NORMAN — After an abysmal showing last weekend against Houston, all eyes were going to be on OU's offense on Saturday.

The Sooners appeared on a mission to show improvement against Tulane.

Jackson Arnold led the offense down the field on their opening series, capping off a 14-play, 69-yard with a one-yard rushing touchdown that took nearly six minutes of game time. Like they couldn't do against Houston, the Sooners kept up that momentum and went into halftime with 21 points and a 15-point lead.

But in the second half, the offense appeared to regress as the Sooners held on for a 34-19 win over Tulane.

Outside of a three-and-out on the second series, the Sooners had plenty of success in the first half. After that Arnold touchdown run, the Sooners marched on a 10-play, 42-yard drive that was going to result in a Tyler Keltner 50-yard field goal, but a bad special teams penalty forced the Sooners to punt it.

That didn't phase them. On the next series, the Sooners went 60 yards on seven plays as Arnold found Taylor Tatum for a nine-yard touchdown. Arnold opened the next series with a 47-yard run on first down, which set up a goal line touchdown from Tatum to push the lead to 21-0 with 3:39 to go.

The Sooners were doing all of the things they didn't do the first two games. They converted on six of eight third-down conversions after going five of 27 the first two weeks; they were running the ball well, averaging 5.6 yards per carry; and they finished the half with 235 yards of offense after finishing with 249 total yards against Houston, while possessing the ball for nearly 15 minutes.

"I think we started fast because we moved the chains," OU offensive coordinator Seth Littrell said. "We converted on some third downs, which is always going to be huge. Once you built that momentum and kind of got in the drive, you wore them down a little bit and had an early touchdown, which was great. Thought we did a lot of good things, especially in the first half."

Things didn't appear to slow down after halftime, as the third quarter began much like the first. The Sooners picked up first down after first down on the opening series, eventually settling for a field goal after a 13-play, 64-yard drive that took 5:40 off the clock.

But after that, things got way off course. Over the next four drives, the Sooners gained just eight yards, picked up just one first down and scored zero points. On the second drive of that stretch, the offensive line missed an assignment on a Tulane blitzer, and Arnold frantically threw a pass that was intercepted by the Green Wave and returned for a touchdown that cut OU's lead to 24-19 in the fourth quarter.

In a game the Sooners appeared to have under control, the offense completely stalled and it allowed Tulane to sneak back into the game.

"I thought they did a great job coming out after half and getting points on the board," Littrell said. "After that, we’ve gotta clean some things up. We still have to do a better job when adversity hits or the momentum kind of slides to the other side, we’ve gotta gain it back. We’ve got to do a good job responding, and I felt at times in the second half we didn’t do that."

Just like last week, the defense picked up the slack as Billy Bowman picked off Tulane quarterback Darian Mensah to set the offense up at 43-yard line with just over six minutes to go. Arnold made an impressive play on third down, scrambling for a 24-yard touchdown to push the lead to 31-19. The Sooners' defense forced a turnover on downs that led to a 39-yard field goal from Keltner with 2:55 to go, and R Mason Thomas forced a strip sack on Mensah on Tulane's final drive to ice the game.

But the difference between halves was fully on display. The Sooners totaled 114 yards in the second half — less than half of their first-half total — and averaged just 2.5 yards per rushing attempt. The Sooners converted on just two of eight third-down attempts after halftime and committed four penalties compared to two in the first half. Arnold completed seven of 12 passes for 60 yards and was sacked three times.

Most telling — the Sooners averaged 5.7 yards per play in the first half and 3.4 yards per play in the second.

"I thought they played pretty clean throughout the first half," Littrell said. "I think the next step is when we lose a little bit of momentum throughout some of these drives, we’ve gotta bounce back a little quicker. I felt we got a little hesitant, and that’s something we’ll grow through and get a week better as well.”

The Sooners were again in a tough situation with injuries. Nic Anderson and Andrel Anthony again didn't play, leaving OU short handed at receiver. On the offensive line, Branson Hickman, Jake Taylor and Troy Everett were all out.

But despite the second-half struggles, there were things the Sooners could point to in the first half that showed improvement. Overall, it was a better game for the Sooners, finishing with 349 total yards while scoring on six of 14 possessions. They also converted on eight of 16 third-down attempts (50%), a stat that was notably lacking through the first two games.

Now, it's about maintaining that for all four quarters — and hopefully getting healthier — as they prepare for Tennessee to kickoff SEC play next week.

"We had, like I said, four straight drives that wasn’t good," OU coach Brent Venables said. "Had a couple of penalties late... Then we scored 10 points there late, where they did some good stuff. So you evaluate it all as a body of work. You compare it to where you were last week and the week before that and where you started fall camp. You have that direct perspective. But there was definitely some improvement. And, like I said, there’s some plays there that we didn’t do the things we needed to do. Gave up pressure.

"You’re never going to play perfect, but did they make improvement? They certainly did."

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