Oklahoma (6-6, 2-6 SEC) fell to LSU (8-4, 5-3) 37-17 on Saturday in Baton Rouge, Louisiana.
Here’s what head coach Brent Venables had to say about the Sooners’ loss.
Opening statement:
“Just felt like we were three different units out there. Not at all representing Oklahoma together. I thought our guys on defense came out first quarter and created some momentum, some good things. Offensively in the first quarter, we didn’t play very well. In the second quarter, we were kind of on our heels a little bit defensively. Gave up a 50-yard run and a 38-yard pass for a touchdown. The offense got its rhythm going there in the two back-to-back drives, we scored a touchdown and a field goal. So when the offense was good, the defense wasn’t very good. We were just okay, and not our best night on defense for sure. We’ve been playing really good football on defense the last several weeks, the last half of the season. And tonight we weren’t, obviously. The kickoff return for a touchdown was huge…We had a 14-10 lead there in the first half. We go into halftime with a touchdown deficit and getting the ball coming out. We end up punting after six plays, and then on defense just a back-breaker drive. Gave up a 90-yard drive coming off their own goal line, let them convert a couple of third downs, and didn’t tackle great. In leverage, I thought they blocked us on the perimeter. We were a little soft on the perimeter. In some of their screen-run RPO games, they got into a good rhythm on offense. We couldn’t ever get into a good rhythm in really any phase tonight. They did what they needed to do and it just wasn’t our night.”
On the team’s preparation during the week:
“It was really good. I told them, ‘I wish I could say I told you so,’ like we had crappy practices and we didn’t put in the extra time and we weren’t invested, we didn’t have a passion or intensity about us all week, or even today. But that wasn’t it. I think that’d be too easy to blame it on that. I thought our leadership did a great job, our coaches did a really good job, and we just couldn’t put it together tonight.”
On lack of explosive plays:
“You can’t do that and expect to beat anybody with a pulse. And our margin for error was razor-thin anyway. And when you’re doing the things you can’t do in order to win…it’s just a lot to overcome. Right now we’re not good enough to be able to overcome that.”
On the the momentum change after LSU’s kickoff return:
“I think it is fair to say that was a really big play, but, again, we went into halftime a touchdown down, we had a 14-10 lead there in the first half. There were plenty of opportunities. We got them to third down, so we played good on first down and second down. We got them to third and long a couple times and they ran good calls. They out-executed us. We got “physicalled” at the point of attack a couple times and sometimes they are just better than you are.”
On improving after tough season:
“It’s everything…we’ll be practicing for several weeks with the idea that we’re going to improve the football team fundamentally through hard work- that’s where your progress is going to come from. Putting your head down and coming right back to work…Obviously in the next few days or so, we’re going to hire a new coach on offense and get that sorted out…we have signing day in a few days and the transfer portal will open up…there’s gonna be some real change. Some of it is by design, some of it will be a surprise, and that’s just the world we live in with open-ended free agency.”
