Sooners' offensive numbers continue to tell story of a faltering team fading fast

Somebody help me understand this . Since the second week of the season, Oklahoma head coach Brent Venables, in each of his weekly press briefing with reporters has repeatedly said the Sooners need to get better. Instead, though, this Oklahoma team seems to be doing the exact opposite with each passing week.

Either the message isn't resonating or the Sooners don't have the players who are capable of learning, growing and getting better. Either way, this appears to be a situation that requires more than incremental changes

The way Oklahoma performed on offense on Saturday, at home on homecoming -- against a South Carolina team that may be a lot better than its 13th place projection in the SEC Preseason Media Poll but is still a team the Sooners should be able to beat, especially playing at home -- was a horrifying testament to the great OU offensive teams of the very recent past.

Having said all this, you probably wouldn't believe me if I told you Oklahoma actually outgained South Carolina in total yards of offense 291 to 254

Venables after the game on Saturday: "What we put out there today as a football team in nothing remotely close to the standard here at the University of Oklahoma...My job as head coach is to evaluate everything and figure if out and find a way to put us in a better position to be successful."

And so the beat goes on...

Numbers don't lie, and here they are:

0 -- Oklahoma did not record a takeaway against South Carolina. That breaks a streak of 12 consecutive games in which the Sooners did not post at least one takeaway. Instead, they were guilty of four giveaways.

1.6 -- Average yards per play by the Oklahoma offense in the first quarter on Saturday.

5 for 5 -- Starting quarterback Michael Hawkins Jr. completed his first five passes in the game: Two were to South Carolina players and three to Sooner receivers.

9 -- South Carolina recorded nine sacks against Oklahoma. That is the most sacks given up by an Oklahoma team since the NCAA started tracking the stat in 2000.

29 -- Oklahoma's halftime deficit (32-3) to South Carolina on Saturday. That was the Sooners' largest home halftime deficit since 1997, when John Blake's OU team trailed Texas A&M 34-0 at the intermission.

36 -- Total yards of offense by Oklahoma in the first quarter vs. South Carolina (18 rushing, 18 passing).

53 -- Net yards rushing by the Sooners against South Carolina, the second lowest rushing total of the season. OU had 36 yards on the ground against Tennessee.

225 -- Season-high passing yards for Jackson Arnold. This was the first game this season that and Oklahoma quarterback threw for more than 200 yards.