The first words out of Brent Venables' mouth as he settled in to face reporters in his postgame press conference Saturday night conveyed a blinding flash of the obvious. "That was...That was ugly," the Sooner head coach said in describing his team's 14-6 win over New Mexico.
For a second straight week, the Oklahoma offense delivered a wretched performance that, frankly, is getting painfully difficult to watch. The game with non-conference foe New Mexico will go down in the record book as a Sooner win, but were it not for a defense that stood tall and refused to give in, Oklahoma did not deserve to win this game.
Some may say it's still early, just three games into the season, and there's still adequate time to right the ship and get things rolling in a better direction. Only, in Oklahoma's case this season, that ship is about to be engulfed in the violent storm that is the SEC conference schedule. There isn't a team on the Sooners' remaining schedule that is playing better right now than it did last season.
Given what we've seen from offensive coordinator Ben Arbuckle's Oklahoma offense the past two weeks, how do you think it will perform on the road seven days later against the defense of No. 2-ranked Georgia, only to be followed two weeks later against archrival and top-ranked Texas?
An outstanding defense that is as good as any team in the country appears to be the Sooners' only hope of winning future games this season as they head into the meat of a schedule ranked as the second hardest among FBS teams. Oklahoma ranks dead last in total offense (329.7 yards per game) in the SEC through three games and next-to-worst in both rushing (110.3 ypg) and scoring offense (25.0).
You know things have gotten pretty bad and don't bode well for the future when the things that went wrong in back-to-back games outnumber those things that went well. Oklahoma is clearly at that crossroad, and with little, if any, relief in sight.
The Good: OU's defense was the ONLY reason the Sooners were able to win this game
The Oklahoma defense was put to the test a number of times during the game with New Mexico, most notably as a result of plus-territory field position handed to the Lobo offense by costly Sooner turnovers and multiple three-and-out possessions.
Three Oklahoma first-half possessions -- two interceptions by John Mateer and a muffed punt by Isaiah Sategna -- gave New Mexico starting field position on the OU side of the field, at the 37, 39 and 30, respectively. But the Sooner defense was stiffened, allowing just three points.
Sooner defensive tackle David Stone and linebacker Owen Heinecke were all over the field making plays on defense. Stone tied Heinecke with eight total tackles against the Lobos, including two tackles for loss and half a sack. Heinecke added 1.5 tackles for loss and a sack to his day's work and was the guy holding everything together in the middle of the field and calling defensive signals in the absence of Kip Lewis,
It was Stone who made the crucial stop on New Mexico running back Scottre Humphrey on a 4th-and-2 play at the Oklahoma 17-yard line late in the fourth quarter on a drive that could have changed the outcome of the game and effectively ended the game instead.
Stoney Sack 💢 pic.twitter.com/DRUUsWVohk
— Oklahoma Football (@OU_Football) September 20, 2026
The bad: An Oklahoma offense hasn't looked this bad since the late 1990s
You have to go back a generation to find the last time an Oklahoma football team was as inept and ineffective on offense to start the season.
Offense has been the Sooners' prime calling card for most of its modern history. Everyone was interested to see how Oklahoma would respond after its sloppy and inconsistent offensive performance in the Week 2 loss at Michigan. New Mexico is a good team with a number of veteran players, but let's face it, the Lobos are not at the same level or quality as Michigan, and yet the Sooners, playing at home, turned in a worse offensive output than in Week 2.
After three games, Oklahoma ranks 123rd in the country in rushing offense, averaging barely over 100 yards per game, and is 115th nationally in total offense. The Sooners have no offensive identity. The closest thing to it appears to be trying anything and everything in a desperate attempt to find something that actually works.
Either the system and game plans aren't the right fit for the players expected to execute them, or the players themselves aren't good enough. Either way, the offensive performance we are witnessing this season is well below the Oklahoma standard. The accountability lands first with offensive coordinator Ben Arbuckle and, ultimately, with head coach Brent Venables.
The ugly: The Sooners' inability to run the ball is only getting worse, not better
For the first time this season, the Sooners used a healthy, four-man rotation of running backs along with QB John Mateer. None of the five gained more than 27 yards running the ball, and collectively as a team, Oklahoma gained only 61 yards on the ground against a New Mexico defense that was stacking the box, daring the Sooners to throw the ball.
The Sooners averaged a season-low 1.9 yards per rushing attempt, and their 61 rushing yards were the fewest since a 2008 game vs. TCU, when OU was held to just 25 yards on the ground.
Oklahoma's rushing totals through three games have gone from 170 against UTEP to 100 vs. Michigan and 61 against New Mexico. Care to speculate what that total might be next weekend on the road at Georgia, which is allowing opponents just 45.7 rushing yards per game and 1.5 per carry? Buckle up, the ride is about to get much rougher.
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