PHILADELPHIA — When OU’s defense is at its best, Brent Venables said, it resembles “recess.”
Wait a second. Recess??? Stop playing around.
“It literally feels like that,” defensive tackle Jayden Jackson confirmed.
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Venables doesn’t strike me as a “recess” guy. He’s too intense. Too restless. Too demanding to oversee such frivolity.
“They like to be pushed, they like to be challenged, they like to practice, and when they play together, it does, it resembles recess,” Venables explained. “I say that respectfully.”
In that case, Lincoln Financial Field was the Sooners’ school yard Saturday afternoon in a 42-3 win against Temple. OU ran around on the NFL turf until the last whistle was blown and it was time to go inside.
OU’s defense looked like it was having fun. Fun in a twisted sort of way. Fun the Owls certainly didn’t share in.
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“Their defense has a lot of savages,” Temple coach K.C. Keeler said. “I mean, they have some really good football players on defense.”
The best defense Venables has had as OU’s head coach?
“I really like all three levels,” said Venables, punting on making too big a proclamation. “We have good depth … not amazing depth, but we have good depth.”
Case in point: No Sooner had more than four tackles Saturday. Reggie Powers III, Kendel Dolby and Taylor Heim tied for the team-high. They were among the 22 Sooners who made a tackle. Sure, some of that can be attributed to playing backups in garbage time, but the Sooners were rotating guys throughout the game.
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And no matter who was out there, Temple did squat.
Couple things on that. Yes, it’s Temple, which also scored three points against OU last year, but this is a way better Temple team under first-year coach K.C. Keeler. Venables said as much after the game.
Temple scored 42 points at UMass and 55 vs. Howard. Juggernauts those are not, but the Owls had proven they could score. Temple entered the weekend ranked 18th in total offense, averaging 514 yards per game.
That’s before the Owls struggled to cross the century mark against the Sooners.
OU gained 515 yards to Temple’s 104. The Owls averaged 1.9 yards per play. They converted 3 of 16 third downs. The Sooners limited them to 41 yards in the first half.
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John Mateer and the Sooner offense put up numbers, but they were just OK, I thought. Mateer threw for 282 yards and rushed for 75. True freshman Tory Blaylock had 100 rushing yards. Isaiah Sategna III made many an Owl miss.
OK was more than good enough against Temple.
“That is a legitimate SEC defense,” Keeler said.
More notable numbers, courtesy of OU’s PR crew:
7: Temple had seven first downs, the fewest for an OU opponent since Kansas State in 2015.
12: A dozen punts for Temple. The most for an OU opponent since Kent State in 2015. The most forced by an OU defense on the road since 2000 (at Baylor). That’s five more punts than first downs, if you’re following.
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0: Number of points OU has allowed in first and fourth quarters this season.
OU’s defense was really good last year. It looks like it could be elite this year.
“This is more kind of outside of football, but we’re much tighter, much closer,” Jackson said. “It doesn’t feel like different position groups. It feels like a team.”
Unprompted, Sooner defensive back Kendel Dolby used the same word as Venables: recess.
“We’ve been doing this since we was kids,” Dolby said. “Don’t go out there and try to overcomplicate it. We’re just having fun. In our eyes, it should be like playing backyard football …
“If you love the game, you shouldn’t play it any other way.”
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Credit Chicago Bears general manager Ryan Poles for planting this idea of “recess” in the Sooners’ heads. OU linebacker Sammy Omosigho said Poles brought it up when Poles visited the team in fall camp.
“When you’re passionate about something, you have a chance to be great,” Venables said. “If you don’t love it, you have no chance to be great. This is a group of guys that love it and love each other.”
Sounds pretty simple. Cliche, even. But it clicked.
Recess is fun.
And as Omosigho said, “Fun is winning.”
More: R Mason Thomas ejected for targeting, will miss first half of OU football game vs Auburn
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Joe Mussatto is a sports columnist for The Oklahoman. Have a story idea for Joe? Email him at jmussatto@oklahoman.com. Support Joe’s work and that of other Oklahoman journalists by purchasing a digital subscription today at subscribe.oklahoman.com.
This article originally appeared on Oklahoman: OU football defense has ‘a lot of savages’ in domination of Temple
