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DALLAS — Arkansas running back Darren McFadden may be a baller, but Missouri running back Tony Temple is a bowler.

Missouri’s defense limited two-time Heisman Trophy runner-up McFadden to 105 yards and one touchdown on 21 carries, while Temple rumbled for a Cotton Bowl record 281 yards on 24 attempts and four TDs as the No. 6 BCS ranked Tigers trounced the Razorbacks, 38-7, in the 72nd annual Cotton Bowl on Tuesday.

Temple’s fangs apparently come out in bowl games. In Missouri’s 39-38 loss to Oregon State in last year’s Sun Bowl, Temple ran for a then-Mizzou bowl record 194 yards and two touchdowns.

“Days like this, games like this, you can’t dream about it,” said Temple, who was voted the game’s Most Outstanding Offensive Player after breaking the bowl rushing record of 265 yards set by Rice’s Dicky Maegle against Alabama in 1954. “Guys talk about being in the zone. I was in the zone today.”

The Tigers, who finished the year with a school-record 12 wins, didn’t even need a huge offensive game from quarterback Chase Daniel, who finished fourth in the Heisman Trophy voting.

Daniel had just 105 yards of Missouri’s 459 yards total offense, and the Tigers’ defense limited the Hogs to 361 yards, even chipping in with a 26-yard touchdown interception return by William Moore, the game’s Most Outstanding Defensive Player.

“We put a lot of focus on their quarterback and receivers during game preparation,” Arkansas linebacker Weston Dacus said, “so we definitely didn’t have a lot of focus on him (Temple). We just figured we’d get it done up front. We’d gotten it done all year against the passing game.”

Maegle, who watched the game from his home, almost echoed Dacus’ thoughts.

“I’d never heard of him,” Maegle said by phone from Houston of Temple, “but I was familiar with Missouri based on the play of their quarterback. Honestly, if anyone had a chance of breaking the record, I would have thought it would have been one of the Arkansas running backs (McFadden and Felix Jones).”

Until McFadden busted in the end zone for a 3-yard TD in a fourth-and-goal sweep with 3:08 left in the third quarter, the closest Arkansas had come to scoring were two missed Alex Tejada field goals of 35 and 37 yards in the first half. Jones ran for 45 yards on 10 carries.

At the end of the day, the Razorbacks, which ended the season 8-5, looked like a slightly befuddled team prepared by defensive coordinator turned interim coach Reggie Herring. The 31-point loss was the second worst defeat margin in Arkansas’ 36-game bowl history.

“I’m a little blindsided by the way we played,” said Herring, who took over for Houston Nutt who resigned at the end of the regular season to become head coach at Ole Miss. “Missouri’s a good team, but that’s not Arkansas football that you saw today. We’re not that bad. The way we played today, we couldn’t have beaten anybody.”

“We didn’t come out getting our 1-2 (punch) going, and they (Missouri) wanted it more than we did,” said McFadden, who wouldn’t confirm he’s bypassing his last year at Arkansas to enter the NFL draft. “It’s hard to sit there and watch a running back (Temple) do that against you. Give him credit. He came ready to play.”

In the end, Temple took possession of a record that Maegle held for 54 years, a record that Maegle thought should have been broken a long time ago.

“I’m not surprised that the record was broken, because of the way the game is played now with spread offenses and no huddles,” Maegle said. “Yet I really thought someone would break it before, like Chuck Webb (Tennessee) or Ricky Williams (Texas).”