Brent Venables demands more from OU football offense, backs embattled OC Ben Arbuckle

NORMAN — Brent Venables expects more from Oklahoma's offense following its 14-6 win over New Mexico.

The Sooners, fresh off a disappointing showing on that side of the ball last week during a road loss to Michigan, struggled with the same issues Saturday night against the Lobos. Quarterback John Mateer threw two picks in the first half and OU still hasn't figured out its identity on the ground.

After the loss, Venables was asked about his confidence in offensive coordinator Ben Arbuckle, who he hired following the 2024 season, moving forward.

“I’m not going to talk about confidence," Venables said postgame. "He’s our offensive coordinator. We got a lot of work to do to improve, to get better."

Venables' comments came after he said the offense had nothing it can hang its hat on currently.

More: OU football offense sputters again in win vs New Mexico as SEC gauntlet awaits | Takeaways

Boos reverberated Owen Field as the offense consistently faltered. The raucous was perhaps never as deafening than at the end of the first half when OU spiked the ball and attempted a field goal instead of trying to score a touchdown.

The Sooners heard them.

"We all understand the standard," Arbuckle said. "We all understand the expectation. I'll leave it at that. We understand the standard. We understand the expectation. We're going to put our head down. We're going to go to work."

Usually Venables takes the podium and is critical about his defense's play, even when it performed well. On Saturday night, Venables was more critical of the offense has he's been during his tenure.

"We’re going to need to make improvement if we’re going to have a chance to win the games against the teams we’re going to play," Venables said. "We can’t keep playing with a hot stove. We got to win the margin. We got to create turnovers on defense. We got to create explosive plays on offense more consistently and get into a rhythm where we move the football and complement each other, play complementary football.

"We obviously didn’t do that today.”

Colton Sulley covers the Oklahoma Sooners for The Oklahoman. Have a story idea for Colton? He can be reached at csulley@oklahoman.com or on X/Twitter at @colton_sulley. Support Colton's work and that of other Oklahoman journalists by purchasing adigital subscription today at subscribe.oklahoman.com.

This article originally appeared on Oklahoman: Brent Venables demands more from OU football offense, backs embattled OC Ben Arbuckle