Sooners left with more questions after the heartbreaking loss at Missouri

COLUMBIA, Mo. – Brent Venables has often said that the Sooners need to get out of their own way.

On Saturday, with two minutes left, the Sooners led Missouri 23-16 and simply had to finish the job. Instead, the Tigers scored 14 unanswered points and crushed the Sooners in a 30-23 loss. The loss leaves the Sooners five wins on the year and their best chance at a coveted sixth victory for bowl eligibility empty-handed.

When asked if Venables was frustrated that the Sooners shot themselves in the foot again, he gave a simple answer.

“Absolutely,” Venables said. “Yes.”

The issues that led to the Sooners snatching defeat from victory were the same ones they’ve struggled with all year: turnovers, lack of consistency on offense and untimely mistakes.

The Sooners once again struggled with ball security, and that was the biggest issue that kept them from taking control. Jackson Arnold lost a fumble on a 12-yard run on the offense’s second possession and Peyton Bowen thwarted a punt at the OU 28-yard line, leading to a Missouri field goal at the end of the first half; Deion Burkes lost a fumble at the 30-yard line early in the fourth quarter, sparking a nine-play Missouri touchdown drive that lasted nearly five minutes remaining.

Despite these mistakes, the Sooners were still tied 23-23 and kept the ball with a minute left and had a chance to win the game. But the Sooners scored their fourth and final turnover on an Arnold fumble that Missouri returned for a 17-yard touchdown.

The Sooners almost escaped despite their first three turnovers, but the fourth turnover proved to be one too many. The Sooners have now committed 15 turnovers in six conference games and have a -10 turnover margin.

“It’s unfortunate,” Arnold said. “I just tried to roll out, get out of the pocket and throw it away. I probably should have thrown it away a little earlier and just put in a new game. It blows. It sucks. This can happen at any time, and it happened at the worst possible time, but I just have to get better.”

Of course, the Sooners wouldn’t have been in this situation without their old, destructive habits returning on offense.

The offense was virtually non-existent, especially in the passing game. Despite the return of Deion Burkes And Jalil FarooqArnold completed just 15 of 24 passes for 74 yards, an average of 4.9 yards per completion. The Sooners had two passing plays of 15 yards or more – one came off the bench Luke Elzinga‘s 43-yard pass to Farmer Sharp on a fake punt conversion at the second quarterback, and the other came at the running back Taylor Tatum‘s 18-yard touchdown pass to Arnold late in the fourth quarter.

The Sooners relied largely on the running game and totaled 36 runs on 26 pass attempts. But outside Xavier Robinson (9 carries, 56 yards) The Sooners found their rhythm late without having much success Jovantae Barnesand finished with 122 yards on 3.4 yards per carry. The offense finished with 257 yards and an average of 4.1 yards per carry.

“It’s very frustrating,” OU’s offensive coordinator said Joe Jon Finley said. “I was part of really, really good offenses that went for a lot of points and a lot of yards. Of course it’s difficult when you don’t always have all the weapons at hand. But at the same time, ours too. “Guys have been fighting and scratching and scratching, and we have to find a way to make it work.

“It’s the University of Oklahoma. I know better than anyone how high the standard of attacking football is here and we have to find a way to achieve that.”

Defensively, the Sooners shut down Mizzou’s backup quarterback Drew Pyne and the Tigers’ offense early. The Tigers scored three points in the first half and rushed for a total of 88 yards, with Pyne completing six of 11 passes for 23 yards. But in the second half, the OU defense faltered as the Tigers totaled 190 yards after halftime.

The biggest failure occurred on the final drive of the game. With the Sooners clinging to a 23-16 lead with two minutes left, Pyne set up OU’s defense on an eight-play, 75-yard drive that lasted just 57 seconds. He capped it all off with a nine-yard touchdown to the former OU receiver Theo Wease to tie the game.

It was another missed opportunity for the Sooners in a game full of them. OU suffered two field goals on both red zone plays in the first half, and all four turnovers came inside the 35-yard line. The Sooners converted 5 of 15 third-down attempts while Missouri made 11 of 19.

The Sooners seemed to have decided the game after that Billy Bowman‘s 43-yard fumble return with two minutes left, giving them a seven-point lead. Instead, it only made the grief worse.

“A heartbreaking loss,” Venables said. “We are so sorry for our players. They did everything we asked of them. They fought hard to put us in a position to win the game tonight… We definitely had our moments and had a great chance there at the end.” . We have two minutes left and Missouri did a great job.

“We outscored turnovers 21-7. Nothing affects the game more than these. We have to take better care of football. Just incredibly grateful and proud of our boys. We as a team have to do something.” It’s better to help them in some way.

The Sooners are now 5-5 on the season and 1-5 in SEC play, and it’s the same issues that have plagued them all season. The Sooners even got two of their playmakers back on the field, and the offense continued to struggle with turnovers and a lack of explosiveness.

Since there are only two other ways to qualify for the bowl (Alabama, at LSU), the Sooners don’t have much time to fix this one.