You know what Brent Venables needs to work on?
He needs to work on referring to his offense as “we” instead of “they,” just as he refers to his defense.
For instance, about Oklahoma’s ability to get to Auburn quarterback Jackson Arnold, who donned crimson and cream only last season:
“He’s got great days in front of him,” the Sooner coach said. “I’m just glad, at the right time, we made some great plays on him when we needed to.”
And a few when they didn’t, too, not only sacking Arnold twice at the end, the second resulting in a safety, forging a 24-17 final score in an Owen Field matchup of two unbeaten and top-25 teams, but sacking him eight other times as well, seven in the first half.
Yet, speaking of his offense, how it went right down the field after falling behind 17-16 with 7:08 remaining, it went like this:
“Tells you a lot about who they are, who’s in the huddle,” Venables said, “coach Arbuckle and the rest of the offensive coaches …”
That would be Ben Arbuckle, offensive coordinator, the man who’s going to wind up saving his job.
“… Really, the toughness that that takes to put everything that didn’t go how you’d like it to go, to put it behind and put it together and go down the field, that was something else.”
It’s a fine answer, maybe a fantastic answer, because it gets at the yin and yang of game, one you could make a real case the Sooners should not have been in position to win even on a day they were clearly the tougher, stronger and better team at the end, closing out victory in the grandest of style.
And Venables needs to work on his pronouns.
He may call the defensive plays, but the whole team is still his.
Right?
I digress.
Back to the game.
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