The good, bad, and ugly of a demoralizing Oklahoma homecoming performance vs. South Carolina

Oklahoma fans were cautiously optimistic coming off of the Sooners' best overall performance of the season in the win the weekend before at Mississippi State, in which the OU offense had found something and might be ready to turn the corner in what had been a highly problematic 2026 season.

Those hopes quickly and frighteningly dissipated on a gloomy, rainy Saturday afternoon and right before the stunned eyes of a sold-out, 85,000 strong homecoming crowd at Gaylord Family - Oklahoma Memorial Stadium.

Halloween served as the ideal setting for how freakishly dominant the South Carolina performance was on both sides of the line of scrimmage. The Oklahoma offense has been erratic and stagnant all season, but no one would have expected the way the Gamecocks scorched one of college football's best defensive units. The end result was a shockingly easy 42-25 win by the visitors from South Carolina.

The Sooners had absolutely no answer for veteran South Carolina dual-threat quarterback LaNorris Sellers. The three-year starter completed 79% of his passes for 301 yards and two touchdowns and ran for another 96 yards and three touchdowns, leading a Gamecock offense that piled up 521 total yards, a season high against what came into the game as the country's 11th-best total defense in the FBS and No. 8 against the pass.

"We didn't play to our strengths tonight," said head coach Brent Venables in his postgame comments. "We didn't play clean, tough, physical football like we have on defense all year. Obviously, didn't count on that happening, and put a lot of pressure on every other part of our team."

The Sooners were unable to stop the run, giving up 212 yards to the South Carolina ground game that was also without the services of its leading rusher, Matt Fuller. Fuller left the game with a lower leg injury early in the first quarter and did not return. Because the Gamecocks were able to run the ball with relative ease, it opened up opportunities for downfield throws, and Sellers torched the OU secondary on touchdown throws of 79 and 84 yards.

The 84-yard touchdown pass hauled in by South Carolina wide receiver DJ Black in the second quarter was the longest pass play for a touchdown in the SEC this season.

While the extent of the Oklahoma defensive breakdowns were definitely surprising, you can hardly say the same for the Sooners' performance on offense. The 25 points and 359 yards of total offense might not seem that concerning at face value, but the reality is that 15 of the points and 241 of the yards came in the fourth quarter when the outcome of the game was not in question.

After the game, Venables appeared as angry and frustrated as he has at any point this season.

"I can't sit here and act like, 'Oh, yeah, they'll be fine,'" he said. "What's fine? There ain't nothing fine."

OK, the defense had a bad game. That's going to happen every now and then, even among the best of the best. But for the offense, it has become a continuing pattern of inconsistency and ineffectiveness, which eventually takes its toll on every other part of the operation.

After completing 78% of his passes against Mississippi State, quarterback John Mateer was back to his old ways of holding the ball too long before deciding what to do. He avoided turning the ball over, but when he did put the ball in the air, too often it was high, wide, or short of the mark, which led to a 60% completion rate.

The defensive shortcomings against South Carolina are easy enough to recover from. But eight games into the season, it's patently apparent that the Sooners have no answers to the problems that continue to plague the offense and, worse, no willingness to make any changes or try anything new.

By the fourth quarter of Saturday's homecoming game -- which was more like a home robbery -- the once capacity crowd at the Palace on the Prairie was down to a little more than half full -- a sad and sorry testament to the storied legacy of Oklahoma football.

The Good: Rarely used wide receiver Ivan Carreon has a breakout game

Junior wide receiver Ivan Carreon, who had not caught a pass this season and had just 12 total in his three seasons at Oklahoma, had a breakout performance and was one of the few bright spots in a game filled with disappointment. The 6-foot-6 wideout was targeted seven times and made five catches for 88 yards, including the first two touchdowns of his career.

Kip Lewis' 30-yard interception return for a touchdown 55 seconds into the second quarter, which tied the game at 7-7 and provided Sooner fans with a brief moment of optimism, was another OU highlight in the game, only to have South Carolina respond by scoring 28 of the next 31 points in the game. It was the third interception of Lewis' career. All three have been returned for touchdowns.

The Bad: Oklahoma offense had an anemic 108 yards of offense through three quarters

For three quarters of the game against South Carolina, the Oklahoma offense was virtually non-existent. At the three-quarter mark, going against the ninth-best defense in the SEC, the Sooners had 108 total yards (47 passing and 61 rushing). Six of Oklahoma's first seven possessions ended in a punt, and four of the seven were three-and-outs.

At intermission, trailing 28-10 on the scoreboard, the Sooner offense had 54 penalty yards and 71 yards of total offense. Mateer threw a dozen passes in the first 30 minutes, completing seven for a grand total of 25 yards. Most of the first-half throws were to the perimeter for short gains. The Oklahoma run game was another no-show until late in the game, with the outcome long decided.

There were chants from the angered crowd throughout the game, calling for offensive coordinator Ben Arbuckle to go. In truth, Arbuckle's play calls did not do a good job, for the most part, in helping Mateer succeed, and when they did, Mateer wasn't able to seize the opportunity.

The Ugly: South Carolina gashed and battered the Sooner defense like no team has in the last two seasons

It's hard to knock a defense that has carried this Oklahoma football team from the start of the season, but the loss to South Carolina was a laugher on the defensive side after what we've seen from this veteran unit in most every other game this season.

South Carolina could do no wrong on offense and punished the Sooner defense to the tune of 521 yards of offense, 309 of it through the air against one of the country's best pass defenses. The last time the Oklahoma defense allowed that many yards in a game was in the 2023 Red River Rivalry game with Texas (527 yards).

Adding to Oklahoma's defensive struggles in this game was an epidemic number of broken or missed tackles. Pro Football Focus recorded 28 missed tackles by the Sooners in the game, including such sure tacklers such as Kip Lewis (6), Owen Heinecke, and Jayden Jackson (3 each).

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