Oklahoma played far from perfect against Auburn, and Brent Venables knows it.
Yet, he sees a lot to build on after OU rallied in the fourth quarter and outscored the Tigers 17-7, overcoming a 21-10 deficit to pick up its first SEC road win.
“Things don’t have to be perfect in order to win,” Venables said on the weekly SEC teleconference on Wednesday. “Matter of fact, you can play poorly in some spots and still have an opportunity to overcome (a deficit), that’s the game of football. You just keep swinging, keep your head down, control the controllable … understand there’s a complete team, it’s not just you.
“When we put it all together, there’s no limits on what we can do. Certainly, that was a galvanizing moment, without question.”
Now amid a bye week before facing No. 2 Texas in the Red River Rivalry, Venables has accepted the flaws Oklahoma presented on Saturday, but is grateful to have pulled away victorious despite a plethora of injuries.
“If you would have told me, going into the year, we’d be down seven or eight starters going into our first SEC road game and we’d come out with a win, I wouldn’t have believed you,” Venables said. “How we were able to overcome a lot of adversity, to me, is the biggest thing.”
Venables says junior wide receiver Deion Burks and freshman running back Taylor Tatum are “doing good” after missing the game against Auburn, and he “expects to have an opportunity” to have them return against the Longhorns. The statuses of receivers Nic Anderson and Andrel Anthony are unknown. Venables also said kicker Tyler Keltner is expected to play against Texas.
The Sooners are only holding three practices this week in hopes of getting more players healthy, particularly on offense, where their five primary receivers are out as well as their most efficient running back, Tatum.
Defensively, Venables sees a need for improvement in multiple areas. The Sooners allowed the Tigers to gain 278 yards of offense in the first half on Saturday. Auburn drove the ball with ease on OU’s defense, but left points on the board by missing two field goals and getting stopped at the Sooners’ one-yard line on fourth down.
Auburn entered the game ranked No. 133 of 134 nationally in turnover margin. It took until the four-minute mark of the fourth quarter for OU to force its first turnover against the Tigers — a Kip Lewis pick-six to give the Sooners the lead.
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