Sooners escape with win in a game they deserved to lose

Oklahoma looked as bad on both sides of the ball in a 16-12 nonconference win at home over unranked Houston in Week 2 of the college football season as they have in a number of years,

This was a bad Sooner performance. There isn't any way to sugarcoat it, Oklahoma was really fortunate to win this game and actually deserved more to lose it.

But a win is a win, right? Not in this case, not against a team over which you were a four-touchdown favorite and playing at home. Not against a team you were expected to beat in a season in which as many as half of the forthcoming opponents are nationally ranked.

Were it not for a muffed punt by a Houston return man that was questionably ruled as an Oklahoma takeaway and gave the Sooners the ball at the Cougar 10-yard-line, the game might have ended in a 12-7 Houston victory. One play later, however, Jackson Arnold connected with junior wide receiver Brenen Thompson on one of his two touchdown passes in the game to give OU the early lead.

Little was it known at the time that this would be one of the few Oklahoma highlights from a once high-powered offense that has stoked a number of troubling questions and appears to be a mere shell of itself two games into the 2024 season.

The struggling Sooner offense has not been able to find its rhythm and has suffered from highly uncharacteristic inconsistency in consecutive games to open the season. This problem was easy to overlook in a 51-3 romp over a bad Temple team in Week 1. After all, that was the opening game of the season, and there are expected to be first-game jitters and rust that many teams have to work through. But much of that is expected to be worked on and cleaned up in game two.

That did not happen on Saturday night before another sellout crowd -- the 154th at Oklahoma since the beginning of the 1999 season -- at the Palace on the Prairie. Houston is a better team than the Sooners' Week 1 opponent, and head coach Brent Venables had cautioned throughout the week that coach Willie Fritz would have his team ready to come in and challenge the Sooners. Those words proved to be prescient.

The chief takeaway from Oklahoma's underwhelming win over Houston -- which candidly felt more like a loss than a victory -- is that the Sooners have a great deal of work to do, primarily on offense, If they don't clean things up and quickly, this OU team that entered its inaugural season in the SEC with high hopes and expectations will be lucky to win as many as half of its games. And that notion is beyond disturbing.

Here are three more telltale takeaways that signal serious trouble ahead for OU Team 130:

What has happened to one of college football's most potent offenses?

Who would have ever imagined that the Oklahoma offense -- which just a few years ago led all of college football in total offense -- would be ranked as low as 82nd in the nation just two games into the 2024 season. The Sooners finished the game versus Houston with 249 yards of offense and an average of just 4.1 yards per play and just 2.6 yards running the football. In the last nine seasons, Oklahoma has totaled fewer than 300 yards of offense just twice and both times were against Texas (2015 and 2022).

Jackson Arnold had a decent game, completing 19 of 32 passes for 174 yards and a pair of touchdowns, but not nearly what he is capable of or what is expected from him. Part of that is due to the defensive pressure he is under and the absence of some key weapons in the passing game who are out with injuries. Because of this, Arnold is trying to hard to force the issue and make big plays.

The Sooners were inconsistent on offense in the season opener with Temple and replicated that against Houston. Oklahoma had 12 offensive possessions against Houston and punted eight times. This compares to games last season when OU punted just once of twice in an entire game. The Sooner offense was slightly better on third downs in the Houston game, but still just 4 of 14, which is not going to cut it as the competition becomes increasingly stronger and more formidable.

It's not just third down, though, that the OU offense isn't getting the job done. The bigger concern is the Sooners aren't moving the chains effectively on first or second down. Their average third-down distance against Houston was 8.7 yards

Through two games, Oklahoma ranks 11th in the SEC in scoring offense (33.5 points per game) and 14th out of 16th in total offense (313.5 yards per game). Only South Carolinia and Vanderbilt rank lower. The Sooners led the Big 12 in both categories a year ago.

Offensive line play isn't just a problem, it's a catastrophe

The Sooners' offensive line had grave concerns leading into the season opener, having to replace all five starters. Now several on the reworked offensive line are battling injuries, which has further exacerbated the problems that existed beforehand. The last time Oklahoma rushed for fewer than 75 yards in a game was in 2021 against Texas Tech in a game the Sooners won 52-21 with 469 passing yards and seven touchdown passes by Caleb Williams. Against Houston, however, the Sooner passing offense managed just 174 yards, principally because of breakdowns and extreme growing pains on the patchwork offensive line.

Thank goodness for a defense that bends a little but brings the big play

The Sooner defense allowed 318 yards of offense, but most of that coming through the air with an OU defense making sure everything happened in front of them. Houston gained 260 passing yards with nine different receivers catching at least one pass for an average of 10.9 yards per completion. But while the Houston offense found success through the air, the OU defensive front shut down the run game, allowing just 58 rushing yards and 1.7 yards per rushing attempt.

It was the third straight game the Oklahoma defense has held its opponents to fewer than 70 yards rushing. It actually took a pass coverage bust early in the second half to set up Houston's lone touchdown in the game. Otherwise, The Sooners would have held the Cougars to two field goals.

Preseason All-America candidate and All-SEC First-Team honoree Danny Stutsman was a man possessed on defense, recording a game-high 15 tackles.