Tulsa Closes Out Home Season with 44-10 Win Over Temple

Saturday, November 20

Tulsa, Okla.

3:00 PM

Tulsa

5-6 , 4-3

Temple

3-8 , 1-6

1st

2nd

3rd

4th

Temple

Tulsa

Photo by: BRETT ROJO, For the University o

Tulsa Closes Out Home Season with 44-10 Win Over Temple

11/20/2021 8:31:00 PM | Football

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TULSA, Okla. –– Tulsa scored a season-high for points in its 44-10 home finale victory over the Temple Owls Saturday afternoon in front of 16,731 fans at H.A. Chapman Stadium.

The Hurricane scored on its first four possessions for a 20-0 lead and five of its six first-half possessions to take a 27-0 lead over the Owls at halftime. Tulsa out-gained the Owls 513 to 293 yards for the game, while gaining 297 through the air and 216 yards on the ground.

Davis Brin completed 18-of-30 passes for 297 yards and two TDs, while Josh Johnson had a career-best 159 receiving yards and an eight-yard score. Three Tulsa running backs tallied 56, 58 and 60 yards for a balanced attack.

Defensively, the Hurricane held Temple to 2-of-14 on third downs and 2-of-5 on fourth downs. Yohance Bunett had a game-high 10 tackles for the Hurricane, while Jaxon Player added two TFL for -5 yards and TieNeal Martin intercepted his third pass of the season at the one-yard line to take away the Owls chance to get an early score on their second possession.

Tulsa improved to 5-6 overall and 4-3 in American Athletic Conference play and will be playing next Saturday at SMU for an opportunity to get bowl-eligible against the 8-3 Mustangs in Dallas.

"With it being senior night, I thought our guys handled all that emotion pretty well. This group of seniors has done a lot for our program. There were lots of reasons we wanted to come out and play well. That obviously was kind of up at the top of the list," said Tulsa Head Coach Philip Montgomery.

"So really proud of the way our team played, these seniors, and what they've done. That's probably our most, in my opinion, at least without looking at the tape, probably our most complete game as a team offensively, defensively, and special teams," added Montgomery.

Tulsa scored its most points since the 2019 season finale at East Carolina when the Hurricane tallied 49 points and it's the most in a home game since scoring 49 over UConn on Nov 3, 2018.

Shamari Brooks took Tulsa's first play of the second half 32 yards, but a fumble gave Temple the ball at their own 18-yard line. The Owls had its longest drive of the game with a 66-yard, 15-play drive and settled for a 33-yard field goal for its first score of the game, cutting its deficit to 27-3.

The Hurricane responded by going 68 yards in five plays as Brin plunged in from one-yard out to put the Hurricane ahead 34-3 with 7:29 remaining in the first half.

It didn't take the Owls long to respond with its first touchdown of the game. Marching 65 yards in six plays Justin Lynch threw the final 23 yards to Amad Anderson Jr. to make the score 34-10. Temple was on the march again but an Anthony Goodlow sack on 4^th-and-1 from the Tulsa 43-yard line gave possession back to the Hurricane.

Tulsa went 23 yards in seven plays and settled for Zack Long's third field goal of the game, a 48-yarder, to increase Tulsa's lead to 37-10. After the Hurricane defense again shut down the Owls on 4^th-and-5, Tulsa's offense went 50 yards in four plays as Deneric Prince ran the final seven yards for the score and the 44-10 lead.

To open the game, Tulsa's offense marched down the field on its first possession and put the ball across the goal line for the second straight week on its opening drive. Brin threw the final 21 yards of a seven-play, 83-yard drive to JC Santana for the score.

The Hurricane made the score 10-3 on a Long 44-yard field goal, capping a 73-yard, 12-play drive on Tulsa's second possession.

Tulsa scored on its third straight possessions going 69 yards in 14 plays as Brin threw the final eight yards to Josh Johnson for the score. Long added a 47-yard field goal on Tulsa's next possession to cap a seven-yard, 42-yard drive and put the Hurricane ahead 20-0 with 8:52 left in the first half.

At halftime, the Hurricane out-gained Temple 306 to 98 total yards, while Brin threw for over 200 yards in in the first 30 minutes for the third time this season.

"Some things changed throughout the game, kind of what we were thinking. They gave us some different looks," said Montgomery. "But, I thought our team really adjusted well and really played the way I know that we can play."

Tulsa will close out the regular season next Saturday in Dallas, Texas, at SMU with a 3:00 p.m. kickoff on ESPN2.