Oklahoma Sooners have to find their running game

There have been a lot of issues with the Oklahoma Sooners offense in two games. You can point to almost every aspect of the offense and say it’s not good enough.

When Oklahoma ran the ball against Houston, the Sooners had a success rate of just 30%. A play is deemed successful if it picks up 50% of the yards to gain on first down, 70% on second down, and 100% on third and fourth down.

Only eight of Oklahoma’s 26 runs, not including Jackson Arnold’s kneel-down, gained enough yardage to be considered successful against the Cougars. That’s not going to work.

Yes, the Oklahoma Sooners have been dealing with injuries along the offensive line, but what they’re doing from a run-game perspective isn’t doing them any favors. Jovantae Barnes has looked good at times, but there were times when he was running right into the backs of his offensive linemen.

Gavin Sawchuk hasn’t been able to find a clear runway to take off from. Taylor Tatum was effective with his one carry for six yards, but Seth Littrell didn’t go back to him after that. He’s been effective, but the offensive staff doesn’t seem to trust him fully enough to give him an extended look. Sam Franklin, who showed good burst and vision in week one against Temple, didn’t receive a carry this week.

Oklahoma’s running backs received just 17 carries on Saturday night, 12 of which went to Barnes. He ran 12 times for 40 yards, providing the most effective running aside from Arnold.

The Sooners went through a bit of this last year. It took nearly half the season for Oklahoma’s running game to take off. But they don’t have the luxury of taking half the season to figure it out. They have to find answers quickly.

On a night when a lot was off with the offense, the Sooners need to be able to simplify things by running the ball with effectiveness. If they can get better run blocking, it’ll help the running backs, but the backs also need to do a better job finding the running lanes or cutting to open space when the run call isn’t there.

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