenbaugh. His time should come to an end when the season does.
But making that move now would not suddenly clean up the position. The same players would still be on the field with the same habits.
That’s the trap Oklahoma keeps running into. Every fix leads to another problem.
Replace the coordinator, and the line is still a mess. Replace the line coach, and the players are still the players.
Move on from Mateer, and the options behind him are thin. Make too many changes now, and Venables might as well be waving a white flag.
This isn’t a Band-Aid situation. It needs a full reset, the kind that usually takes an offseason, even though this was supposed to be the offseason that solved some of these issues.
The problems run all the way to the top, too. Venables and general manager Jim Nagy, who are involved in the roster and staff decisions, both recently signed new extensions. That only makes the situation feel more boxed in.
It’s a bleak spot, especially with Texas coming next. Right now, Venables has Oklahoma stuck in park on a crowded highway, while other teams keep moving past.
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Now the series gets a new chapter, with a regular-season matchup finally giving the Sooners another chance to measure themselves against a program that has been a painful memory for nearly a decade. Even with a different setting and different stakes, this is the kind of game that still carries a little extra weight for Oklahoma fans and plenty of attention around the matchup. [Read more 🡒]