The Oklahoma Sooners have completed the non-league portion of their 2026 schedule with a 2-1 record. OU got a home win over the New Mexico Lobos on Saturday night, prevailing with a 14-6 victory in a game that was ugly from start to finish.
Head coach Brent Venables and the Sooners now head to SEC play, and they have to be feeling less than stellar after a rocky win. After last week's disappointing loss to Michigan, the hope was that Oklahoma would show improved execution and put the Lobos away early. That didn't happen, as head coach Jason Eck's New Mexico team hung in until the very end.
For this week's takeaways, we'll start with the positive, move to the somewhat frustrating, and end with the extremely bad. Here are three takeaways from OU's
win over New Mexico.
1. Thank you, Defense
Where would Oklahoma be without their defense? Seriously, the Sooners needed every ounce of what they got defensively to beat New Mexico, and after some uneven performances through the first two weeks, it was a pretty sound operation on that side of the ball for OU. Despite being repeatedly put in bad situations by their offense, the Oklahoma defense allowed just six points, had six sacks, and limited UNM to 96 rushing yards.
Despite missing key players like Kip Lewis, Cole Sullivan, and Michael Boganowski, the Sooners tackled better against the Lobos and only gave up a handful of chunk plays. Most of those plays came on New Mexico's final drive, when Oklahoma was absolutely spent. Still, the Sooners got one more stop to close things out.
One of OU's three phases showed up on Saturday night, and it looks like the defense will be asked to carry an impossibly heavy load for the rest of the season.
2. A Poor Day on Special Teams
One of the more surprising parts of Saturday's game was the fact that OU struggled on special teams. Between Isaiah Sategna III muffing a punt and Tate Sandell missing a very makeable field goal, something that is usually a big positive for the Sooners was a negative against New Mexico.
It's pretty simple for OU's special teams going forward. With the razor-thin margins that offensive incompetence will give the Sooners in SEC games, Oklahoma will have to win the special teams battle each week if they want a chance to win conference games. What happened on Saturday night can't happen again, or OU will lose games like this.
3. The Offense is Gross
Okay, let's talk about it. For the second time in their three years as an SEC member, the Sooners do not field a functional offense. The school that has always been at the forefront of offensive football cannot do anything right on that side of the ball, again. OU already made a change at offensive coordinator and got a new quarterback after the 2024 season, and the offense has still landed here, despite that.
There's just nothing the Sooners can consistently count on when they have the ball. After a week of the fanbase begging for a commitment to the run game, Oklahoma averaged just 1.9 yards per carry. That's 32 attempts for 61 yards against a Mountain West defense. The passing game wasn't much better, as quarterback John Mateer threw two bad interceptions, despite also tossing two touchdowns.
Oklahoma struggles along the offensive line, currently has one reliable wide receiver, doesn't have anything resembling a normal running back rotation, has a quarterback that is being asked to do everything, and has an offensive play-caller in Ben Arbuckle who seems to have no idea what the unit's identity is going to be. Aside from the tight end room, everything seems to have taken a step back from last year.
There don't appear to be any answers for OU's offense, either in the short or long term. In the short term, it's imperative that the Sooners find something, anything, they can do well on Saturdays and build around. The bar is that low right now. In the long-term, Oklahoma absolutely must figure out a way to play offensive football under Venables. Complementary football has eluded OU for nearly a decade, and everyone inside the building's jobs will hinge on their ability to make that happen for once.
The 2026 Sooners have no more tune-ups. The SEC is here, and Oklahoma now gets the top two teams in America in the next two games. OU will get embarrassed against Georgia and Texas unless they engineer a massive turnaround on offense. This week was the opportunity to get things right, and clearly nothing has changed. Oklahoma has to figure it out, or it'll be an ugly season in Norman.
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This article originally appeared on Sooners Wire: 3 takeaways from Oklahoma's Week 3 win over New Mexico
