‘We’re not a championship team, right now’: Brent Venables sees improvement but knows there’s still work to do

Brent Venables knows what a championship team looks like and know his team has work to do.

The Oklahoma Sooners have started the season undefeated through five games after a win over the [autotag]Iowa State Cyclones[/autotag]. The Sooners’ offense was on fire from start to finish on Saturday.

Defensively, the Sooners had some breakdowns in the first 21 minutes of the game. Not something they’d experienced before. After that, they responded, looking like the dominant team of previous weeks.

Brent Venables talked with reporters after the game, and he said being 5-0 is a great start, but there’s still work to be done. “We’re not a championship team right now,” Venables said. “But this was another step in trying to get there. I love the will and the fight and the toughness and the leadership.”

The improvement of Team 129 is evident. This game was a perfect example of that.

Last year, and really in the last seven years, that’s a game that is still up for grabs in the fourth quarter. It’s a game that turns into a shootout because the team doesn’t make the necessary adjustments to stop Iowa State’s offense.

The Sooners shut out the Cyclones in the last 39 minutes of the game while also going on a 29-0 run to close out the game. They allowed just over 80 yards in the second half after allowing nearly 300 yards in the first.

This team isn’t perfect. They probably aren’t elite either. But it’s headed in the right direction.

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