Headed to Cotton Bowl, offense remains job one for Sooners

Michael Hawkins takes off for a long touchdown run during the first quarter of Oklahoma’s victory over Auburn. (OU Athletics photo)

You can imagine the choices Brent Venables, Seth Littrell and Joe Jon Finley have been facing ever since Kip Lewis and Sooner Magic conspired to bring down Auburn two Saturdays ago.

Should the head coach and Oklahoma’s offensive braintrust continue plugging away at everything the Sooners haven’t been able to do offensively this season?

That is, should OU work harder than ever to get its utterly outmanned line nearer mediocrity; work like crazy developing the bottom half of its wide receiver depth chart while its top half continues to mend; keep sending its running backs into the immovable defensive lines of its opponents just to turn second-and-10 and second-and-9 into second-and-9 and second-and-8?

Or should it do some of that, sure, because it must, yet also turn its focus in a very big way from what it’s failed to do and ask itself, given its stark limitations, what can it do creatively to accomplish the same goals in different ways?

In short, should Venables, Littrell and Finley quit banging their heads against the wall trying to go through the problem and, instead, find ways around it?

Because something must still be done.

Because, if you didn’t know, not only do the Sooners rank 121st among 133 FBS football programs in total offense, gaining 297.8 yards per game, they also rank dead last in the SEC where Kentucky, No. 15 on the conference list, is averaging 321.6.

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