Perhaps the problem with my suggestion Oklahoma choose a path and commit to it was not making it until Friday and what are Brent Venables, Ben Arbuckle and Kevin Wilson supposed to do with an idea that comes in the day before?
So, if you want, blame me.
But maybe it’s for the best.
Because now I’m confident enough to choose for them.
Quit trying to run the ball.
Just stop, because it’s just so embarrassing.
More embarrassing, even, than a quarterback who can’t stop throwing interceptions and more embarrassing than a coordinator who knows not what he wants the offense to do, even if he now knows he can’t keep trying to run the ball.
Though there were several nuggets from the interviews following OU’s putrid 14-6 victory over New Mexico, one came when Venables was asked if there’s anything he can count on from his offense.
“Not really,” he said. “… So you watched the game, did you see anything?”
If only his offensive coordinator, Arbuckle, could read from the same script instead of appearing fake mad and fake urgent during his turn at the mic.
“We’ve got to put our head down, put our nose to the grindstone and go back to work, and really figure out what we’re really good at and what our identity is going to be,” he said. “Ultimately, I think it’s going to come down to being a tough physical football team.”
Really?
Hasn’t that ship sailed?
Wouldn’t you rather win?
Let’s go over a few plays.
Second quarter, a drive beginning from the Sooner 5, Arbuckle dialed up a pitch sweep to the left and Tory Blalock lost four yards. Lose one more and it’s a safety.
Once again, OU appeared to utterly botch its final drive entering the half.
With no timeouts, facing first-and-10 at the Lobo 32, Xavier Robinson was handed the ball. A questionable play-call inside the final minute, he gained nine. Next, knowing the clock would stop momentarily to move the chains, Robinson was handed the ball again and needing a yard, he gained none.
The Sooners barely had time to spike it and Tate Sandell missed a 41-yard field goal wide right.
In the fourth quarter, after Hatton gained four first-down yards, he was handed the ball again and gained none.
Mateer found Rocky Beers on the next play for 22 yards and, first-and-10 at his own 43, found Hayden Hansen for eight.
He handed it to Hatton again, who lost one.
OU now facing third-and-3, Mateer was off-target trying to find Sategna on the far sideline.
Given Mateer’s struggles, why call that play?
Because it was a better option than handing the ball to anybody on a day the Sooners were averaging about two yards per carry, especially when the previous two carries went for nothing and less.
Maybe OU can run for negative yardage against Georgia and less still against Texas, because that’s where it’s heading.
Mateer threw interceptions, gave the fans an assist on his 53-yard touchdown throw to Sategna — “I kind of heard everybody screaming,” he said, “and then I’m like, ‘Well, you know, something must be going on,’ and I see Isaiah put his hand up” — and still there’s no other way to say it, his throwing the ball more is a depressingly better option than the Sooners deciding, after they couldn’t run the ball against Michigan or New Mexico, it’s sure to do it against SEC foes.
I had this crazy idea as the fourth quarter wound down, the Sooners barely managing to remain on top as the Lobos’ last drive ended on downs inside the OU 20.
Fire Bill Bedenbaugh.
He’s the offensive line coach, he’s in his 14th season, meaning he’s worked for Bob Stoops, Lincoln Riley and Venables, which is nuts.
His line did almost nothing last season and almost as little the year before.
Everybody seems to want assistant head coach for offense Kevin Wilson to replace Arbuckle, or take his play-calling duties away, yet before Wilson was a great coordinator he was a great line coach, so maybe that makes more sense.
How much better can the offense become without the line getting better and what’s the best way to make that happen?
Yet, for all we know, the problem with the offensive line is general manager Jim Nagy, because what we don’t know week to week about the teams we watch in this new college football world could fill the Grand Canyon.
Maybe OU’s getting just what it paid for.
What do we know now we didn’t know a week ago?
We know Mateer, even as he completed 19 of 25 passes for 238 yards and two touchdowns (and two picks), is still not much of a Power Four quarterback.
“I’m tired of coming up here and saying I made mistakes,” he said. “I believe it will be better.”
We know the line’s ability to give the offense a run game it can do anything with is nil.
Maybe if Mateer could make a little hay, get the defense to back off the line of scrimmage a little, maybe then it could spring a running back for more than two or three yards.
Maybe then, should then ever come.
The final score says OU won.
Not that it felt like it for the fans inside the stadium or anywhere else.
Great defense, still.
But a bad, bad team.
Miles and miles from good.