It's been well-documented through the first seven weeks of the 2024 season that Oklahoma's offense is nowhere near the unit that folks have become accustomed to watching in Norman.

After the debacle that was the 2024 Red River Rivalry, widespread frustration with the offensive scheme and execution reached its boiling point and spilled over into the message boards, social media feeds, and radio waves.

In short, Sooner Nation is ready to see some heads roll — affiliation to the program be damned. However, a hasty decision that leaves the Sooners without a full-time offensive coordinator with six games left in the regular season might take what's already a disaster and cast it even further into anarchy.

So, what's the solution? What do Brent Venables and his staff need to emphasize ahead of the South Carolina game to put their offense in a position to be successful?

It's refreshing to know that the coaching staff won't be coming to stories like this one to garner recommendations or ideas — if they are, we've got much bigger problems. That being said, there's at least one thing that is almost certainly being addressed in the offensive meeting room: the drive-killing play — and more specifically the drive-killing plays on first down.

In 2024, Oklahoma's offense has been plagued by a number of issues, but one of the most common themes through the first six games of the season is self-inflicted problems in early down situations.

To keep track of what's going on when the OU offense, we took a deep dive into the drive charts from the first six games of the season. We tracked repeat offenses of negative plays on first down and summarized them as "drive-killing plays," or DKPs.

For the purpose of this study, a "drive-killing play" (DKP) is defined as any first-down play that results in negative yardage, zero yards, a turnover, or a penalty.

Having a 1st-and-10 turn into a 2nd-and-12 or a 1st-and-15 is the fastest way to kill a drive and give the ball back to the opponent, and unfortunately, the Sooners have grown very familiar with this problem.

Before we dive into the drive charts, let's take a quick look at how Oklahoma ranks among the rest of the offenses in college football.

• Total Offense: 287.7 ypg (125th)

• Scoring Offense: 24.3 ppg (96th)

• Yards Per Play: 4.3 (127th)

• Rushing Offense: 121.5 ypg (95th)

• Rush Yards Per Attempt: 3.4 (105th)

• Passing Offense: 166.2 ypg (118th)

• Pass Yards Per Completion: 9.5 (130th)

• Pass Yards Per Attempt: 5.8 (123rd)

• Third Down Conversion PCT: 26.5% (128th)

• Punts Per Offensive Score: 1.4 (103rd)

In summary, it ain't good.

Oklahoma's offense has not done anything even remotely well through six games, let alone proficiently.

The Sooners' offense isn't even close to being an average unit right now, and heading into the back half of their schedule, there are some real questions about their offensive identity.

What can Seth Littrell hang his hat on to this point in the year? Yes, it's reasonable to expect a significant dip in production when you are without your top five wide receivers and the offensive line was banged up for the first few weeks.

How long are those viable excuses? How long can the blame be placed on an inexperienced quarterback, no rapport between the signal-caller and his wideouts, and no cohesion on the offensive line? Those things have to improve with time, right?

Perhaps the vocal majority of the fan base is right and the Sooners need to make a change at offensive coordinator. Littrell's performance certainly hasn't been inspiring through the first six games — but there's an argument that play-calling hasn't been Oklahoma's biggest issue.

When you take a look at the drive chart and identify all of the drive-killing plays that the Sooners are suffering, particularly on first down, it becomes very apparent why Oklahoma can't seem to move the ball.

When looking at Oklahoma's complete body of work on offense, it shows that the Sooners are suffering drive-killing plays (on first downs alone!) over 54% of the time.

Oklahoma's propensity to put itself behind the chains has been detrimental to its ability to not only score points, but to give its defense time to recoup and adjust to opponent tendencies.

Take a look at how the Sooners' drives that included drive-killing plays have ended.