What we learned from OU’s blowout win over a much less talented Temple team
On face value, Oklahoma’s 51-3 win over Temple was pretty much what what you would expect from a mismatch of this sort and was in line with how other ranked teams fared against much lesser opponents.
To put it another way, there was no realistic way the Sooners were going to lose this game. It was one of those games on the nonconference portion of the schedule that really had no business being played other than the nice pay day received by the visiting team.
Nevertheless, you can still learn from games like this. Although there were some strong individual performances and an outstanding team showing by the Sooner defensive unit, there also were a few notable areas where this team is going to have to grow and get better if it is going to win games in the highly competitive SEC.
It is also necessary in breaking down the Week 1 Oklahoma win to recognize that there will always be opening-game nerves and getting used to game speed after a long offseason. It is also important to realize that because of the level of competition, the Sooners played it fairly vanilla on offense, holding back a lot of the playbook for when the competition becomes considerably more challenging.
There were reports throughout the offseason calling the defense the strength of OU Team 130. The season-opener with Temple gives us one piece of evidence, anyway, that those claims were spot on. The Sooner defense graded out at an A at all levels.
The defensive line, made up of TCU transfer Damonic Williams, freshman Jayden Jackson and Gracen Halten on the interior and defensive ends Ethan Downs and R Mason Thomas was downright nasty throughout the contest. The guys up front kept the pressure on Temple QB Forrest Brock all night, disrupting his timing and decision making.
The linebackers and defensive secondary held Brock and the Owls to just 12 pass completions in 25 attempts and picked off two errant throws. Collectively, the defense recorded six takeaways, six sacks and nine tackles for loss and limited Temple to just 197 yards of total offense. That was the lowest total by an OU defense since allowing 178 total yards to Western Carolina in 2021.
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