'A Little Bit of Everything' Went Wrong For Oklahoma's Offense Against Houston

The No. 15-ranked Sooners sputtered in a 16-12 win over Houston, and the offense went backwards after an underwhelming season-opener.

Oklahoma Sooners running back Jovantae Barnes (2) is brought down during a college football game between the University of Oklahoma Sooners (OU) and the Houston Cougars at Gaylord Family Ð Oklahoma Memorial Stadium in Norman, Okla., Saturday, Sept. 7, 2024. / BRYAN TERRY/THE OKLAHOMAN / USA TODAY NETWORK

NORMAN — Not much went right for Oklahoma’s offense on Saturday. 

The No. 15-ranked Sooners (2-0) held on for a 16-12 win over the Houston Cougars (0-2) largely thanks to the defense. 

Seth Littrell’s offense scored twice, though only one of those was a result of a real scoring drive. 

OU benefitted from a Houston miscue on the opening punt of the game, setting the Sooners up with first-and-goal from the 10-yard line. Quarterback Jackson Arnold hit Brenen Thompson for the first score of the game, then OU later pieced together an eight-play, 81-yard touchdown drive to go up 14-3.

The 81-yard drive was by far Oklahoma’s longest, as the Sooners amassed just 168 yards of offense the rest of the game. 

“Inconsistent, obviously. It shows for itself,” Littrell said of the performance after the game. “In order to be a good offense, you have to be consistent. You know, with the small details that it takes to finish off drives.”

In the season-opening win against Temple, OU converted just 1-for-12 of their third downs. 

Fans hoping for a major improvement from Week 1 to Week 2 were left wanting, as the Sooners ended an abysmal 4-for-14 on third down against Houston. 

Arnold was unable to keep the offense on schedule at any point in the contest, and Oklahoma faced six instances of third-and-9 or longer throughout the night. 

“Just getting behind the chains,” Arnold said. “Early downs, first downs, second downs, whether it’s a penalty or just a play that went bad, you lose yards, you get behind the chains, it’s awful.

“…  Third and longs are hard. It’s really hard to convert. You’d love a 35 percent conversion rate on third-and-10 plus. … It’s really hard on any offense to go out and convert those. But sometimes we have to go out and make plays and convert when we’re dealt bad hands.”

Oklahoma’s banged up offensive line struggled against Temple, which caused Littrell’s entire unit to struggle. 

On Saturday, there wasn’t any single position group that consistently failed to execute. Instead, widespread mental errors led to a shockingly bad performance from the entire offense. 

“It’s a little bit of everything,” Brent Venables said. “So, got to go back and reevaluate a lot of things, but there’s some opportunities there in the game that allowed us to get a rhythm, and we missed some of those opportunities, so we’ll have to go back and look at that. We have to get a whole heck of a lot better, quickly.”

Oklahoma’s rushing attack averaged 2.6 yards per carry one week after UNLV nearly rushed for 200 yards against Houston.

The Sooners only connected on two passing plays of more than 15 yards, representing a major failure to take the top off of the Cougar defense. 

Arnold was slung down for three sacks. He turned the ball over for the first time in 2024 after he failed to connect with Deion Burks on a deep ball, and the sophomore often looked like he was pressing to deliver a big play. 

The path to better results isn’t clear, either. 

Oklahoma’s offensive line, a group that played without starting center Branson Hickman and lost right tackle Jake Taylor in the first half, is still dealing with bumps and bruises across the board. 

The OU wide receivers are depleted, too, as the Sooners hope Nic Anderson can get back onto the field in the final non-conference tune-up against Tulane before Tennessee rolls into town. 

Jovantae Barnes was Oklahoma’s leading rusher, notching just 40 yards, as none of the running backs got into any sort of rhythm. 

Replacing five starters on the offensive line while breaking in a new quarterback and new offensive play caller was always going to be a work in progress, but the Sooners are well behind even the most conservative of timelines. 

And Oklahoma is rapidly running out of time. 

“We just weren't consistent enough tonight,” Littrell said. “We have to do a much better job all the way around. I promise you this. I'll work hard to correct it but at the same time, it takes everybody. Everybody has to man up and look at themselves in the mirror. Coaches and players alike. 

“…  We put our defense in some bad situations, which is unfortunate. We have to be much better.”