Brent Venables’ SEC woes continued as Oklahoma was beaten 26-34 at home. This was their second SEC defeat of the season, having lost to the Texas Longhorns two weeks earlier. John Mateer, in particular, struggled to throw accurate passes at the OU Memorial. This raised concerns about whether the QB has fully recovered from his right-hand injury. However, analysts David Pollack and Brent Rollins believe the injury played little role in his missed throws, suggesting deeper issues are at play, which affected Oklahoma’s passing.

It is no secret that John Mateer has been struggling to put in a good performance ever since he got injured against Auburn. In the three games since his return, Mateer has completed 58% of his passes, a dip from his 67.4% completion rate from the first four games. While this dip indicates his struggles, David Pollack believes that against Ole Miss, Mateer made poor decisions, which ended up in missed throws.

“His decision-making was a bigger problem than his accuracy,” said Pollack. John Mateer made some hasty passes throughout the game, especially on the first downs. Pollack believes his Mateer’s decision-making was lacking during the first downs, and he was constantly playing aggressive passes down the field, which killed Oklahoma’s drives. Pollack also pointed out how Mateer was playing outside the playbook of OC Ben Arbuckle, constantly playing aggressively, even when an out route play was called.

“He was open like the out route, like you run the whip route just to get that to get the play for the first down, and then it was wide open.” David Pollack expressed. This mix of poor decision-making cost a lot of opportunities for the Sooners in the game. But despite this, Oklahoma took the lead at the end of the third quarter through an RB Xavier Robinson TD. However, failed throws from John Mateer and a Trace Bruckler TD sealed the game for Ole Miss.

In the fourth quarter, Oklahoma had a chance to take the lead, but Mateer threw consecutive incompletions on a critical late third- and fourth-down sequence. The Sooners failed to convert in the red zone, a turning point that ultimately proved decisive in the game. That was the best chance for Brent Venables’ side to take back the lead and hopefully win the game. While it was a day to forget for John Mateer, David Pollack believes he was not solely responsible for the loss.

John Mateer is not the only concern for Brent Venables after Ole Miss loss

“I emphasized in practice throwing the ball down the field, and then I just missed. It can’t happen in that situation. It’s something I’ve got to learn from, something I have to be better at. Period. Got to be better.” Mateer acknowledged after the Ole Miss loss. He completed 17 out of 31 throws for 223 yards, which meant he had a 54.8% pass completion.

That is not the Heisman standard, and John Mateer knows it. Considering how he started the season, the QB looked like a former shadow of himself on Saturday. However, David Pollack thinks other issues stalled the Oklahoma offense as well. He believes Ben Arbuckle also struggled to call offensive plays and focus mainly on getting WR Isaiah Sategna the ball, which made Oklahoma one-dimensional in the offense.

“I think the lack of receivers who win for Oklahoma is very prevalent. You got one guy that can win, creates space, and they kept going to (Sategna) for a reason, right? Like he was the guy, and he is the guy. Xavier Robinson tried to help, but Arbuckle needs to call more runs. Like, he needed to have more of that in the offense. I think it would have it would have helped.”

Leaving RB Xavier Robinson in the plays made the Sooners predictable, and it left John Mateer with limited options. The loss now means that Brent Venables’ side will have to win the rest of their games for a playoff spot. The worrying thing is that they face Tennessee, Alabama, Missouri, and LSU next. A loss at any of these games could be devastating for Oklahoma’s chances of qualifying.