LET'S TALK FOOTBALL!

I’m a Longhorn, tried and true and my baby brother is a Wildcat. He got tickets for this week’s game long before the season started and invited me to come along. He lives and works about 25 miles from Norman and so he knew it would be a tough trip after the shootout, but neither of us turns our back on family, right? I drove to his house on Friday, watched us shit the bed against Florida, and then left to go to your stadium to watch my second favorite team play you. This is my take away. Your fans were amongst the most welcoming, kind hearted, good souls I have ever encountered during a football game. You took us in, fed us, gave us drinks, and were congratulatory after the game. I may hate you on principle, but I’ll be damned if you didn’t earn a ton of goodwill this weekend. I say this without a shred of irony, I hope y’all get things turned around and moving in the right direction. Thank you for the incredible experience and I truly hope nothing but the best for you and yours on ever day except for the RRS. Keep your chins up, brothers and sisters.

This is just completely unacceptable for a blue-blood program. This is just glaring to see how the offense has regressed every season.

The defense is being asked to play with zero margin for error every single Saturday because the offense cannot sustain a drive, keep them off the field, or take care of the football. Brent Venables needs to answer for this offensive staff immediately because we are completely wasting a historic defensive unit week after week. The fact like key players like Kip and Peyton's final seasons are being wasted.

Something needs to change man.

Is that David Stone, Jayden Jackson, Taylor Wein & Co are pissed that they're having to constantly carry their asses in games and are taking it out on the OL by absolutely murdering them in practice.

It feels like the sky is falling for OU football. Things aren't good right now. This season is lost from a playoff perspective. That stinks, given that was the expectation. I don't know if BV can get it done on the offensive side of the ball long term. It looks like he can't at the moment. There are a lot of changes that could still be made to the offense (staff and players) to potentially save his job in the future, but can he get them right? He's going to get at least one more year after this no matter what. Somehow, despite all that- I don't think this team is as far from where we'd like them to be as it seems.

The Good:

The defense isn't perfect, but it's better than it needs to be. WIth any semblance of an offense, this defense is more than good enough to get stops in myriad situations. Players like Robinson, Kreul and others should give us hope that it will continue to be an elite defense in future years. '27's class is looking to be solid as hell there too.

The offense can't stop turning it over... And that's really the only reason they lose. Kentucky is first in the SEC in turnover margin, and they're also first in the standings now. That's not a coincidence.

The Sooners offense has found some life- really the last three games. Even the OL (despite insane injuries) was really getting push in the game for most of the game. They abandoned it (more on that later,) but the recipe for moving the ball and putting points on the board, while chewing a ton of clock, was there. The turnovers, yet again, damned them. Without such a horrific serving of turnovers at the worst spots this year, the Sooners are 5-1 right now and in the driver's seat. It feels like the flashes of good- if more sustained and clean (with better QB play), could result in a functional complimentary offense.

The Bad:

John Mateer is not it. He has his good moments when he gets protection, but he just completely folds in the face of adversity. His meltdowns are epic, and the Sooners will just have to find someone a lot better at the QB position next year. Until then, we just have to wait it out and hope for improvements in other areas and enough wins to keep this season looking sort of respectable when all is said and done. Mateer isn't it, and he's not going to be. No matter what he does the rest of the way, he's already blown the season with his bad turnovers, and clearly does not possess the moxy needed to play QB at OU.

Is it coaching, injury luck, or simply just awful QB execution at key spots? Probably a bit of all three, but I really don't know where to put most of the blame at this point.

The OL has talent, and I can't help but feel like they'd even be, dare I say, really good if all healthy. The problem is, they never are, and it just gets worse and worse. All the shuffling, all the injuries, and it just can't work. Is this BB's fault? Maybe it's a mismatch in schemes between BB and BA? Is BV running his practices like a psycho and causing injuries? I really don't know for sure, but something is amiss with the constant OL injuries year after year.

Nearly all of the problems with this team flow from OL injuries and poor QB play (turnovers)

The Ugly:

Strange coaching decisions in-game. Arbuckle is kind of like Mateer. Just when I think things may be starting to click, and a flow is established, something really dumb happens and it turns the game on it's head.

I don't know who decided to run the fake FG, but that was one of the dumbest calls in a long time. Even though this was well before things fell apart- it played a huge role in the loss.

With an offense like OU's you NEED to take points whenever you can get them. You can't act like you're the 2008 OU offense here. 3 points is a successful possession with our defense. The odds of Sandell connecting on a chip shot are ASTRONOMICALLY higher than us actually scoring on a fake FG jump pass from our holder.. Play the odds, take the points. That was mind numbingly stupid, and it actually lost us the game in all likelihood. If we'd taken the points, we would have led late, and it would have probably led to us not press in the pass game as much, which takes me to my next point.

I don't know why we abandoned the run after it was starting to wear them down. Maybe it was the injuries that forced it to some degree- but dropping back Mateer like that led to the pick 6 and two other later picks. This team simply does not commit to run the ball, and at times, it makes no sense.

Solutions?

One man's opinion- You probably have to let BB go, and maybe EJ. Depending on how the rest of the year goes, it may be time for BV to have his (hopefully) last crack at finding the right OC to match his defensive intensity. I don't think Arbuckle is as awful as maybe some do, but he also hasn't done enough to justify continuing his role. The Sooners are still a top destination for an up and coming OC.

I don't think the Sooners roster or program in general is far off from being right in the thick of it again. Remember, we did make the playoff last year, and the SEC is a parity bloodbath right now. Anything can happen if we can just field a good QB, and build a functioning, healthy OL. It's tough to say how much of these problems are woven into the fabric of BV's coaching DNA. If they're just inextricably linked to BV, then none of the offensive staff changes are really going to get us there, and we'll have to clean house in a couple of years.

BUT if the Sooners can land the right OC, or maybe just fix the OL and find a gem at QB, it sort of feels like they have a real chance to not only return to the playoffs, but really compete for the 'ship in the next couple of years.

It’s time to start looking at who will be calling plays next season

Only game they exceeded that was UTEP. Net points against Michagan were 3 and against Kentucky were 6.

The entire offensive staff besides Witten and McCullough should be fired immediately. BV talks about a standard yet is fine with a pee wee offense.

BV at half against UT said he liked the way the team was playing in all 3 phases (offense had 1 rushing yard and 2 FGs). He is absolutely clueless about offense. Blind as a fucking bat.

Game was setting up as well as it could with a beleaguered QB (and offense) that just needed a good solid game to build on for the remaining of the season.

Through 3 quarters, you could argue it was Mateer's best game as a Sooner.

And more importantly, it was the best run blocking we've seen from a Sooner OLine since 2023. We didn't have any negative running plays from the RBs until after that Mateer tip INT.

At that point, Arbuckle needed to step away from the Black Jack table after hitting on consecutive 19s with miraculous 2s, and assume the luck would run out on the next 19.

Mateer was going to regress to the mean.

The OL's pass protection was spotty all night, having 2-3 sacks by the time of the INT.

The run game however was inexplicably effective, and their DL was gassed and giving up.

But Arbuckle couldn't read the room, lacked the situational awareness, whatever you want to call it....and instead of taking our winnings with a solid Mateer game and riding the run blocking to another long drive that maybe only ended in a field goal but made it 16-7 with more time off the clock and a more tired Wildcat defense the next time we get the ball...

Saw that 19 and said "hit me" and of fucking course the next card was a King and we busted.

That moment, that sequence when we were gashing them in the run game and Arbuckle had to gamble to throw one more pass with a shaky pass protection totally destroyed Mateer, likely for the rest of the season.

Read. The fucking. ROOM.

Have SOME semblance of situational awareness, PLEASE, it's not THAT HARD.

Now Mateer and the offense might even be worse for wear after going from having confidence and a close but ugly and efficient win with something to build on...to this nonsense.

Just unacceptable incompetence by an OC that looks at the running game as a nuisance to cater to instead of a necessary weapon to win games when you have a shaky QB.

Arbuckle has to go. That was unacceptable. We are never going to have pretty or dominant offensive performances with this roster on offense, but we showed we could do enough if our fucking OC reads the room properly.

I’m not kidding I think any other P4 starting QB has a decent chance at success in this system. (Except Arch because I genuinely think he’s as bad as JM)

Sure the offensive line is below average but they can hold a pocket 1/4 downs and it’s literally just John panicking and fucking something up horrendously.

Change my mind…

Everything about this team comes back to Brent not having the ability to evaluate anyone on the offensive end.

Picks JA over Dillion Gabriel. Wrong.

Picks Mateer over Hawkins. Wrong.

Brings in Jayden Ott. Nothing

Bauer Sharp. Nothing.

Taylor Tatum. Was so bad at football he quit to play baseball.

Seth littrell and BA like come on

I get the defense is a championship unit but holy shit is the offense a disaster.

I’m sick of Brent fucking Venables saying golly g we need to be better. It’s been 5-years of this. I don’t care if he’s a good coach in y’all’s eyes. Fire him. I’d rather every year be this with new coaches until we find the right one than keep hearing this coach that can’t talk say it wasn’t good enough. They only allow this because we are soft. I wish we had pitchfork protests but this is what we expect now so it’s fine by everyone.

Coaches need to be fired. That's it. And supporting this program enables the continuous erosion of what was once a historic football program. Changes need to occur.

Like how do they lose to two unranked teams in back to back weeks.

Can we at least fire the Offensive Lines Coach…I mean someone please