John Mateer's 3 Turnovers Bury Oklahoma At Georgia

The first real test of the season in Athens went off a cliff in about 15 minutes of game time. Oklahoma was already down 14-0 but was finally threatening near the goal line. Mateer rolled left off a play fake, and the ball came out of his hand as he wound up to throw. Georgia linebacker Chris Cole picked it up and went the other way for 85 yards. Instead of 14-7, it was 21-0. That's roughly a 14-point swing on 1 snap, and it put the day to bed.

Brett McMurphy

@Brett_McMurphy

Oklahoma QB John Mateer loses football trying to throw, Georgia returns fumble 85 yards for TD. 21-0 Dawgs

It kept going. On third-and-9 from the Georgia 43, Mateer threw one over the middle that came up well short, and safety KJ Bolden picked it off and brought it back 29 yards. Then Oklahoma went for it on fourth-and-1 from its own 43. Mateer got away from a blitz, Raylen Wilson wrapped him up and knocked the ball loose, and Cole was there again to scoop it and run it down to the Oklahoma 11. Georgia scored 2 plays later. Cole piled up 108 yards on fumble returns by himself, which is a stat line a linebacker usually only puts up in a video game.

By the end of the half the national college football writers had stopped writing full sentences and were just reacting. Once it got to 28-0 and the Sooners were running on fumes, the conversation moved on to what had been unthinkable in August: should Oklahoma pull its starting quarterback?

Nicole Auerbach

@NicoleAuerbach

Oklahoma has to bench John Mateer at this point, right?

Brent Venables said no. Mateer came back out for the second half and was never benched. The final box score doesn't look as bad as the first half did: 25-of-34 for 231 yards and a touchdown. But he also had 4 turnovers on the day. Georgia won 41-13, and Oklahoma finished with 1.9 yards per carry on 35 rushes, so the offense had no running game to take the pressure off him.

The worst part for Sooners fans is that this didn't come out of nowhere. Mateer's slump has been noticed around the sport all week, and apparently by opposing coaches too. Before kickoff, one of them had privately put it pretty gently.

Pete Nakos

@PeteNakos

An opposing coach told me earlier this week that he thought Oklahoma QB John Mateer "may just be in a rut." Has three turnovers today. t.co/daEUgzpFb1

George Stoia III@GeorgeStoia

What's crazy is that John Mateer is 15/19 for 139 yards. But my God, the mistakes aren't just mistakes. They are catastrophic errors. OU's only hope to score is Mateer but he's also the very reason you're down 28-0! Just brutal.

"May just be in a rut" is a fair assessment on a Tuesday. After 3 giveaways in 1 quarter against the No. 2 team in the country, it sounds generous. Oklahoma is now 2-2, and this was the first meeting between these 2 programs as SEC opponents. The Sooners came out of it with a quarterback question they have no easy answer to.

Next up is the one Oklahoma circles every year: No. 1 Texas in the Red River Rivalry on October 10. The bye week gives Venables 2 weeks to decide whether this was a bad day or a pattern. If Mateer loses the ball in the Cotton Bowl like he did in Athens, the question about benching him won't just come from the press box.