OU football defense has to wear loss to South Carolina alongside offense | Report card

NORMAN — OU football was a house of horrors on Saturday.Scary.And not in a good way.South Carolina 42, OU 25.Only a week after the Sooners seemed to find a formula for success in a win at Mississippi State, OU struggled to move the ball on offense and to keep South Carolina from doing what it wanted when it had the ball.Let’s get to the grades.RECAP: OU football overwhelmed in blowout loss to LaNorris Sellers, South CarolinaOffense: F-Everyone has to own this. Coaches. Players. Support staff. The OU offense was a complete disaster, and everyone shares the blame.The final stats weren’t terrible — 359 total yards, including 244 passing yards — but when the game was being decided, the Sooners were inept. Early in the second half, the competition was on between whether OU would have more punts or more first downs.Total yards in the first half: 71.Total yards through three quarters: 118.All of that is completely and totally unacceptable.About the only good thing you can say about the Sooners is that they didn’t turn over the ball, but otherwise, this was just an abysmal performance.Defense: CThis was arguably the OU defense’s worst performance of the season, but I’m grading these Sooners on a curve.They have been carrying this team for two months, and Saturday, it felt like the weight became too heavy a burden to bear.OU gave up 521 yards of total offense, including 309 through the air. South Carolina quarterback LaNorris Sellers was 19 of 24 for 301 passing yards, three touchdowns and two interceptions. He also had 96 yards rushing and two touchdowns.His touchdowns included an 84-yard pass and a 79-yard pass.The OU defense has to wear this one, too.More: Five OU football takeaways after ugly outing for Ben Arbuckle, Sooners vs South CarolinaTackling: DWhile I’ll give the defense a bit of a pass overall, the Sooners’ tackling was horrible. Missed tackles are not a provided stat, and tracking such things in real time is darn near impossible. But I’d venture to guess that the OU defense missed at least two dozen tackles.For any defense, that’s a lot.But for a Brent Venables defense?Inexcusable.And it started from the first play of the game when Kip Lewis missed Matt Fuller in the backfield. The play went for 14 yards instead of a loss, and the tackling didn’t get much better from there.John Mateer: D+At least the Sooner quarterback didn’t turn over the ball.Other than that, it was hard to find much about his performance that was good. He missed badly on numerous throws and didn’t even throw to wide-open receivers on several occasions. He finished 26 of 43 for 244 yards and two touchdown passes.More: Brent Venables 'not talking about' potential OU football staff changes following SC lossBen Arbuckle: D-As bad as Mateer was, Arbuckle was worse.Just a complete lack of creativity. The offense had no rhythm. No rhyme. No touchdowns in the first three quarters either. By the time the offense got into the end zone, the deficit was too far gone.I understand that the Sooners have limited weapons, but only 71 yards in the first half? Not going over 100 yards until late in the third quarter?That’s unacceptable.Arbuckle’s playcalling and game planning is, too.Michael Fasusi: DThe OU left tackle was celebrated as a difference maker a week ago when his return from injury coincided with the Sooners’ best offensive performance.But Saturday, he struggled repeatedly, being whistled for five penalties, four of which were enforced. In the first quarter alone, Fasusi was whistled for a false start, a hold and an illegal formation, the last of which was declined.In the second quarter, Fasusi was called for another hold, then came another false start in the fourth quarter.Rough day.Costumes: A+Best part of the entire day: The OU fans who showed up in their Halloween costumes.There were all sorts of fun ones. An OU Colonel Sanders. Cookie Monster. Ted Lasso. The "Dumb and Dumber" characters in neon tuxedos. A handful of Spider-Mans and a couple of "Where's Waldo?" characters.But the group costumes might’ve been the best. The Chipmunks. The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. And best of all, the characters from Super Mario Brothers. I even saw “Mario” doing the Mario run and jump at one point.Well done, folks. Well done.Indigenous People celebration: AAnother highlight. All of the tribes of Oklahoma were represented on the field before the game, and even better, there was a drum circle and dancers. Honestly, if our state schools decided to start every game with a song from one of our tribes, I’d be completely on board. ​Jenni Carlson: Jenni can be reached at jcarlson@oklahoman.com. Like her at facebook.com/JenniCarlsonOK, follow her at @jennicarlsonok.bsky.social and twitter.com/jennicarlson_ok, and support her work and that of other Oklahoman journalists by purchasing a digital subscription today.This article originally appeared on Oklahoman: OU football defense has to wear loss to South Carolina alongside offense | Report card