In just over five minutes of action on Saturday afternoon, the Oklahoma football team was staring down a 21-point deficit thanks in part to a pair of turnovers — a fumble and an interception — that the South Carolina Gamecocks took back for touchdowns.
Down in Columbia, South Carolina, folks will tell you that's just Beamer Ball at its best. But in Norman, Oklahoma, this is a drastic departure from what Sooners fans have come to expect from their football team.
Sure, the Brent Venables era hasn't necessarily gotten off to the hottest start, and now as members of the SEC, Oklahoma is just 1-3 in the games contested within the best conference in football. But even still, Oklahoma hasn't suffered a home loss this bad since 2014. The Sooners just don't get rolled like this.
Following the 35-9 loss to South Carolina, Brent Venables opened his postgame press conference with a damning review of his team's performance.
“What we put out there as a football team today is not remotely close to the standard of this program,” Venables declared, per George Stoia III of On3 Sports.
Unless there were cameras rolling in the Oklahoma Sooners locker room, this is probably the closest we'll get to knowing just how pissed off Brent Venables was with his team's performance on Saturday.
Article Continues BelowBut heading into that locker room at halftime facing a 32-3 deficit, you have to imagine it was just a little worse than what Venables expressed at the conclusion of the game in a room full of reporters.
It's been a solid month since Oklahoma has played a complete game, and in that time, the Sooners are 1-3. The only win came on the road against an Auburn team that is making a habit of blowing fourth-quarter leads, and Oklahoma had to come back from a 21-10 deficit to get the job done.
Remove that one fourth quarter against Auburn from the equation, and in their last 15 quarters of action, Oklahoma has been outscored 108-37.
Oklahoma is now 4-3, but an absolutely brutal schedule awaits them. Aside from a nonconference matchup with FCS walkover Maine, the Sooners still have Ole Miss, Missouri, Alabama and LSU on the schedule. Sooners fans will hate to hear it, but Oklahoma's 25-year run of bowl game appearances is officially in jeopardy.