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As boos rang out through Gaylord Family - Oklahoma Memorial Stadium, Jackson Arnold tore off his chin strap as he ran to OU's sideline. 

The act, performed out of frustration, was a frequent sight during Saturday's game. 

Houston had scored on its first drive of the second half, and the sophomore quarterback had thrown his first interception just a few plays earlier. 

Now, on third and nine with under two minutes to go in the third quarter, OU came up empty-handed again as Arnold's pass intended for freshman wide receiver Zion Ragins was incomplete, and the Sooners were forced to punt for the sixth time.

The boo birds would continue throughout the fourth quarter, as Oklahoma (2-0) managed only 249 total yards of offense in its narrow 16-12 win over Houston (0-2) on Saturday in Norman. 

“We just weren’t consistent enough,” co-offensive coordinator Seth Littrell said. “We’ve got to do a much better job all the way around, and that starts with me. 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 themselves in the mirror.”

“I do believe we have a great group of men … but that’s not good enough. You have high standards, you have expectations and that’s not being met.”

OU’s 249 yards of total offense are its lowest since the Sooners lost 49-0 to Texas in 2022, when they managed only 195 yards in a game where they predominantly ran the wildcat offense. OU is now 5 for 26 on third downs this season. Entering Saturday, OU was ranked last nationally in third down conversion rate.

Arnold struggled to get in a consistent rhythm against Houston, going 19-for-32 for 174 yards with two touchdowns and an interception. Arnold also had double-digit rushing attempts for the second consecutive week, but was only able to muster 28 yards against the Cougars.

“Just a bad night in general,” Arnold said postgame. “A lot of mistakes, a lot of misses by me, stuff you’ve got to be better at and just improve on this next week.”

Along with the inconsistent passing game, nothing went according to plan for Littrell and the Sooners’ offense.

Oklahoma only managed 75 yards rushing, and the leading rusher was junior Jovantae Barnes with just 40 yards on 12 carries. 

Trying to add on another stellar performance after his three-touchdown outing during week one against Temple, redshirt junior Deion Burks could not get going. Despite a team-high nine catches, Burks only had 53 yards receiving and did not score a touchdown. 

With key receivers such as Nic Anderson, Jalil Farooq and Andrel Anthony recovering from injury, Houston’s defense was able to contain Burks and force the other inexperienced Sooners’ receivers to lead OU’s offense.

Arnold found Brenen Thompson for a 10-yard touchdown in the first quarter after Houston had muffed Luke Elzinga’s punt prior, but Thompson was only able to haul in one more pass after the score.

The other touchdown of the game came from Jake Roberts. Roberts accounted for three catches, and his 51 receiving yards were second on the team. 

“I feel like we need to do a better job executing the basic stuff,” Roberts said after the game. “We just got to execute and do our job, me included.”

The Sooners were also struggling with their lack of discipline against Houston, which led to 67 yards worth of penalties.

The last penalty came late in the fourth quarter when redshirt freshman offensive lineman Joshua Bates was flagged for an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty, which led to the clock being stopped and Houston having a chance to go down the field and win the game. Of the five Sooner penalties, three of them came for 15 yards, with four penalties coming in the second half.

“I thought Josh Bates really battled his butt off and then lost his mind,” Venables said. “We really lacked discipline. Had a couple of personal fouls today, that I am embarrassed about just did not handle ourselves and the right moments.” 

Bates was making his first career start after Geirean Hatchett and Branson Hickman were dealing with injuries.

“I thought he did good tonight for his first-ever start,” Arnold said. “(Bates) stepped in front of the whole team after the game and told us how he felt after that … but other than that I thought he had a good night.”

With plenty of big-time games waiting for OU, head coach Brent Venables knows the time to start fixing the mistakes is now.

“Gotta go back and reevaluate a lot of things,” Venables said. “We’ve got to get a whole lot better quickly.”

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