A week after just getting past Houston, the No. 15 Oklahoma Sooners left no doubt which team was in charge on Saturday, as OU defeated Tulane, 34-19 in front of a sellout crowd of 83,325 at Gaylord Family — Oklahoma Memorial Stadium. It was OU’s 155th straight sellout of an originally scheduled home game.

Quarterback Jackson Arnold led the way for the Sooners (3-0) as he rushed for two touchdowns and threw for another. He completed 18-of-29 passes for 169 yards and had one interception. Arnold carried the ball 14 times for a career-high 97 yards.

Oklahoma head coach Brent Venables liked the way his team bounced back after struggling against Houston.

“You go into a week where there’s a lot of questions and concerns, if you will, and they did a great job of managing the week and focusing on what they need to do to improve and get better and take another step forward,” Venables said.

Tulane (1-2) entered this game following last week’s tough 34-27 loss to a 17th-ranked Kansas State team.

OU jumped out to a 21-0 lead in the second quarter, before Tulane got on the scoreboard. Arnold got his first touchdown of the game on a one-yard run, then he completed a nine-yard touchdown pass to Taylor Tatum, followed by a Tatum one-yard run for a score.

“Against a team like that, it’s almost impossible to dig yourselves a 21-0 hole and think you’ve got any chance to come back and win,” Tulane head coach Jon Sumrall said. “So very disappointed how we started. That falls on me. Didn’t get us ready to play the game early the right way.”

The Green Wave’s first score came on a seven-yard pass from backup quarterback Ty Thompson to Reggie Brown (the extra point was no good), with 19 seconds remaining before halftime. This was the only pass Thompson threw in the game.

In the third quarter, Tyler Keltner kicked the first of two field goals, this one from 29 yards to put the Sooners ahead, 24-6.

Tulane then scored on an eight-yard pass play from Darian Mensah to Makhi Hughes with 4:45 left in the third quarter.

On the next Sooners drive, on an Arnold pass was intercepted by Tyler Grubbs at OU 22-yard line and returned into the end zone for a touchdown. The two-point conversion attempt failed, and the score was 24-19 with 14:20 left in the fourth quarter.

OU shut down Tulane from there, scoring on Arnold’s second touchdown of the game from 24 yards out, and Keltner kicked his second field goal from 39 yards to seal the win. The OU defense ended the game by generating three consecutive turnovers: an interception, on downs, and a fumble recovery.

“There’s a lot that was really good in this game and some things that are right on course,” Venables said. “The offense came out and looked really good…three of the first five drives in the first half went for touchdowns.”

Tatum carried the ball nine times for 27 yards and one touchdown, and he caught one touchdown pass. Deion Burks caught seven passes for 80 yards to help lead the receivers.

For the Green Wave, Darian Mensah completed 14-of-32 passes for 166 yards, and Makhi Hughes ran for 71 yards and caught a touchdown pass.

“Very disappointed in the outcome today,” Sumrall said. “Frustrated with a lot of things I think we could have done better. Hat’s off to a good opponent. They’re a quality football team. They’re very talented in a lot of spots and they’re well coached.”

The Sooners held Tulane to 279 yards and ended the Green Wave’s 10-game road win streak. OU racked up 349 total yards on offense.

Oklahoma: will host No. 7 Tennessee in its Southeastern Conference opener on Saturday at 6:30 p.m.