OU-Ole Miss quick-hit takeaways: Signs of life, but another defeat
OU had its backs against the wall all week. Heard why its offense is so, well, offensive to the rest of college football. Head coach Brent Venables made the changes, now what?
It was a lot of good. The type of incremental improvement Venables has been preaching. But after a fired up first half, it simply wasn’t enough.
Ole Miss found its rhythm in the second half to give OU its third straight defeat, losing 26-14 in Oxford on Saturday afternoon.
Some quick-hit takeaways from the couch.
Arnold is back to the guy?
Hard to argue. Jackson Arnold looked in control, command of the offense. He was making plays, showing the confidence.
Arnold threw a couple of touchdown passes in the first half, including one to fan favorite in the making with Jacob Jordan.
Whatever Arnold and Joe Jon Finley talked about during the week, it feels like it worked. They’ve got an early script that they can build off of going forward.
Part of that package is Arnold as a runner. No explosive plays from it, but it put OU in a lot of very workable third down situations.
Rough second half
A third quarter to forget. OU played inspired and was up 14-10 at the break. Then the Sooners got the ball to begin the third quarter. But it all went sideways after that.
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Outscored 13-0, back to no offensive rhythm. Put the defense in a tough spot, and the defense couldn’t respond.
Jaxon Dart really started to pick apart the secondary, making OU have a pretty big uphill climb in the fourth quarter. OU had 12 plays for eight yards in the third.
Then the sacks. Ole Miss had eight of its nine sacks in the second half.
Another crushing injury
This time we go to the offensive line. It does not look good for Jacob Sexton. He went down early in the first half and appeared he might miss the rest of the game.
Instead, Sexton willed himself back in there only to get injured in the next series. And that was it. Based on body language, it just does not feel good. And the offensive line was not the same once Sexton left the game.
We’ll see if Venables gives an update to Sexton in the postgame press conference.
Up next
You want another sign OU is in the SEC? Here comes that random November game against an inferior non-conference opponent. OU (4-4 overall, 1-4 SEC) is set to host Maine at 1:30 p.m. next Saturday. OU got to pick the kickoff time and chose 1:30 because that’s when the home games used to be back in the day.
