The Good, the bad and the ugly from the Oklahoma Sooners win over Temple

The Oklahoma Sooners had a strong start in their 51-3 win over the Temple Owls. They did just enough on offense to take advantage of a great defensive effort.

Oklahoma knew it didn’t need to go deep into the playbook to beat the Owls. While the offensive performance isn’t quite what we’d expect from the Sooners, it didn’t need to be for OU to win and cover the 42 1/2-point spread.

There was a lot of good in Oklahoma’s win over the Owls and some stuff that has to improve as the Sooners move through the 2024 season. Here’s a look at the first installment of the good, the bad and the ugly from Week 1.

The Good: Defense is Back in Norman

It’s just one game, but the Oklahoma Sooners defense looked great against the Temple Owls on Friday night.

The Sooners held Temple to less than 200 yards of total offense and 1.9 yards per carry. Oklahoma’s defense recorded six turnovers, the most in a game since 2003. It also recorded six sacks and nine tackles for loss. The production came from everyone.

The Owls couldn’t get much going offensively as the Sooners frustrated them with a relentless defensive effort.

The Sooners will face tougher teams down the road, but you have to be happy about what they put on the field to start the 2024 season.

The Bad: Run Game Needs Work

Yes, the Oklahoma Sooners ran for 217 yards. You take the 28 yards from sacks out of the equation and the yardage number jumps to 245. On the surface, that looks pretty good. But nearly a third of that rushing total came on the final drive when Michael Hawkins and Taylor Tatum added 76 yards to the total.

In the first half, OU ran for 4.1 yards per carry. By contrast, the Sooners averaged 9.1 yards per carry in the second half. A much better number, but Temple went deeper into the depth chart as the game went on.

Yes, the offense had a vanilla game plan, but the first-team offense should have been more effective against the Temple Owls. The unit was without Jake Taylor and lost Branson Hickman to injury in the early going.

The Sooners will have an opportunity to right the ship when they take on a Houston Cougars team that allowed UNLV to rush for nearly 200 yards and average 4.1 yards per carry.

The Ugly: Wide Receiver Depth takes another Hit

The Oklahoma Sooners wide receiver room was lauded this offseason for being one of the deepest in the nation. Well, that depth is going to be put to the test as the Sooners suffered another significant injury.

Jalil Farooq , who was third on the team in receiving yards in 2023, was expected to have another strong season but suffered a broken foot in the first quarter of the win over Temple. That’s the second significant injury suffered by the wide receiver during the last month. Jayden Gibson was lost for the season in the preseason.

Nic Anderson has been banged up and is expected to be ready to roll this week against the Cougars, and Oklahoma will need the breakout star from 2023 to have a repeat season this year.

Deion Burks looked good and Brenen Thompson is off to a nice start to the season. But the Sooners need Anderson back and will need a younger player to earn a significant role in the wide receiver rotation.

Oklahoma can’t afford another significant wide receiver injury.

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