Look, I still believe this Oklahoma defense will keep the Sooners within striking distance in every game they play.
Yes, that includes Georgia (until it doesn’t and then I hold the right to take it back… I Kid… sort of).
But whether OU can take advantage of those opportunities comes back to John Mateer, Ben Arbuckle and an offense still trying to figure out exactly who it is. If Oklahoma wants to reach the heights of last season, or push beyond them, that side of the ball has to find a personality it can lean on when things get difficult.
Right now, the Sooners are treading water. Saturday’s 14-6 win over New Mexico got them back in the win column, but it did little to settle the questions surrounding this offense.
The defense? That group gave me more reasons to believe.
New Mexico entered Norman averaging 412 yards per game through wins over Central Michigan and Mercyhurst. Oklahoma held the Lobos to 185 total yards, which was 227 yards below their average entering the game. That is a reduction of roughly 55 percent.
Now, there is context there. That average came against Central Michigan and an FCS opponent in Mercyhurst. Nobody should use those two games to pretend New Mexico and Georgia present the same challenge.
Still, OU handled the offense in front of it. Six sacks. Ten tackles for loss. Three conversions allowed on 14 third-down attempts. No touchdowns. The Sooners also surrendered just three points off their three first-half turnovers.
And Oklahoma did it without All-SEC LB Kip Lewis, rising LB and major contributor Cole Sullivan, starting safety Michael Boganowski and more tonight. That wasn’t lost on the Sooners head coach Brent Venables, either, during his postgame presser.
“But the toughness and resolve, the defense, man, they really responded and saved our butt,” Brent Venables said afterward.
That pretty much sums it up.
What I like about this defense is the way it responds when the circumstances change. The offense makes a mistake, and those guys have to go right back out there. They keep giving OU another possession and another chance to get something going, and sometimes they do so when they are dragging out there. All you have to do is look at senior LB Owen Heinecke and his body language late in the fourth. You could visibly see his exhaustion from the amount of snaps he and the defense played.
And that matters a lot when you start looking at what is ahead. I trust this group to make opponents work for what they get. I trust it to give the Sooners a chance late. What I need to see now is an offense capable of doing something with that chance.
OU finished Saturday with 299 yards, including just 61 rushing yards on 32 attempts. Mateer completed 19 of 25 passes for 238 yards and two touchdowns. That looks like a great day at the office for Mateer until you throw more context to the situation, because OU quarterback also threw two interceptions.
Don’t get me wrong, there were productive stretches. However, there were also mistakes that made everything more difficult than it needed to be.
That is where the identity question becomes real for me. What can Oklahoma count on when it needs to settle a game down? What gets Mateer comfortable? What can this offense execute consistently enough to build an entire drive around?
Asked whether the offense had something it could hang its hat on, Venables was blunt.
“Not really. Watch the game. Did you see anything?”
Arbuckle acknowledged the same search, saying the Sooners have to “really figure out what we’re really good at, what our identity is going to be.”
Those are pretty telling answers heading into a trip to Athens.
For me, finding that identity starts with giving Mateer a dependable foundation. Get the protection and communication right. Find ways to stay out of obvious passing situations, because Mateer hasn’t shown the ability to be successful in those types of situations. Give him answers he trusts, then expect him to make the right decision with the football — and I know that sounds scary, too, Sooners fans.
But the quarterback has to do his part, too. The ball cannot keep going back to the other team while the defense is working this hard to get it back. Mateer knows that. His postgame comments made clear he understands the mistakes and the responsibility that comes with them.
“I believe it will change. I do. I’m being tested, but I believe I’ll persevere,” Mateer said.
I like that he is still fighting through it. The next step is turning those words and that belief into something tangible that OU fans can see on Saturday’s, as well as something the entire offense can feel. A sustained drive. A clean possession after a defensive stop. Two and three first downs on a drive to give the defense some rest, even if it doesn’t result in points. And the biggest of them all: A response when the other team has momentum.
Things Mateer did quite a bit last year, even with his rollercoaster season in 2025. It’s those things we haven’t seen ONE TIME in 2026.
Still, if you put enough of those together, you can then start to develop an offensive personality. That is how confidence becomes something you can actually lean on.
Let us not forget, Oklahoma won 10 games and reached the College Football Playoff last season. And also let us not forget, John Mateer was the quarterback of that offense –– broken thumb and all.
Getting the offense back to that level, and giving itself a chance to go further, is going to require more consistent help for this defense.
Hayden Hansen understands that part of it.
“We have to uphold our end of the bargain. And we know that, they know that,” Hansen said. “And that starts Monday.”
Which brings us to Georgia (YIKES).
That is going to be difficult–– VERY DIFFICULT. Taking an offense still searching for answers into Athens is a serious challenge, and the Sooners have earned the questions they are getting right now.
But I also think this is the kind of game that can propel a team that has been treading water. I know.. I know… The offense is broken right now and what we just witnessed Saturday night makes me one crazy person to even type such things.
That said, if you play well against Georgia, win or lose, you can get the offense a little bit closer to the standard the defense has set, and suddenly there is something concrete to build on.
Now, if you find a way to win it? Think about what that could do for the confidence of this quarterback and this team (JUST HEAR ME OUT IN THIS DREAM SCENARIO, Sooners fans)
The timing matters, too. Oklahoma visits Georgia on September 26, then has a bye before the October 10 Red River rivalry. Even if you come into that game at 2-2, a convincing offensive response would give OU something it could spend that open week building around before facing Texas.
Owen Heinecke put the opportunity in front of this team about as well as anyone afterward.
“And as soon as we get the details on the same level as the fight, we’re going to have a hell of a team. We’re going to win a lot of games.”
MY GUT: I still believe the defense will give Oklahoma a chance every week. That is why I am not ready to write off what this team can become. But Mateer and this offense have to find themselves, and the urgency is only going to grow from here.
Georgia gives them a chance to change how this season feels. It’s going to be their toughest test versus the toughest defense they may face all season, and that includes Texas and Michigan. We will see if they can take advantage of it.
Right now, the confidence meter on my side of things is low because it’s low on the Sooners’ offensive side of things. It’s up to them to move this forward. If they don’t, they will be wasting one of the better defenses to grace Owen Field in the last 26 years and that would be a damn shame.
