The Oklahoma Sooners suffered their first loss of the season and John Mateer was not good. Here are three takeaways from the loss to Texas.
The Oklahoma Sooners suffered their first loss of the season, with a 23-6 loss to the Texas Longhorns. Oklahoma fell to 5-1 on the season and 1-1 in SEC play. Texas improved to 4-2 and 1-1 in conference action. It was a game defined by John Mateer.
In the lead-up, there was a discussion about whether Mateer would play. Well, he played, and played one of the worst games of his career. Whether he was healthy enough to go or not, that's up to the doctors and the coaches to determine. They deemed him healthy, and he joined an offense that was the healthiest it's been this season.
And all they could score was six first-half points. The Longhorns' defense shut Arbuckle, Mateer, and the offense out in the second half.
It was a disappointing performance from the Sooners. Here are three takeaways from the loss.
1. John Mateer's Worst Game as a Sooner
When John Mateer showed up as probable on the availability report, it provided a lot of optimism about Oklahoma's chances in this game. His play didn't inspire.
53% completion percentage, three interceptions, took three sacks, and nearly had a fumble on a play that a Texas defender was ruled to have touched the ball while standing out of bounds. He was inaccurate and inconsistent throughout the game and was one of the major reasons the Oklahoma Sooners lost the game.
If the Sooners hope to turn it around, they need Mateer to play better.
2. Still no running game, but not given enough of chance
The Sooners want to be a defensive football team, but they don't have a running game to play defensive football with. The Sooners only averaged three yards a carry on runs with Tory Blaylock, Xavier Robinson, and Jaydn Ott. But that trio only carried the ball 14 times, led by Blaylock with 11 carries for 33 yards. Robinson carried the ball three times for seven yards and Jaydn Ott had one carry for two yards.
Was that good? No. Did they run the ball enough? Also no.
They need to use the traditional running game at least 20 times a game. Relying on Mateer to carry the offense every week isn't reasonable, and if he's going to be as inaccurate as he was against Texas, it's not a good game plan.
Oklahoma hasn't run the ball well enough all season. They don't have the guys up front to create enough running room. Something has to get better.
3. Texas was the better team, sigh, again
For the third time in four years, the Texas Longhorns got the better of a Brent Venables-led football team. And for the third time in four years, the Sooners failed to score a touchdown.
The defense was good enough to win, giving up just 16 points in this game, but Venables is the head coach and responsible for all of it. He has to help his offensive coaches come up with better gameplans to come out and attack defenses.
In 2022, they didn't have Dillon Gabriel and tried to run a lot of wildcat stuff with Brayden Willis. In 2024 true freshman quarterback Michael Hawkins, Jr. made his Red River Showdown debut, leading a decimated offense.
This year, you had your starting quarterback, leading a healthy offense, and all they could muster was six points. Now that happens when your quarterback throws three interceptions, but Venables has to be as intentional with the offensive side of the ball as he is with the defensive side against Texas.
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This article originally appeared on Sooners Wire: John Mateer's performance leads takeaways from Oklahoma's loss
Category: General Sports
