Can Oklahoma Sooners running game find more success vs. Tulsa?

The running game for the Oklahoma Sooners was thought to be a positive heading into the season but so far hasn’t lived up to the hype.

After a great opening week performance by the Oklahoma Sooners’ offensive line, they put together a poor follow-up one this past Saturday. This offensive line could be one of the better units we’ve seen in recent memory.

The Sooners’ pass protection was pretty good, allowing only one sack and few hurries, but the run game didn’t hold up to their standard. The Sooners averaged only four yards per carry and were tackled for a loss three times.

McKade Mettauer told reporters that performance wasn’t acceptable.

“It wasn’t our best game,” Mettauer said. “We didn’t rush for five yards per carry which is our goal. We need to be better with penalties. Really changed our mentality. We had good effort on Saturday, but that’s not good enough for us to play the way that we need to play, especially with stuff like the running game, where we need to dominate. So, I think clean up penalties and change our mentality, knowing we need to have a really good effort like we have, but we need to clean up our technique.”

With five yards per carry being the goal, the Sooners have actually yet to hit that mark. In Week 1, the Sooners averaged 4.5 yards per carry which was probably the only negative from the week one win over Arkansas State.

If five yards per carry is the standard, then the Oklahoma Sooners aren’t meeting their own expectations to start 2023. For Oklahoma to have success this season, the offensive line will need to find more consistency on the ground.

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