NORMAN — Back-breaking turnovers and poor offensive line play ultimately cost the Sooners in their 21-13 loss to No. 15 Kentucky on Saturday.
But according to OU coach Brent Venables, the offense’s performance against the Wildcats was a step in the right direction.
“That’s maybe the best that we've played since our first game on offense,” Venables said.
OU quarterback John Mateer threw three second-half interceptions, and punter Jacob Ulrich also threw an interception on a fake field-goal attempt in the second quarter. Mateer was sacked five times as the Sooners’ already-depleted line faltered late in the contest.
In spite of that, Venables is correct — there were several positives, particularly in the early portion of Saturday’s contest.
One of those positives was the emergence of sophomore wide receiver Manny Choice.
Choice entered the Kentucky game with only three receptions for 24 yards as a college football player. He led the Sooners with 98 yards on five catches against the Wildcats.
“He’s been doing a lot of really good things, and today was a day that we needed him to step up, and he did,” Venables said. “We’ll continue to build on that, for sure.”
Oklahoma’s running backs put up a similar performance to the one that they logged against Texas — and that’s progress from how they performed against Georgia, New Mexico and Michigan.
Lloyd Avant, Tory Blaylock and Jonathan Hatton Jr. combined for 67 rushing yards and averaged 3.7 yards per carry. Each of them had at least one run of seven yards or longer.
“(I) thought we ran the ball at times with some real purpose,” Venables said. “(I) thought our backs really battled and played behind their pads well.”
As for Mateer, he played arguably his best half of football over the first two quarters. He completed 15 of his 20 pass attempts in the first half for 167 yards and a touchdown.
The fifth-year signal caller struggled mightily over the game’s final 30 minutes. But his poise early on is something that Venables believes that he can build on.
“I thought he was in really good command,” Venables said. I thought he did a lot of really good things, super efficient. Again, we moved the chains. I thought we possessed the ball and played with more command and more control than we had in some of the other games here this season.”
Since OU’s 51-0 season-opening win against UTEP on Sept. 4, the Sooners have scored only 64 points — and 14 of those points came on either special teams or defense in the Texas game.
Still, Venables is confident that Saturday’s showing — that only yielded 13 points — will pave the way for better offensive production in the back half of the season.
“You could take out a play or two here or there and have a completely different result,” Venables said. “I just have an appreciation for how our guys battled.”
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