Brent Venables and Co. Say Oklahoma Needs to Turn Field-Goal Tries Into Touchdowns

NORMAN — Oklahoma offensive coordinator Ben Arbuckle expressed a similar sentiment Tuesday that he did after Saturday’s 23-15 win over Mississippi State.

“I want Tate Sandell kicking PATs, not field goals,” Arbuckle said in his weekly press conference ahead of Saturday’s matchup with South Carolina. “I’ll take points wherever we can get ’em. But at the end of the day, watching the film, it was more us not them on self-afflicted things whether it was a chop block penalty, or we had a touchdown, then we didn’t. Just letting things like that, that we control, that we dictate the outcome of. …

“We gotta get out of our own way.”

In the win over Mississippi State, the Sooners scored two touchdowns and attempted six field goals, making three.

Only one of their 12 drives came to a halt inside their own territory.

So Oklahoma was moving the ball better than it has for much of the season, but more times than not, those drives stalled out.

Those drives didn’t hurt the Sooners in the end against the Bulldogs but with the schedule that lies in front of them, chances are they’ll need to hit on a bigger percentage in order to come out on top.

“I’ve done it before, and we can do it again,” quarterback John Mateer said. “But it’s just the details. Like anything, you get down there and everybody gets a little more focused, especially defensively. They don’t want to let up a touchdown and we’ve just got to take advantage and just be more efficient and make it happen.”

The Sooners take on South Carolina at 3:15 p.m. Saturday.

Oklahoma has attempted 17 field goals this season, tied for the most in the SEC with Missouri. They’re also tied with the Tigers for the worst field-goal percentage in the league. The Sooners are No. 120 nationally in red-zone offense, converting on just 76.5% of their trips inside the 20.

Sooners coach Brent Venables expressed similar sentiment to Arbuckle, saying the team needed to get out of its own way when they get into opponents’ territory.

“Everything changes how people play you,” Venables said. “People are going to get more aggressive. Again, the windows are a lot tighter, the gaps get smaller and people use — when you get into the red zone — the back of the end zone as a 12th defender. So it’s supposed to be harder, but the good teams figure that out. So we’ve got to be better there, without question. …

“If we’re able to do so, it just takes tremendous pressure off certainly the offense, but off the rest of the team too when you can score touchdowns as opposed to field goals.”

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