Lots of adjectives have been used to describe this OU offense, but before Friday's CFP game vs Alabama, one word keeps coming to mind: fascinating.
NORMAN — Many words have been used to describe this OU offense.
During the early weeks of the season, when Ben Arbuckle was a darling and John Mateer had a throwing hand that wasn't being held together by surgical hardware, adjectives such as improved and exciting and dynamic were being thrown around.
Of late, the descriptors have changed.
Confounding. Troubling. Concerning.
Bad?
Some have said that, too, and there have definitely been times when that fits.
But there’s a word that keeps swirling around my head: fascinating.
Yes, this Sooner offense is fascinating.
As OU readies for Alabama in the first round of the College Football Playoff, lots of attention has been given to the Sooner offense. And it’s understandable. With a defense that stands as one of the best in all of college football, what OU does when it has the ball will likely determine the outcome of Friday’s game.
Will Xavier Robinson and Tory Blaylock get something in the run game or leave the Sooners one-dimensional?
Will Mateer take care of the ball or throw it to the other team?
Will the offense do enough to help the defense?
My answers to those questions: I have no idea.
That’s where the fascinating part of this offense comes in. This is a bunch that can go long stretches without doing much of anything other than punting, then go long. Out of nowhere, it can hit a big, cross-country play that would make Baker Mayfield and Kyler Murray jealous.
These Sooners have home-run potential, but before they smack one, they are desperately trying to leg out bunt singles.
Everything looks difficult until it looks easy.
It’s fascinating, I tell you.
Take the Missouri game.
Early in that contest, the OU offense was as cringey as it has been all season. It went three-and-out punt, three-and-out punt, then the slightly better punt. At least the Sooners managed a couple of first downs on that possession.
But then on the very next possession, Mateer connected with Isaiah Sategna III on an 87-yard touchdown pass. It was OU’s longest pass play of the season, and it still stands as such.
But more than that, it was a bolt out of the blue, a stunner, a jump scare.
Consider Mateer’s pass attempts leading up to the Sategna surprise: incompletion, incompletion, 7-yard completion, minus-4 yards, 1 yard, 7 yards, 12 yards, incompletion, incompletion, incompletion, incompletion, 87-yard touchdown.
That Missouri game was a microcosm of the season.
Including the Ole Miss game, OU has more passes of 39 yards or more (five) than it has passes of 25 to 38 yards (four). And most of those long passes have been really long. In addition to the 87-yarder against Missouri, OU has gone 76, 58 and 45 yards.
So, do you celebrate the big-play ability or lament the struggles the rest of the time?
Yes.
Earlier this week, I asked Arbuckle to explain how the heck the offense can scuffle along and then hit so big, how it can have the ability to go 60 yards but struggles to consistently go 20 or 25.
“We have to do a better job at executing whenever we get downfield, putting the ball in a catchable spot for the receivers, receivers creating separation from DBs, holding up in pass protection,” Arbuckle admitted. “We have to do a really good job of schematically getting guys open, too.
“But one thing that I think our guys have shown to do is whenever they get the ball and they get running, they can really stretch the field and take it the distance.”
Arbuckle said that in the extended break between the end of the regular season and Friday’s playoff game, the offense has stressed the importance of getting chunk plays more consistently.
Will it happen?
Shrugs shoulders.
“Just keep calling ‘em, keep trusting ‘em, trusting that everybody’s going to be in their spot,” Mateer said. “You can’t just call them every play. You’ve got spots for them. I got to do a better job, if it’s not there, just checking it down. Check it down and play the next play.”
With this offense, after all, the next play might go for 70 or 80 yards.
You just never know with these Sooners, and that is fascinating.
Now, Sooners everywhere might prefer an offense that is a little less interesting and a little more dominating. But for as handcuffed as this bunch has been with a struggling run game, a topsy-turvy offensive line, a turnover-prone quarterback and a receiver position short on difference makers, the fact that the Sooners have been able to go from neutral to a hundred miles an hour in an instant is remarkable. To scuffle, scuffle, scuffle, then hit huge plays at critical times is unexpected.
Who knows when OU might strike against Alabama, but there’s a good chance the Crimson Tide won’t see it coming.
Then again, the Sooners might not either.
Jenni Carlson: Jenni can be reached at [email protected]. Like her at facebook.com/JenniCarlsonOK, follow her at @jennicarlsonok.bsky.social and twitter.com/jennicarlson_ok, and support her work and that of other Oklahoman journalists by purchasing a digital subscription today.
This article originally appeared on Oklahoman: OU football offense enters CFP with struggles punctuated by huge plays
Category: General Sports
