After an Offseason of Talk, the Oklahoma Run Game Has Yet to Reveal Itself

NORMAN — “Talking season” can become a pejorative when the finished product demands even more talking.

Oklahoma scraped past New Mexico, 14–6, and in the process confirmed an uncomfortable truth: the running game the Sooners made an offseason priority is on life support.

Last week, Ben Arbuckle was criticized for not sticking to attacking the ground game. This week, his offense couldn't move the Lobos and his running backs couldn't find any space, let alone make a play, despite less-than-ideal blocking.

Brent Venables called the running game over the last two seasons "pathetic" back in March. What would he call this one?

"We haven’t gotten into a rhythm with really much of anything, but we’re just too erratic and not consistent enough, not enough rhythm to what we’re doing," Venables said after the game. "They weren’t going to let us run the ball. They were very committed to that."

All due respect to the Lobos and their coach, Jason Eck, the entire New Mexico roster could have been committed to Arkham Asylum alongside Batman’s rogues’ gallery, and the Sooners still should have run the ball effectively. No commitment to stopping the run should have held Oklahoma to 61 yards on 32 carries.

In the Sooners’ first game with all four primary backs available, none showed the burst or consistency expected from a backfield at a program with Oklahoma’s tradition of running the ball. Lloyd Avant had the most carries for a running back (eight carries for 27 yards) and Jonathan Hatton Jr. had six for eight yards.

"It was good to be able to get a couple of guys back in Jonathan and (Tory Blaylock). We’re going to need that," Venables said.

One of the more confusing sequences came with under a minute to go in the first half. Oklahoma was driving to extend its narrow 7-6 lead.

After picking up a first down on a 12-yard pass from John Mateer to Rocky Beers, OU felt they could catch the Lobos napping.

"Thought we could stop the clock there by running the ball; they were playing really soft, weren’t lined up," Venables said.

Oklahoma was right. Xavier Robinson took the ball and landed near the first down marker. The Sooners' coaching staff got confused, thinking Robinson had picked up the first down as the clock ticked close to under 20 seconds.

OU tried to pick it up on the ground again and Robinson was stopped for no gain. The clock still ran — the boos rained down from the stands. To make matters worse, Tate Sandell missed the field goal as time expired.

"Thought we had the first down, tried to get it again, didn’t get it, so we had to kill the clock there and try to kick the field goal," Venables said. "But we were hoping to be able to save the time by killing it with the first down. So, messed up the opportunity to score there with the miss."

If Oklahoma is going to salvage what seems like a grim season only three weeks in, it must start with getting the ground game going. They worked on it far too long and praised its growth far too much for it to be such a sore spot.

"We got a lot of work to do, a lot of improvement to do. Going into Georgia ain’t going to look like what it looked like out there today, as far as the people we’re going to line up against," Venables said.

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