{"id":14405,"date":"2026-10-25T13:28:50","date_gmt":"2026-10-25T18:28:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.soonerguys.com\/?p=14405"},"modified":"2026-10-25T13:31:40","modified_gmt":"2026-10-25T18:31:40","slug":"happy-but-not-satisfied","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.soonerguys.com\/?p=14405","title":{"rendered":"Happy, but not satisfied"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Oklahoma’s 25-13 win over Mississippi State shows offense is better, but not there yet<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

The Sooners won their fourth game <\/strong>on Saturday, and despite the fact the Sooners’ made offensive strides — QB John Mateer’s mid-night absolution leading to his best game this season — the ugly 25-13 road victory over Mississippi State left Coach Brent Venables somewhat unappeased.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“We’ll take it anyway we can get it …(but) I have to talk myself into being happy,” Venables said, coming off the field in Starkville.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That’s a sentiment probably shared by many OU fans, disgruntled by previous disappointing losses to Michigan, Georgia and Kentucky.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But it is a fact the Sooners improved on Saturday. They amassed 469 yards on offense. Mateer, who said he woke up one night this week and forgave himself for earlier miscues this season, was 22 for 29 for 283 yards and two touchdowns. He also ran for 37.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI know who I am as a player and as a man, through struggle, that\u2019s what you find. I\u2019m not perfect, and I won\u2019t be perfect. I\u2019m moving forward, but I felt good out there, and I believed,\u201d Mateer said postgame.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Isaiah Sategna caught eight passes for 164 yards. Tory Blaylock carried 12 times for 73 yards (and the Sooners rushed for 184 — far more than their 92.5 rushing yards per game average). <\/p>\n\n\n\n

But all that new-found belief and resulting success on offense did not translate to big numbers on the scoreboard. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Three missed field goals by Tate Sandell, the hero at the Red River game who now finds himself in a golfer’s slump, stunted the total points for Oklahoma. OU had the three missed FGs, two punts and one fumble to end six drives in the first half without points.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But more importantly, the mere fact the Sooners were settling for 3 pointers reflected a continuing shortcoming in the offense’s ability to complete drives in the opponent’s end zone.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rocky Beers’ dropped pass in the endzone cost Oklahoma one touchdown. And his poor Superman performance attempting to hurdle a defender and losing the handle on the ball cost the Sooners another scoring opportunity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But, Beers was also a hero of the day, finishing with 66 yards receiving and grabbing a Mateer pass for the touchdown that sealed the win. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/a>
Sategna had 164 yards receiving against Mississippi State.<\/strong><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Sategna scored the Sooners first touchdown, receiving a toss from a scrambling Mateer and scampering 36 yards into the endzone in the second quarter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Before that play, the Sooners held onto a narrow 3-0 lead most of the first half. It was looking like It was the same old story: A stifling Sooners defense and an incomplete offense keeping the opponent in the game. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

But although the game remained close<\/strong>, the offense was clearly better. A commitment by offensive coordinator Ben Arbuckle to running the football seemed to open up passing lanes for Mateer in the second half. Oklahoma ran the ball 41 times. It pased 29 times.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Oklahoma had five passing plays of 15 or more yards that accounted for 191 of its 283 passing yards. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Early opportunities in the first half, where the Sooners played most of it on the MSU side of the field only netted a single Tate Sandell field goal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the second quarter a scrambling Mateer found the Sooners’ best receiver, Sategna open and he darted to the end zone, giving the Sooners a 10-0 lead at the half.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Tory Blaylock started the second half with a 47 yard run. Mateer then threw his first deep ball of the game, connecting on a 32- yard pass to Rocky Beers for OU’s second touchdown, taking a 17-0 lead early in the 3rd quarter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A Beers fumble in the 3rd quarter, which happened when he tried to hurdle defenders (again), set up MSU’s first score of the game, an 18-yard flea flicker TD pass, narrowing the Sooners’ lead to 17-7. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Like Venables said, you have to talk yourself into feeling happy about this game. The low-scoring affair was not what Sooners fans expected coming into this season, especially if they knew that MSU’s starting quarterback, Kamario Taylor, would go out of the game early with an injury.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A more difficult opponent comes to Norman on Saturday. South Carolina will be fresh of a home win against Tennessee, made because of the spectacular fourth quarter plays by QB LaNorris Sellers. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

We can be happy that the Sooners offense appears to be getting better. But, in the upcoming weeks the offense will have to complete more possessions with points. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

They cannot have six drives in the first half without points, like happened in Starkville.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Sooners won their fourth game on Saturday, and despite the fact the Sooners’ made offensive strides — QB John Mateer’s mid-night absolution leading to his best game this season — the ugly 25-13 road victory over Mississippi State left Coach Brent Venables somewhat unappeased.<\/p>\n

“We’ll take it anyway we can get it …(but) I have to talk myself into being happy,” Venables said, coming off the field in Starkville.<\/p>\n

That’s a sentiment probably shared by many OU fans, disgruntled by previous disappointing losses to Michigan, Georgia and Kentucky.<\/p>\n

But it is a fact the Sooners improved on Saturday. They amassed 469 yards on offense. Mateer, who said he woke up one night this week and forgave himself for earlier miscues this season, was 22 for 29 for 283 yards and two touchdowns. He also ran for 37.<\/p>\n

\u201cI know who I am as a player and as a man, through struggle, that\u2019s what you find. I\u2019m not perfect, and I won\u2019t be perfect. I\u2019m moving forward, but I felt good out there, and I believed,\u201d Mateer said postgame.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":14418,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[641,682],"class_list":["post-14405","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-columns","tag-mateer","tag-mississippi-state"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.soonerguys.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14405","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.soonerguys.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.soonerguys.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.soonerguys.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.soonerguys.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=14405"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.soonerguys.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14405\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14421,"href":"https:\/\/www.soonerguys.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14405\/revisions\/14421"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.soonerguys.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/14418"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.soonerguys.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=14405"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.soonerguys.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=14405"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.soonerguys.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=14405"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}