Brent Venables on Oklahoma’s performance against Houston: ‘We deserved to lose’

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Brent Venables know that Oklahoma was lucky to come away with a win against Houston on Saturday. The Sooners seemingly did everything they could to put the game away, as it came down to a defensive stop on the very last play.

On a day when the offense struggled mightily and failed to score in the second half, the defense came into its own late in the 16-12 victory. Speaking to SEC Network after the game, the OU coach was blunt about his team’s performance.

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“We definitely deserved to lose, but our guys found a way,” Venables said. “Great job with the defense creating the safety. The offense was doing really well until we lost our minds and didn’t play with the discipline.

“We deserved to lose because we did everything we could to give someone a chance to win. But they found a way to win there. Great job by the D, again on that last drive, to let them run the clock and come away with a win.”

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Oklahoma’s offense failed to capitalize on a number of opportunities the defense created in the second half. That included a play early in the fourth quarter where the Sooners forced an interception to take over at the 33-yard line. OU responded by going three-and-out, then missed its field goal attempt and came away with no points.

Oklahoma gave the ball back to Houston with two minutes left, but fortunately it pinned the Cougars at the five-yard line, creating an opportunity for the defense to pick up a safety, the only points the Sooners would score the entire second half.

OU nearly had the game decided after that, but a penalty stopped the clock on fourth down, giving the ball back to Houston with 29 seconds left. Once again, it was up to the defense to save the day.

Quarterback Jackson Arnold looked out of place all day as he completed 19 of 32 passes for 171 yards, two touchdowns, and one interception. It didn’t help that the offensive line also struggled, giving up three sacks and allowing just 2.6 yards per carry on the ground.

But as bad as it was, Venables is grateful that his defence pulled it off at the last minute.

“You have to respect what it takes to win,” he said. “I felt like we were on a roll tonight from the beginning. We’re tackling well and we’re using the ball on defense to keep them hanging. It really went to the exact script that we’ve been talking about all week. This is who this team is, Houston. Keep it close, go play it in the fourth quarter and get out of sync. We weren’t in a rhythm at any point in the game tonight.

“But again, you can’t stink that bad and find a way to win a game. Sometimes that’s a sign that you’ve got enough good stuff. We had several guys that weren’t available tonight in pregame or during the game. So proud of the guys that stepped up and stepped up.”

Ultimately, the lessons learned from a game like this are better learned when you win, and Oklahoma is certainly happy to be undefeated after a narrow win over Houston. The Sooners will look to bounce back next week when they take on Tulane before heading into SEC competition the following week.