Oklahoma’s offense is a disaster.

Through six games, the Sooners rank second to last in the SEC in offense, averaging 24.3 points per game. They are the only team in the conference to average less than 300 yards per game at 287.7. Mississippi leads the SEC with 560.7 yards per game, nearly double the OU mark.

Now the Sooners faced two of the best defenses in the country: Texas, ranked No. 1 in scoring defense, and Tennessee (No. 4). They have also played Temple (No. 124), Houston (No. 39), Tulane (No. 51) and Auburn (No. 41).

With Oklahoma putting together its worst offensive performance of the season and its top five receivers still out with injuries, the second half of the season won’t be much easier. The Sooners still have to face South Carolina (No. 38), Mississippi (No. 3), Missouri (No. 12), Alabama (No. 41) and LSU (No. 55). However, they will receive reinforcements from Maine, which ranks 93rd in FCS defense.

Oklahoma also ranks last in rush yards per attempt (3.4), rushing touchdowns (7) and first downs (101) and has given up the second-most sacks (20) and tackles for loss (43) in the conference.

But those stats hardly show how bad the Sooners’ offense was.

Here are five numbers that tell the story of OU’s offense in the first half of the season.

133

Oklahoma ranks 133rd out of 134 nationally in plays over 20 yards.

The Sooners have played 13 such games and are on pace for 26 in their 12-game regular season. Over the last seven seasons, excluding the shortened 2020 season due to COVID, only three teams have finished with 26 or fewer games over 20 yards – New Mexico in 2022, Central Michigan and Rutgers in 2018.

None of these teams made a bowl game and their overall record from those seasons was 4-32.

In six games, the Sooners have completed eight pass plays of over 20 yards. Mississippi completed eight passes for 20 yards in the first half of its first game.

Explosive plays are one of the most important things head coach Brent Venables examined while watching film from the first half of the season. He claims that in practice there are many of them, but they are not translated on Saturdays.

“Were the guys wide open? Yes, several times they were completely open,” Venables said of the lack of explosive plays against Texas. “Is the protection there when they’re wide open? Yes, it definitely was. Do we have to pull the trigger? Yes, we do.”

26.83%

Oklahoma got off to a rough start on third downs, converting just one of 12 attempts in its Week 1 win over Temple.

Things haven’t gotten much better for the Sooners, who currently have the fourth-worst third-down conversion rate in the country at 26.83%. Only six teams have finished a season with a lower rate in the last five years, excluding 2020.

However, third downs may not be the real problem.

OU’s best third down conversion rate in a contest this season came when they went 8 of 16 (50%) against Tulane. The average distance they faced on third downs in this game was 6.6 yards. The Sooners averaged more than eight yards on third downs in all five other games. Her season average is 8.2 yards.

Oklahoma suffered more third downs when the yardage remaining was 10 or more (30) than when the yardage was five or less (29). The Sooners need to reach double digits on 36% of their third down attempts.

So while the 26.83% may seem to indicate poor performance on critical downs, it actually speaks volumes about the offense’s inability to produce on early downs and its frequent negative yardage plays.

20

It’s difficult to discuss the Sooners’ offensive woes without mentioning the offensive line.

Offensive line coach Bill Bedenbaugh was tasked with replacing all five of his key starters from last season, and the result was statistically his worst unit since arriving at Norman in 2013.

OU has allowed 20 sacks, ninth-most nationally, and 43 tackles for loss, second-most in the SEC. Of the six teams still on the schedule, three are ranked in the top 11 nationally in sacks.

The Sooners are on pace to allow 43 sacks. From 2012 to 2014, 40 sacks were allowed.

The offensive line fares no better in the running game, where the Sooners average 3.4 yards per carry. OU’s leading rusher was a quarterback in three of his six games.

186

The year is 2021. The Sooners have seemingly found the quarterback of their future in true freshman Caleb Williams and have then-projected first-round NFL draft pick Spencer Rattler behind them. All of this is just a few years removed from the dominant cycle of Baker Mayfield, Kyler Murray and Jalen Hurts.

Three years later, OU no longer has a 200-yard passing game before its seventh game of the season.

The streak of six consecutive games with fewer than 200 yards passing is the longest the program has had in over 20 years. The Sooners reached their season high in pass yards when freshman quarterback Michael Hawkins Jr. took over for sophomore quarterback Jackson Arnold in OU’s 25-15 loss to Tennessee. The two combined for 186 yards, including 62 yards on the Sooners’ final drive of the game.

Since 2015, the year Baker Mayfield arrived, the Sooners have recorded fewer than 186 passing yards 13 times.

Five

At 24.3 points per game, Oklahoma, tied with Tulsa, has the No. 96 offense nationally and the 12th-worst of 67 Power Four teams.

But a blue blood program like Oklahoma has much higher standards than teams like California and Houston, two of the teams with worse offenses.

In the last 50 years, Oklahoma’s offense averaged fewer than 24.3 points per game five times – 1994-98 under Gary Gibbs, Howard Schnellenberger and John Blake. In six games in 1995, OU averaged 32.2 points per game before that number dropped to 21 at the end of the season.

The last time the Sooners averaged fewer than 30 points per game, which they are on track to achieve without a midseason turning point, was 2005.

$16

Tickets for OU’s upcoming game against South Carolina are selling for just $16 at SeatGeek.

By comparison, tickets for South Carolina’s game against Wofford on Nov. 23 are more expensive at $33, while tickets for the Gamecocks’ game against Vanderbilt in Nashville start at $32.

Tickets are just $132 when Alabama comes to Norman on November 23rd. Alabama’s other two road games start at $362 and $221 against Tennessee and LSU, respectively.

On the other side of the Red River, however, it would cost at least $346 to get into Saturday’s match between Texas and Georgia.

Based on the five on-field statistics presented, ticket prices can tell the story of Oklahoma’s offense in 2024 better than anything else. For years, the Sooners presented dynamic offenses that made up for the weaknesses of their poor defense. Now the roles have been reversed and the result is a much less exciting product.