NORMAN, Oklahoma -- Dante Wright and Andreas Keaton, two of Temple’s single-digit leaders on their respective sides of the ball, tried their best this week to be as confident as they could when talking about how they would approach Oklahoma as a 42.5-point underdog.

Wright said a Sooners defense that led the nation last year with 20 interceptions thrived on great eye discipline, “so we're gonna make them have bad eyes,” he said. And when asked about which Oklahoma players on offense were standing out when he watched them on film, Keaton didn’t get into specifics.

“It’s just us versus them,” he said.

Friday night, us vs. them pitted Temple against the 16th-ranked team in the country, one that bullied the Owls into four first-half turnovers. Three forced fumbles and an interception gave way to 20 points and helped the Sooners jump out to a 34-point halftime lead en route to a 51-3 rout of Temple before an announced crowd of 83,329 fans at Gaylord Family – Oklahoma Memorial Stadium.

Oklahoma, playing its inaugural season in the SEC, has a roster replete with several NFL prospects and former 4- and 5-star recruits, especially on defense. And on offense, the Sooners had no problems putting points on the board despite playing without their top two wide receivers in Jayden Gibson, who was lost to a season-ending injury during preseason camp, and Nic Anderson, who is still recovering from a fall camp injury.

Deion Burks, a Purdue transfer who encountered some legal trouble earlier this summer, picked up the slack in the absence of Gibson and Anderson, catching three first-half touchdown passes of 14, 8 and 5 yards. Sooners quarterback Jackson Arnold, a former 5-star recruit who assumed the reins under center last December once Dillon Gabriel transferred to Oregon, went 17 of 25 passing for 141 yards with four touchdowns, all of which came in the first half.

Temple quarterback Forrest Brock, on the other hand, struggled in his first start with the Owls. Brock, who came to Temple prior to last season by way of Santa Monica Community College, played the second half of a blowout loss to SMU last season but won the starting job this month, beating out Rutgers transfer Evan Simon over the last two weeks of preseason camp. Friday night, he completed just 12 of his 25 passes for 128 yards and two interceptions and was sacked six times. His fumble, the first of six Temple turnovers, gave the Sooners the football at the Owls’ 43 with a little less than 10 minutes to go in the first quarter and gave way to Oklahoma’s second touchdown of the night.

Temple produced just 197 yards of total offense, went 4 of 13 on third down and averaged just 1.9 yards per carry. Third-year head coach Stan Drayton said his offense “just from the very start (was) rattled (and) never got into a rhythm. The Owls’ only points came on a Maddux Trujillo 49-yard field goal at the 3:07 mark of the third quarter.

“Turnovers, sacks, just a poor day of execution on the offensive side of the ball,” Drayton added. “We’ve got to take a look at the film and see what the real issues are.”

When asked about his head coach’s assessment of the offensive being rattled, Brock disagreed.

“I don’t think we were rattled,” Brock said. “I think we were just … I made mistakes. You can't win the game turning the ball over six times, so that's on us.”

It was a particularly rough night for Wright, a single-digit sixth-year wide receiver. In addition to a dropped pass, his second-quarter fumble led to an Oklahoma field goal. Then he fumbled the ball again on a fourth-quarter punt return, allowing Jaren Kanak to recover the ball and return it 21 yards for a touchdown that helped pad the Sooners’ lead to 44-3 with 11:44 left to play.

Temple now has seven days to prepare for its American Athletic Conference opener at Navy next Saturday.

“There's some things we can build off from our defensive performance today,” Drayton said. “Still not good enough, though, when you’ve got 50 points put on the board. Still not good enough. So we'll go back to work. We'll hash it out, we'll figure it out, and we'll put the right people on the field that are going to be ready to play.”

It wasn’t all bad

Yes, the final score was unsightly, but there were moments when Temple looked like it belonged, even in the first half when Oklahoma jumped well ahead. The “things we can build off” remark from Drayton wasn’t just coach speak.

FAU transfer Latrell Jean picked up his first sack in a Temple uniform, and cornerback Ben Osueke looked much better in coverage than he did last fall. While the Sooners did convert all three of their fourth-down attempts, all of which came in the first half, the Owls held them to 1-for-12 on third down. Backup running back Taylor Tatum’s 8-yard touchdown run that closed out the scoring with 3:11 to go was Oklahoma’s first and only third-down conversion of the night.

“Absolutely, we can build off of that,” Drayton began when asked about it, “but here's the thing: what are we on first down and second down, right? They had some explosive plays on first and second down. I think we need to really study it and be real about it, and we got to be better on first and second down with our execution on defense.”

Arnold’s 47-yard completion to Jalil Farooq on Oklahoma’s first drive was really the Sooners’ only chunk play of the night, as Arnold's two other longest completions went for 14 yards.

On the first series of the third quarter, Oklahoma went three-and-out after Cam’Ron Stewart and Demerick Morris teamed up for a sack of Arnold on second down before weakside linebacker Eric Stuart dropped Burks with a big hit on third down. Temple had three sacks on the night, and all three came against the Sooners’ starters before Michael Hawkins Jr. took over for Arnold early in the fourth quarter.

At one point, Oklahoma had 44 points on 286 net total yards. Because of Temple's four first-half turnovers, the Sooners started three scoring drives in Owls territory and another at their own 42.

“The defense we that we got this year, we're aggressive, we hone in on our jobs,” said middle linebacker D.J. Woodbury, who made three tackles Friday night. “We plan on showing that all year. Third down, we did do a great job, but we still got to fix other mistakes that we made.”

Injuries and absences

Wide receiver Ian Stewart posted on Instagram earlier this week about his season-ending quad injury and ensuing surgery, and Drayton talked about his loss after the game.

“This is heartbreaking for that young man,” Drayton said of Stewart, who missed most of the past two seasons due to injuries, including a stress reaction in his foot that occurred during pregame warmups at Rutgers last season. “He works his butt off. He gets to the last day of fall camp and suffers another setback, but he's always going to be a great example for our football team. The next day he was in there, coaching like a coach, so he's going to still be of high value to this football team. Just say your prayers for him. He's suffering a real injury, and we'll see what the results will be for him moving forward.”

In addition to Stewart, sophomore offensive lineman Luke Watson, wide receiver Zae Baines and tight end Peter Clarke didn’t make the trip, and their absences were injury-related, Drayton said.

“They’re settling with some setbacks right now,” Drayton said, “but they'll be OK.”

Defensive end Diwun Black is out due to academics, as OwlScoop.com first reported Wednesday. He could miss as many as four weeks or as few as two with a successful appeal to the NCAA, but Drayton said he did not know anything definitive about his status.

Postgame audio

Listen to the postgame interviews with Stan Drayton, Forrest Brock and D.J. Woodbury here.

Stan Drayton

Forrest Brock and D.J. Woodbury