Appetite-quenching win over Maine a welcome change, but what does it mean going forward?

Sooner fans have been waiting a couple of months to see an Oklahoma offense firing on all cylinders, like the high-scoring, explosive Sooner offenses of the past.

There was plenty to like about the way Oklahoma played and overpowered an overmatched Maine team, dominating every phase of the game in a 59-14 runaway victory on Saturday in front of the 158th straight sellout of an OU home football game.

For one thing, it brought Oklahoma one win closer to a remarkable 25th consecutive appearance in a postseason bowl game, but perhaps even bigger, it helped instill some much needed confidence in a Sooner team that has been mired in frustration, having lost three straight games and four of its five games against SEC opponents.

The Oklahoma offense has struggled mightily this season, not just against the fierce competition that makes up the SEC portion of the schedule, but also in early season nonconference games. The Sooners came into last Saturday's contest with FCS-level Maine ranked 110th in the country in rushing offense, 116th in passing offense and 129th out of the 134 FBS teams in total offense.

As most Sooner fans know by now, OU running back Jovantae Barnes ran wild on Saturday, rushing for a career-best 203 yards and over 11 yards per carry. Quarterback Jackson Arnold also had a big day in his second start since being benched for two and a half games. The former five-star recruit competed 71 percent of his passes (15 out of 21) for a season-high 224 yards and two touchdowns.

Oklahoma produced 402 yards of offense in the first half against Maine. That is more than the Sooners had produced in a complete game all season. OU ended the game with 665 yards of offense, its biggest output since the final game of the 2022 season against Texas Tech (672).

Head coach Brent Venables was asked after Saturday's game what led to the dramatic turnaround on offense. "Just finishing blocks, playing through the whistle, playing physical, playing sure of themselves, not catching but attacking," the OU head coach said.

"It doesn't have anything to do with them (the players)," Venables added. "It's us. And doing the things that you're coached to do and doing that at a high level and doing it with the physicality and an effort that you look back and you're like, 'OK, that's what it looks like.' So you can build off that."

The Oklahoma players also echoed their head coach's comments about the confidence aspect and building on the momentum of coming off a big win.

"With what's going on this season, it hasn't always been the best." said redshirt-junior center Troy Everett following the Maine game, "but today was great, a good confidence builder. We were able to run the ball efficiently, get a lot of young guys in there."

While no one is going to quickly dismiss all that has gone wrong with the Sooners in 2024 because of the blowout win and offensive explosion that Oklahoma unloaded against Maine, it couldn't have come at a better time with arguably the most difficult stretch of the Sooners' 2024 schedule looming over the next four weeks.

Oklahoma closes out the regular season going to Missouri, which dropped out of the Associated Press Top 25 this week for the first time this season, this weekend. The Sooners get a bye the following week before finishing out at home against 11th-ranked Alabama on Nov. 23 and at No. 14 LSU on Nov. 30.

That is as brutal a finishing stretch as any team in college football this season. Nevertheless the Sooners are hoping to use the momentum and what they took away from win over Maine as a springboard to finish out the season strong and hopefully pick up that requisite sixth win and bowl bid as a season reward.