Oklahoma Sooners defense DOMINATES Temple! Jackson Arnold shines but OU offense needs WORK!

the Oklahoma Sooners defense dominated while the offense left a little to be desired you are locked on Sooners your daily podcast on the Oklahoma Sooners part of the locked on podcast Network your team everyday what's up sooner Nation welcome to lockon Sooners and thank you for making lockon Sooners your first listen everying SLE day shout out to all the every dayers out there today's episode is brought to you by 5H Hour Energy 5H Hour Energy fixes tired fast with zero sugar and a convenient portable size it's the perfect pickme up for getting stuff done go to 5our energy.com and use promo code locked on CFB to receive 20% off your order this offer is only valid until September 30th on one order and cannot be used with other promotions go to 5our energy.com today I'm John Williams you can follow me on Twi at John N Williams the show is at lockon Sooners and again shout out to all the every dayers we've got football to finally talk about the Oklahoma Sooners open the season with a 51-3 win over the temple owls in front of a great crowd in Norman on a Friday night honoring the 1974 1975 national championship teams and it was a game that kind of honored the 1974 1975 national championship teams the defense was absolutely abolutely dominating they were suffocating from the opening whistle to the end of the game Oklahoma's defense did not allow the temple Al to get really much going at all and even when they did Oklahoma's defense was able to respond and push them back Oklahoma's defense recorded six turnovers six sacks nine tackles for loss and you got contributions from everybody it wasn't just Danny stutzman or Billy Bowman although Billy Bowman had an opportunity at an interception which could have potentially been Oklahoma's seventh turnover of the game but you've got contributions from all kinds of guys from the defensive tackle group from the edge group The linebackers the defensive backs from Seniors on the team to true freshman it was just an impressive impressive defensive performance in addition to the turnovers Oklahoma held Temple to less than two yards a carry and to me that that's a really really strong number under 200 total yards uh on 36 rushing attempts only allowed 69 net rushing yards uh only allowed um a four for 13 on third down uh you know this was a a game in which Oklahoma dominated from the outset and it would have been really really easy to let up at different times and there were times where you thought okay maybe the this is where Temple's going to break through and maybe get into the end zone but only one drive was Temple able to actually get into scoring range and they got inside Oklahoma's Red Zone and then the Sooners responded with back-to-back sacks pushed them out to a third and 22 situation where then they had to settle for a field goal so I really really really liked what we got out of the defense Bren Venable mentioned it in his postgame press conference that there are going to be tougher tests for this defense that was obvious going into it it's obvious now and I still like what we saw it was a a group that rallied to the football really really well after the first couple of possessions or so I thought they tackled really really well uh even early on when maybe there were a couple M tackles well you had an Ethan Downs come from behind and and strip the quarterback of the ball I thought they were playing physical and I thought they were playing fast and that's what led to a lot of those turnovers I mean it was hard hits that were jarring the ball loose or it was a physical swipe at the football as a as a runner was going forward I thought the pass rush was pretty good in particular from the defensive tackle group guys like Grayson hton were getting really really good pressure uh Jaden Jackson I thought was getting a really good push against Temple's interior I saw you know Ashton Sanders and Marcus strong making plays as well I thought Dominic Williams had a really really strong debut and then Deon Terry played well I thought the interior defensive tackle group played really really well the edge group I thought they did a really good job making sure to maintain contain not allowing the temple rushing attack to get outside very very often and then you look at kind of the passing attack for temple the dude's not an accurate thrower so it's kind of hard to gauge exactly what Oklahoma was going up against on that front again they'll face much more difficult passing offenses maybe not next week against Houston but down the road they will but I thought overall this was a strong statement from this sooner defense if you get defensive performances like this it helps to kind of mitigate what you saw on the offensive side of the ball which is going to be a lot of what carries the discussion this week we'll discuss a lot of this with Jay when we record normally on H Sunday night for our Monday episode but just the initial reactions I mean you gotta like where Zach allly and Brent venol have this defense going into the season it's a confident group a bunch that kind of like the Oklahoma softball team was celebrating all the little things uh but again to get two interceptions uh to force what four fumbles and recover those you got a special teams touchdown when Lewis Carter knocked the ball loose and jiren KCK scooped and scored I think it was really really nice to see everybody kind of have their hand in the pot you know bill again Billy Bowman almost had an interception you got the kendle Dolby deflection that led to a Kai Walker interception you had Robert Spears Jennings for forcing a fumble you had Ethan DS forcing a fumble Grayson Halton forcing a fumble so it was a a good team effort across the board and you got to see a lot of a lot of guys play and I thought Kobe McKenzie looked really good at linebacker I really like the duo of stutzman and McKenzie that's just a big big uh tandem at linebacker but they also looked really good whenever Kip Lewis was in the game too so it's a lot to like from the defensive side of the ball you didn't have Woody Washington playing I think there were maybe some other guys that were being held out on defense as Oklahoma Gentry Williams in particular was one of those guys being held out on defense as you just understand you don't have to play everybody against Temple to go beat Temple like the way you did and even as they held guys out the defense only gave up three points again held Temple to less than two yards per carry under 200 total yards for the game six sacks six tackles for loss just a strong effort all in all from the sooner defense not necessarily so much from the Sooners offense but I think there's a lot to to positively take away we'll discuss some of the things that maybe didn't go great and where they have to improve and then we got to talk special teams because hey maybe special teams is coming together we'll discuss coming up next here on lockdown Sooners fuel up with factors no 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per an attempt not great but understanding what they were dealing with along the offensive line Branson Hickman got hurt early in this game you were down Jake Taylor so you were down two of your starters and they were mixing and matching uh throughout this game to to find a suitable combination as the Oklahoma sers were just trying to get through the temple game to be honest Burton venal has already said that Jake Taylor will be back next week Branson Hickman is going to be a situation to monitor as he hurt his an ankle we saw garyan Hatchet Joshua Bates play the rest of the game at center for the Oklahoma Sooners but they did do some nice things you know Fae weu he looked really really good as a run blocker uh throughout the game some of the bigger holes that they opened were on that right side of the offensive line uh Spencer Brown we got to get Jake Taylor back that that did not look great at times and and he was getting beat sometimes pretty easily by some of the speed rushes from the temple defense and one time just got blown up and Jackson Arnold tried to escape the pocket to his left away from the pressure coming from his right and then pretty much walked into that uh pressure that led to the intentional grounding that wasn't really intentional grounding that they ended up picking the the flag for but the offensive line as a whole I think is still going to be a work in progress we're not going to see a finished product there maybe all year but if we even go back to last year the guys that started game one weren't necessarily the same guys that started game seven you know Kayon green wasn't a week one starter for the Sooners he came in down the road as you know they realized that the size that they had on the interior wasn't quite what they needed so give it time definitely concerning it's definitely concerning the offensive line I'm not going to sit here and try to tell you it's not because there were a lot of times in the first half where the Run game didn't look like it was materializing at all uh they ran for over 200 yards as a team but 130 of those rushing yards came in the second half and 66 of those rushing yards came on the final drive when Taylor Tatum just ate him up so I think there's there's some room to be concerned about the offensive line and we'll just have to kind of wait and see if it materializes if we get to Tennessee and it looks like this it's going to be a long day for the Oklahoma sters offense and thankfully the Oklahoma sors have a defense that can kind of keep them in some games and and they don't necessarily have to worry too much about an offense that has to score 50 points a game to win uh because they've got a defense that's going to be able to hold some teams in check but let's let's we'll dive more into the offensive line we'll continue to talk about some of the issues that they had and dealt with uh later this week but let's talk about some of the positives I I did think Jackson Arnold played a good game he played the game that was there for him to play I wrote on on social media like I wish they would throw to the sticks a little bit more on some of these third Downs up until the final drive they'd been 0 for 11 on third down which is not great you need to be more efficient than that that's a money down teams that win football games they win third down both offense and defense but a lot of what was happening with the Oklahoma C passing attack is Brandon Thompson B Sharp a lot of these wide receiver routes tight end routes on third down were either stopping short of the sticks or Jackson Arnold was throwing it before they got to the sticks so again something that can be cleaned up and be a little bit better I mean in the first quarter alone I can't I mean two or three times I felt like Bren Brenan Thompson was catching a ball on a drag or a short in and was short of the first down marker one time if he would have just not tried to cut and gain more yardage if he had just gone for the first down they would have converted a first down and not have to go for it on Fourth but that didn't happen didn't materialize they had to go for it on Fourth and hey they were pretty good on Fourth they were three for three on fourth down which that's an encouraging sign the other part of that and this is something we'll have to get into with Jay is you can clearly see that Brent venables believes in an analytical approach to Fourth Down decisions when they're in plus side of the 50 and it's Fourth and short man they're going they're going to be aggressive they're going to go for it and I love that I love that they're going to be an aggressive football team and try to have as many possessions and as many plays on offense as possible but Jackson Arnold played really good I thought that uh you know Bowers sharp hey I I was impressed I thought he was solid you know that's what you need at your tight end you need a five for 47 you need a five for 60 game on a regular basis you need to kind of average that throughout the season is he going to be Mark Andrews no is is he gonna be Jermaine Gresham no but I think he can be productive enough to have a Braden Willis type season where he has like 50 receptions 500 something yards five touchdowns if he can put that line together for Oklahoma that'll be pretty good now given the wide receiver situation which we'll talk about in a second maybe you need more from him maybe you need him to have this big time breakout where you're looking at the end of the season you're like man this dude has a chance to go on and be a top 100 pick in the NFL draft and and have a long care career as a tight end but I'm not going to quite put those expectations on him just yet again if he can go and just be solid and be better than what we got at tight end last year be similar to what we got at tight end in 2022 then it's going to help open up a lot for your offense uh the other wide receiv receivers Deion Burks dude that dude is a star like a star in the making they didn't really seem to get him involved in the intermediate to deep passing game but what he did in the short area passing game I thought was really uh productive obviously he's got the three touchdown grabs in the Red Zone he's going to be a really really difficult matchup for opposing teams in the Red Zone because he can go anywhere he can run any route and his quickness and his speed are going to create nightmares uh for opposing defenses so really really like what Jackson Arnold and Deion Burks got going on early in the season is he gonna catch three touchdown passes every week no but I mean he's off to a great start already and uh the note the first Oklahoma Sooner wide receiver to score three touchdowns in their debut pretty impressive now it's it's a different era of college football in that you can be a very very experienced wide receiver and now come make your debut for Oklahoma and have an opportunity to do something like that so impressive performance from him uh again I thought the running backs it's hard to necessarily judge the running backs based on what you got out of the offensive line but I did feel like Gavin Sauk was a bites attend at times javante Barnes I thought ran well he just wasn't able to create a whole lot more than what was blocked at times but I liked his downhill approach and you saw the same thing with like with Sam Franklin when he got downhill when the runners got downhill and got downhill quick they were able to make a little bit more happen at least gained some positive yardage Gavin Sawchuk at times it felt like he was just being a little bit too patient in the second half I thought he corrected some of that where he just got downhill or there was a fourth in a fourth in short and they went with Gavin Sauk and he just got downhill quick lowered his shoulder picked up the first down no mus no fuss Oklahoma was able to continue the drive and then obviously Taylor Tatum at the end of the game I'm not gonna overblow this I do think Taylor Tatum's gonna be great I think he's gonna have a really really nice career for the Oklahoma Sooners but again last Drive of the game against an already defeated Temple team I'm not saying that they weren't given their all but it would not be surprising if Temple really kind of had run out of gas by that point but looked really really good I mean Taylor Tatum showed the speed showed the lateral agility the quickness that makes you believe he's going to be a fantastic player at the Collegiate level four carries 66 yards got the eight- yard touchdown run at the end of the game and just really looked good so a lot to be encouraged about on that front uh you know this is is a team that needs their wide receivers to be healthy Jaden Gibson is gone done for the year Nick Anderson was sitting out this game Jalil Farooq Bren venol reveals is out six to eight weeks that's a tough blow and so you're gonna need Deon Burks to be really really good there was a lot of I don't want to say hype but a lot of positive Buzz about a guy like JJ Hester out of fall camp and man he he did not play well that's the only real thing you can say about the only positive contribution he got was uh what how would you drawing the personal foul conduct or penalty uh In The End Zone when he was blocking got his helmet ripped off and the refs thw threw a flag for Unnecessary Roughness uh that was about the only positive impact he had maybe he had some as a blocker have to go back and watch that just to see what he did but as a receiver he's got some work to do got to find the ability to concentrate and bring in some of those balls because there was one down the sideline that Jackson Arnold just put on a rope he basically handed it to him it was such a good ball and and Hester couldn't come up with the ball uh you know you're gonna see some of these true freshmen now you're gonna see Ivan kerion and Zion Kerney and Zion ragins jqu pedway who was again a 2023 signing he's going into his second year with the Sooners you're going to see him and some of these young dudes are are going to have to step up now with the injury to Farooq with Jaden Gibson being gone out for the season with Nick Anderson being hobbled through fall camp and held out of this one now you're going to have to rely upon some of that youthful depth that you've got that EMT Jones has done a really nice job of building up but it's unproven death now you don't have a lot of margin for era you don't have a lot of room for any more injuries to your wide receiver core especially at the top and this team is going to need Nick Anderson to be healthy and healthy all season long because they certainly missed his big body out there and his experience out there in week one against Temple uh special teams I thought played really really well I I thought they were good Tyler Kelner three field goals three for three including a 50 yarder and then again you got I I thought pton Bowen looked good on the punt return and then you got the ls Carter forced fumble jiren knck fumble returned for a touchdown so I mean a positive start for the Oklahoma Sooners was it perfect it wasn't perfect it wasn't the most impressive performance by the Sooners but it was an encouraging start and if they can get healthy and if the offensive line can stabilize a little bit and be a little bit better than what they were this week then they'll have a chance to be to be good and they'll have a chance to contend for a playoff spot but based on what we saw right now there's a lot a lot of work to do but defense really really good offense pretty good despite an offensive line that was dealing with some turnover and some some uncertainty throughout the game and going into the game so you know we'll we'll continue to break this game down and talk more about it as we you know get to you know Monday and Tuesday and then look ahead to Houston but just wanted to provide some initial reaction to this game because hey we get college football Back and You're tuned in you're here you're you're subscribed and you're ready so I'd love to hear what y'all's thoughts were what were your takeaways your your most impressive performances who were kind of the stars of the game for you uh what is something that Oklahoma's got to fix How concerned are you about the offensive line because it's definitely a concern is it a bigger concern than what it was going into the game I don't know if this persists into Houston then maybe we've got a Big Time concern on her hands as the 2024 season unfolds but tell me what you thought about Jackson Arnold's performance do you think that we've got something in a guy like Taylor Tatum Deon Burks is he gonna be that truth what about the defense what did you think about the defense but that's going to do it for this episode it's initial reaction of Oklahoma's 51-3 win over the temple owl subscribe to the show wherever you get your podcast free and available on all podcast platforms and on YouTube also hit that notification Bell over there to let you know when new episodes drop follow the show on all the social media platforms Twitter Facebook Tik Tok Instagram locked on Sooners follow Jay unfair Sports myself john9 Williams and we'll be back to again further breakdown this game get to a little bit more than nitty-gritty we'll get Jay's reaction to the game as well on our Monday episode so again make sure you're subscribed wherever you get your podcast but until next time I'm John Williams catch you then Boomer Sooner