There aren’t very many football teams that can escape with a victory after turning the ball over six times. Temple Football (0-1, 0-0 American Athletic Conference) learned that the hard way in its week one thumping against No.16 Oklahoma (1-0, 0-0 Southeastern Conference) on Friday night.
The Owls’ offense was dead in the water from their first drive in Norman with a three-and-out and their fortunes only got worse from there. Quarterback Forrest Brock threw two interceptions and the unit fumbled four times, forcing the defense to begin drives with its back against the wall for much of the night.
The self-inflicted wounds resulted in a lopsided 51-3 loss for Temple in its season-opener. Brock looked rattled from the get-go, and it never got better as he finished with just 128 total passing yards in the rout.
“Our offense from the very start [was] rattled, never got in a rhythm,” said Temple head coach Stan Drayton. “Turnovers, sacks, just a poor day of execution on the offensive side of the ball. We got to really take a look at the film and see where the real issues are. The look in their eyes wasn’t quite right early.”
Despite the loss, there is some light at the end of the tunnel. The Owls’ defense looks new and improved. The unit showed fans what they might be able to accomplish this year against more level competition in the AAC.
Defensive tackle Latrell Jean earned high praise from coaches all offseason and looked the part in his first game in an Owl uniform. The FAU transfer had two tackles, one sack and one tackle for loss and helped man the defensive front for much of the game.
The Owls were also able to rush Sooners quarterback Jackson Arnold, who was making his second career start. They brought Arnold down in the backfield three times and hurried him another time, generating a pass rush that wasn’t seen at any point during the 2023 season.
“The defense that we got this year, we’re aggressive, and we hone in on our job,” said Temple linebacker D.J. Woodbury Sr. “We plan on showing that all year. Third down, we did do a great job, but we still got to fix other mistakes.”
While it looked rough on the scoreboard, Temple’s defense held Oklahoma to respectable yardage totals. Most of the points given up could be pinned down to the fact that Oklahoma started with the ball in Temple territory four times and past their own 40-yard line twice, putting the Owls behind the eight ball before a snap was taken.
Many of those points came from Temple turning the ball over six times, which halted any attempt at stringing together a consistent offense. The Owls weren’t able to get on the board until the three-minute mark of the third quarter when kicker Maddux Trujillo drilled a 49-yard field goal.
“Those turnovers put our defense in tough situations,” Drayton said. “I think early on, first two series just getting the feel for the game, the speed of the game. Then they settled down and made some critical stops and three and outs again, putting them in some tough situations, forcing field goals.”
Temple gave up 441 yards per game in 2023 but limited the best team on its 2024 schedule to just 378 and held Arnold to just 141 yards passing — a small victory in the lopsided loss. The only problem was they couldn’t keep the Sooners out of the endzone in the first half.
Purdue transfer Deion Burks found the endzone three times in the first 30 minutes of the game, and Arnold finished the night with four touchdown passes. The Sooners rushing attack was able to scorch an Owls’ defense that gave up nearly 200 yards per game in 2023. Oklahoma finished with 217 on Friday.
“Yeah, they came swinging,” Woodbury Sr. said. “They started fast but when we came to the sideline, we made some adjustments and we got rolling a little.”
The second half seemed to slowly flip the script for the Owls on the defensive side. They allowed just three points and limited the Sooners to 1-for-12 on third downs all day.
Temple was still unable to generate any life on the offensive side of the ball in the second half. Almost all the Owls’ drives were short lived — they snapped the ball just seven times all quarter outside of the field goal-scoring drive, and Oklahoma led 37-3 as the quarter drew to a close.
Brock’s second interception of the game effectively put the finishing touches on what was a dominant win for the Sooners. The Owls allowed 106 yards in the final 15 minutes of play after giving up just 67 in the third quarter. A tired defense was unable to stop the run, which Oklahoma took full advantage of with 130 second-half rushing.
“I thought our back end played pretty well,” Drayton said. “They proved early on that they could run with those guys, which was a really good thing to see.
Temple has been unable to secure a win away from Lincoln Financial Field under Drayton. The Owls will have the chance to end that drought next week when they travel to Annapolis, Maryland, to play Navy (1-0, 0-0 AAC) on Sept. 7 at 3:30 p.m.
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