Brent Venables coached Oklahoma to its second-straight win to start the 2024 season, but it wasn’t pretty. The Sooners had to hold on late to earn a 16-12 victory over Houston, a former Big 12 foe.

The Sooners’ defense kept them in the game all night long, with the offense floundering for most of the 60 minutes.

After the game, Venables was fairly blunt when assessing his team’s performance. He told SEC Network/ESPN analyst Cole Cublic that the Sooners “deserved to lose”:

Danny Stutsman, the Oklahoma star linebacker, led the way for his unit, recording 14 tackles (1 for a loss), 11 of which were solo tackles. He’s an elite defender and he was everywhere for the Sooners on Saturday night.

QB Jackson Arnold struggled for the most part, completing 19 of his 32 passes for 174 yards, 2 touchdowns and 1 interception.

Oklahoma is going to have to play much better when SEC play starts if it is going to compete for a finish in the top half of the league standings. Next weekend, the Sooners host Tulane. Then the real fun starts, as the Tennessee Volunteers, fresh off a blowout win over NC State, come to town on September 21 for Oklahoma’s first-ever SEC conference game.

We’ll see what version of the Sooners shows up for that matchup.