Oklahoma’s offense is a disaster.
Through six games, the Sooners rank second to last in the SEC in scoring offense, averaging 24.3 points per game. They’re the only team in the conference averaging less than 300 yards per game with 287.7. Mississippi leads the SEC with 560.7 yards per game, nearly double OU’s mark.
Now, the Sooners have faced two of the top defenses in the country in Texas, who ranks No. 1 in scoring defense, and Tennessee (No. 4). They’ve also played Temple (No. 124), Houston (No. 39), Tulane (No. 51), and Auburn (No. 41).
As Oklahoma comes off its worst offensive showing of the season and injuries continue to sideline its five best receivers, the back half of the season won't get much easier. The Sooners still have to face South Carolina (No. 38), Mississippi (No. 3), Missouri (No. 12), Alabama (No. 41), and LSU (No. 55). They will, however, get a boost from Maine, who ranks No. 93 in FCS defense.
Oklahoma is also last in rush yards per attempt (3.4), rushing touchdowns (7), first downs (101), and has given up the second most sacks (20) and tackles for loss (43) in the conference.
But those stats barely scratch the surface of how bad the Sooners’ offense has been.
Here are five numbers that tell the story of OU’s offense through the first half of the season.
Offensive coordinator Seth Littrell during Auburn pregame.
133rd
Oklahoma ranks No. 133 of 134 nationally in plays over 20 yards.
The Sooners have 13 such plays and are on track for 26 in their 12-game regular season. In the last seven seasons, excluding the shortened 2020 season due to COVID, only three teams have finished with 26 or fewer 20-plus yard plays — New Mexico in 2022, Central Michigan and Rutgers in 2018.
None of those teams made a bowl game, and their combined record from those seasons was 4-32.
In six games, the Sooners have completed eight 20-plus yard pass plays. Mississippi completed eight pass plays of over 20 yards in the first half of its first game.
Explosive plays is one of the primary things head coach Brent Venables has been examining while watching film from the first half of the season. He claims they’re plentiful in practice but aren’t translating on Saturdays.
“Were guys wide open? Yeah, several times they were wide open,” Venables said of the lack of explosive plays against Texas. “Is the protection there when they’re wide open? Yep, it sure was. Do we have to pull the trigger? Yeah, we do.”
26.83%
Oklahoma got off to a rough start on third downs, converting on just one of 12 attempts during its week one win against Temple.
It hasn’t gotten much better for the Sooners, who currently have the nation’s fourth worst third down conversion rate at 26.83%. Only six teams in the last five years, excluding 2020, have finished a season with a rate lower than that.
However, third downs may not be the actual issue.
OU’s best third down conversion rate in a contest this season came when they went 8-for-16 (50%) against Tulane. The average distance they faced on third downs that game was 6.6 yards. The Sooners have faced an average third down distance greater than eight yards in all five of their other games. Their season average is 8.2 yards.
Oklahoma has faced more third downs where the distance-to-go is 10 or greater (30) than when the distance is five or fewer (29). The Sooners are facing double-digit yardage on 36% of their third down attempts.
So while the 26.83% appears to indicate a poor performance on critical downs, it actually speaks volumes to the offense’s inability to produce on early downs and their frequent negative yard plays.
Offensive line coach Bill Bedenbaugh during the game against Auburn on Sept. 28.
20
It’s tough to discuss the Sooners’ offensive struggles without mentioning the offensive line.
Offensive line coach Bill Bedenbaugh was tasked with replacing all five of his primary starters from last season, and the result has been statistically his worst unit since arriving in Norman in 2013.
OU has allowed 20 sacks, 9th most nationally, and 43 tackles for loss, second most in the SEC. Of the six teams remaining on their schedule, three of them are top 11 nationally in sacks.
The Sooners are on pace to allow 43 sacks. From 2012 to 2014, they allowed 40 sacks.
The offensive line isn’t performing any better in the run game, where the Sooners are averaging 3.4 yards per carry. OU’s leading rusher has been a quarterback in three of their six games.
186
The year is 2021. The Sooners have found themselves seemingly the quarterback of their future in true freshman Caleb Williams and have then-projected first round NFL Draft pick Spencer Rattler behind him. All of this is just a few years removed from the dominant cycle of Baker Mayfield, Kyler Murray and Jalen Hurts.
Three years later, OU has no 200-yard passing games heading into its seventh game of the season.
Its streak of six consecutive games with less than 200 yards passing is the longest the program has had in over 20 years. The Sooners’ season-high in pass yards came when freshman quarterback Michael Hawkins Jr. took over for sophomore Jackson Arnold in OU’s 25-15 loss to Tennessee. The two combined for 186 yards, 62 of which came on the Sooners’ last drive of the game.
Since 2015, the year of Baker Mayfield’s arrival, the Sooners have recorded fewer than 186 passing yards 13 times.
Freshman quarterback Michael Hawkins Jr. during the game against Texas on Oct. 12.
Five
Oklahoma’s 24.3 points per game, tied with Tulsa, puts it as the No. 96 scoring offense nationally, and 12th worst of 67 Power Four teams.
But a blue blood program like Oklahoma has much higher standards than to be compared to teams like California and Houston, two of the teams with worse scoring offenses.
In the last 50 years, Oklahoma’s offense has averaged less than 24.3 points per game five times — 1994-98 under Gary Gibbs, Howard Schnellenberger and John Blake. Through six games in 1995, OU averaged 32.2 points per game before that number dipped to 21 at the end of the season.
The last time the Sooners averaged fewer than 30 points per game, which they’re on track to do barring a mid-season turnaround, was 2005.
$16
Tickets for OU’s upcoming game against South Carolina are being sold for as low as $16 on SeatGeek.
For comparison, tickets for South Carolina’s game against Wofford on Nov. 23 are more expensive, going for $33, while tickets for the Gamecocks’ battle against Vanderbilt in Nashville start at $32.
Tickets are going for as cheap as $132 when Alabama comes to Norman on Nov. 23. Alabama’s other two road games start at $362 and $221 against Tennessee and LSU, respectively.
Meanwhile, on the opposite side of the Red River, it would cost at least $346 to get into Texas’ matchup against Georgia on Saturday.
Through the five on-field stats presented, ticket prices may tell the story of Oklahoma’s 2024 offense better than anything. For years, the Sooners presented dynamic offenses that would pick up the slack of their weak defenses. Now, the roles have reversed, and the result is a much less exciting product.
