The post Did Brent Venables consider benching John Mateer before Oklahoma's comeback vs. LSU? appeared first on ClutchPoints .
College football fans came into Rivalry Week expecting chaos in the College Football Playoff picture , but what they got was the exact opposite. Only one team — Texas A&M — in the top 14 took a loss during the final weekend of the regular season, so the playoff picture will remain largely unchanged apart from the Aggies' fall from the ranks of the unbeaten.
However, that doesn't mean there weren't some close calls. Alabama nearly lost the Iron Bowl to Auburn before a late touchdown gave it a win, and Oklahoma trailed late in the fourth quarter against a lost LSU squad in Norman with its playoff life on the line.
Thankfully, quarterback John Mateer was able to pull yet another rabbit out of his hat, finding Isaiah Sategna III for a 58-yard touchdown to put the Sooners up 17-13, a lead they would not relinquish. With the win, Oklahoma closes the regular season 10-2 and should be solidly in the CFP field for the first time since 2019.
However, things weren't always pretty for Mateer and the offense. The star quarterback threw three ugly interceptions against the LSU defense and nearly cost his team the game with those turnovers. However, head coach Brent Venables insists he never thought about benching Mateer for backup Michael Hawkins Jr. , according to John E. Hoover of Sports Illustrated.
Instead, Venables had plenty of praise for his starting quarterback after the win.
"I'm not surprised (that he played well in the 4th quarter after struggling)," Venables said. "He took shot after shot, blow after blow, and he kept responding. Thankful that he's got the right king of toughness and resolve and resiliency to believe there at the end. He's done that in several games, several other games against really good people in the fourth quarter where he put a drive together."
Oklahoma did not qualify or the SEC Championship Game, which will be played between Alabama and Georgia next Saturday, but the Sooners have likely done enough to make the final 12-team bracket. in order to advance, they will need much better play from Mateer and the offense as a whole, but Saturday's comeback was an encouraging step for a unit trying to find itself late in the season.
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