Updated Sept. 20, 2026, 2:31 p.m.
CT
The Oklahoma Sooners have completed the nonconference portion of their 2026 schedule with a 2-1 record. OU earned a 14-6 home win over the New Mexico Lobos on Saturday night in a game that was ugly from start to finish. Coach Brent Venables and the Sooners 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 Oklahoma would show improved execution and put the Lobos away early. That didn’t happen; 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 its defense?
Seriously, the Sooners needed every ounce of what they got defensively to beat New Mexico. 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 the offense, the Oklahoma defense allowed just six points, recorded six sacks and limited UNM to 96 rushing yards. Despite missing key players Kip Lewis, Cole Sullivan and Michael Boganowski, the Sooners tackled better against the Lobos and gave up only a handful of chunk plays.
Most of those plays came on New Mexico’s final drive, when Oklahoma was absolutely spent. Still, the Sooners made one more stop to close the game. 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 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 it wants 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 OK, let’s talk about it. For the second time in their three years as an SEC member, the Sooners are not fielding 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 made a change at offensive coordinator and acquired 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 fan base begging for a commitment to the run game, Oklahoma averaged 1.9 yards per carry. That’s 32 attempts for 61 yards against a Mountain West defense. The passing game wasn’t much better. Quarterback John Mateer threw two bad interceptions, despite tossing two touchdowns. Oklahoma is struggling along the offensive line, fields one reliable wide receiver, doesn’t have anything resembling a normal running back rotation, asks it quarterback to do everything and whose offensive play-caller, Ben Arbuckle, 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 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. The 2026 Sooners have no more tuneups.
The SEC is here, and Oklahoma gets the top two teams in America in the next two games. OU will get embarrassed by Georgia and Texas unless it engineers a massive turnaround on offense. This week was the opportunity to get right, but clearly nothing changed. Oklahoma has to figure it out, or it’ll be an ugly season in Norman. Contact/Follow us @SoonersWire on X (formerly Twitter) and like our page on Facebook to follow ongoing coverage of Oklahoma news, notes and opinions. You can also follow Aaron on X @Aaron_Gelvin .
