The Oklahoma Sooners just beat the Mississippi State Bulldogs in a game they badly needed. Now OU can start stringing wins together, and that opens the door to a real conversation about whether this team can make the College Football Playoff.

Oklahoma needs plenty of things to go its way for that to happen. Before that’s even a discussion, though, the Sooners still have some things to fix.

The good news is the offense. The unit we saw against Mississippi State did not look like the same offense from any other game this season. It was the best the offense has looked all year. If the Sooners can play that way on offense and keep playing the way they have on defense, they can beat or hang with anybody.

The Sooners’ special teams has to be better

Special teams is the problem right now. That’s tough to say about a program that has enjoyed great special teams play over the last three years with Doug Deakin in charge of that unit.

The kicking game is where it’s falling apart. Kicker Tate Sandell has to be better because Oklahoma is leaving too many points on the board. The Mississippi State game should have been a much bigger margin than it was, and that has to get fixed.

Sandell, the best kicker in the country last season, is in a slump. That happens. It would be great if he could get out of it soon, but you never know how long something like that will run its course.

To be fair, some of the kicks he’s missing are ones you just can’t miss. It’s bizarre given what we saw from him last year. He was automatic from everywhere, even from 50-plus. He missed a few 50-yard field goals, but that happens in college football, and he made plenty of big ones too.

Ben Arbuckle and Brent Venables are saying the right things

The coaches have been asked about Sandell’s recent struggles, and both of them said what needed to be said. Offensive coordinator Ben Arbuckle put the responsibility back on his own unit:

“I love Tate. I want Tate to kick PATs, not field goals. We got to be better,” Arbuckle said, via On3’s Parker Thune.

Arbuckle is talking about the offense here. He would rather see Sandell kicking extra points than field goals, because that means the offense is finishing drives. If Sandell is lining up for field goals, the offense didn’t do its job.

That’s true. It doesn’t dismiss the misses, but it’s a smart way to frame how the Sooners can help their kicker. If he’s kicking PATs, which are closer, and he’s watching the ball go through the uprights, that can only do wonders for him mentally. It also keeps him out of the tough spots where he’s forced to drill 40-yard and 50-yard kicks.

Then there’s head coach Brent Venables, who backed his kicker while leaving the door open:

“Tate will be fine. I know that’s perplexing, but he’ll be fine. I feel like we kicked 30 of them and missed all 30. But yeah, Tate’s got a great body of work. He’s one of the most talented kickers in college football. He’s been a dude and he’s got a great resume both in-game and at practice. Sandell is a tough guy. He’s not a fragile-minded guy. So keep faith in him. And we’ve got other guys that can kick too, but Tate’s been our guy. He won the Groza last year, and for a kicker, it doesn’t take much to be off, I guess. But he’ll be alright.”

You get the best of both worlds with that response. Venables is letting everybody know Sandell is off right now, but the staff has all the faith in the world in him. At the same time, if he doesn’t turn it around, OU has other guys who can kick.

Sandell may not love hearing that last part, but that’s the nature of the job. Either way, Oklahoma has to get this fixed. The offense has finally given the Sooners a reason to dream bigger, and missed kicks can’t be the thing that keeps them from competing for a College Football Playoff spot late in the season.