THE HOME OFFICE, Okla. — Incompetent, inept, inadequate, inefficient and without detail orientation, thy name is Brent Venables and the Sooner football team he coaches.
Also, believe it or not, this Oklahoma bunch is more capable coming out of Saturday’s 41-13 loss to No. 2 Georgia than it was coming off the previous Saturday’s 14-6 victory over New Mexico.
Believe it.
No, I don’t understand how Bill Bedenbaugh continues to coach an offensive line that can’t possibly be listening to him any longer.
The Sooners carried for 1.9 yards per attempt against the Lobos and did it again against the Bulldogs. But if that sounds like progress, given the opponent, it isn’t. OU carried 14 times for just one yard in the first half, when Georgia maintained full defensive motivation.
No, I have no great answer for the Sooners having to burn two of their first-half timeouts to avoid delay-of-game penalties (and twice taking the penalty to save their last timeout), but I might have a less-than-great, yet no-less-real reason for it and it may be the crux.
Because Saturday was Day 1 of a new Sooner offense and Day 1 comes with silly mistakes.
Perhaps you noticed, but OU did not spend the day putting two or three tight ends along the line of scrimmage, the formation you’ve heard called “12” or “13 personnel.”
Nope, the Sooners spread things out, created space and did not, generally, run their heads against the wall just to prove they could gain 1 or 2 ground yards when it matters, because they can’t.
Progress.
Because John Mateer flat dropped the ball facing third-and-goal from the 2 — after he inexplicably handed the ball to Lloyd Avant facing second-and-goal from the 4, giving OU one fewer play to reach the end zone because the Sooners, momentarily, forgot they can’t run the ball — leading to an 85-yard scoop-and-score touchdown from Georgia’s Chris Cole, and because two more horrendous turnovers followed on the Sooners’ next two drives, it’s easy to dismiss him entirely.
Indeed, he deserved to be pulled several different times.
Nonetheless, when he wasn’t dropping the ball, or throwing it to the other team — which cannot keep happening; stipulated — he didn’t play that badly, completing 25 of 34 passes for 231 yards and two touchdowns.
If you can possibly believe it, even as Mateer struggled to find the confidence to make some of the throws he in the end wound up making and failed to find the confidence to make other throws at all, he nevertheless finished with a 144.1 pass efficiency rating, significantly higher than Georgia quarterback Gunner Stockton’s 118.7.
Stockton, who completed his first nine throws, finished 14 of 25 for 171 yards, a TD and a pick included.
As it happened, it wound up better Mateer stayed in the game than be supplanted by Whitt Newbauer or Bowe Bentley, his backups, in whom Venables and offensive coordinator Ben Arbuckle must have no confidence at all.
Because the way it went, on the day Arbuckle finally got to run an offense that looked a lot more like the one he ran at Washington State, post halftime, Mateer completed 10 of 15 passes for two TDs without a pick, one of those scores a 14-yard submarining, sidearm, flick-of-the-wrist bullet into Manny Choice’s hands, maybe the best throw he’s made since coming to Norman.
Ergo, it would appear, a modicum of confidence earned by a player who had to have none of it entering halftime.
And the Sooners get two weeks before having to face Texas, and if they can just be competitive in that one, a quite winnable game follows against Kentucky and if they can win that one, well, you know …
It’s a lot of ifs and buts, but remind yourself what OU had coming out of its tussle with New Mexico, because it had nothing.
This loss, as odd as it may sound, puts more on the Sooner table than the previous Saturday’s win.
Finally, they’re mostly not trying to do what they cannot begin to do (and they can still let Bedenbaugh go, bring Kevin Wilson in his place, and maybe change that up, too).
Finally, their offensive coordinator ought to feel empowered. And though it might be too late to get the best out of Arbuckle given the hand he’d been dealt prior to Saturday, it also might not be.
Finally, their quarterback has played at least one good half and it’s the most recent one he played, and he’s got a week off before having to do it again.
The defense, despite the lopsided scoreboard, I promise, is still the defense, too.
Gosh, what an awful game to watch.
And still OU got little better?
Seems like it, at least.