Oklahoma football: Trouble in Sooners’ offense is real

Every Sooner fan is well aware by now that the much heralded Oklahoma football offense is not performing up to expectations thus far this season.

Although at first dismissed as first-game adrenaline rush and lingering offseason rustiness, the Sooners offensive ineptitude has now evolved into a more serious concern.

Is the Oklahoma offensive sluggishness the result of different and better defensive play against the Sooners, or is it that the offense isn’t clicking like it has in recent memory?

The last couple of weeks, head coach Lincoln Riley has been adamant that he is confident things will bet turned around offensively and that the team is really close to being the elite offensive machine that everyone was expecting this season, especially given all the talent the Sooners have on that side of the ball.

But we just aren’t seeing that played out on the field. In fact, Saturday against an admittedly stout West Virginia defense, the Sooners probably played their worst offensive game of the season, save for the opening Oklahoma scoring drive and and the closing 80-yard drive to win the game.

And this week, Oklahoma goes up against another very sound and disciplined defensive team in Kansas State, a team that has registered two consecutive wins over the Sooners.

The capacity crowd at Gaylord Family – Oklahoma Memorial Stadium became frustrated and unusually negative toward the Sooners on Saturday night, chanting “We want Caleb,” referring to Spencer Rattler’s backup, five-star true freshman Caleb Williams, during the second quarter after Oklahoma went three-and-out on two successive possessions. When Rattler threw an interception on the Sooners’ third possession of the quarter, the rants turned to full-scale boos.

After the game, Rattler told ABC sideline reporter Holly Rowe,

"“I don’t care. We don’t care. It doesn’t matter to us. We’re out here to win a game, and they’re in the stands.”"

“Listen, when offensive football doesn’t work, (fans are) gonna look at the coach and look at the quarterback,” said an obviously frustrated Riley in his postgame interview session on Saturday. “That’s since the beginning of time. We understand that.

“Spencer and…the whole offense, we’ll own what we didn’t do well. We’re not gonna shy away from that.”

Riley went on to point out that he still has zero doubt about what the Sooners are capable of offensively. He knows Rattler has to get better, and he trusts he will, “but so do the players around him,” he said.

For one thing, the offensive line needs to do a better job of run blocking and, most importantly, protecting Rattler. The OU quarterback was pressured all night and was sacked four times.

The Sooners boast one of the deepest and most talented receiving corps in all of college football. Yet, the OU receivers are having trouble getting open or gaining separation on deep routes.

The Sooner run game is under producing as well. Part of that is poor blocking up front. Against West Virginia, Oklahoma was held to a total of 57 rushing yards. For the season, Eric Gray and Kennedy Brooks, the Sooners’ two main running backs are averaging just 56 and 55 yards a game, respectively.

As Riley noted, part of the blame certainly also can be directed at the coaching staff. The OU head coach calls all the plays from the sidelines. If the plays aren’t working, they’re either the wrong play calls for the situation, or they aren’t being executed. Either way, there’s definitely a problem here that needs fixing.

You could tell from Riley’s tone and body language after Saturday’s game that he’s getting frustrated only hearing about the things the offense isn’t doing well.

“We’ll own what we didn’t do well (referring to the offense’s struggles against West Virginia),” the OU head coach said. (But) I’ll tell you what, it takes a lot of balls, all right, to do what we did there at the end. So, people better see that, too.”

With so many moving parts and a new opponent you need to prepare for every week, the fix to what has been wrong with the Oklahoma offense might not be as simple or as close as we have been led to believe.

Too paraphrase sports columnist Berry Tramel of The Oklahoman: When you get used to playing games so close to the edge, it’s only a matter of time before you’ll tumble over the edge.

With wins of five, seven and three points this season, let’s hope Oklahoma is able to move away from the edge Sooner rather than later.