A developing Temple defense played well Saturday
Three weeks into his first season as Temple’s head coach, it’s become clear that Stan Drayton isn’t afraid to be aggressive, and he also has some faith in his defense.
Those two traits were intertwined in the Owls’ 16-14 loss to Rutgers Saturday at Lincoln Financial Field.
Temple went for it on fourth down six times Saturday, including three times in its own territory, which put the Owls’ defense in some tough situations.
At the end of the day, even in a loss, Temple’s defense played well and showed marked improvement over the unit that allowed 30 points and 500 total yards in the season-opener at Duke. Saturday at Lincoln Financial Field, the Owls held Rutgers to just 212 total yards and three Jude McAtamney field goals, as the Scarlet Knights’ lone touchdown came on a Shaquan Loyal interception return.
“It’s becoming who we are,” Drayton said of his defense, “becoming the standard, and that’s what we want. That’s what we want this Temple defense to be – an aggressive style of play, cut it loose. It’s a pressure-style defense by nature, and you really can’t play in that system if you can’t cut it loose. Everything is tied to a strength."
Outside linebacker Layton Jordan for the second consecutive week led the Owls in sacks. He had 2.5 last week against Lafayette and followed that performance Saturday with two more against Rutgers, including one of the biggest defensive plays of the game when he dropped Rutgers quarterback Evan Simon for a 15-yard with a little more than eight minutes to go. It knocked the Scarlet Knights out of field-goal range and kept Temple within two with a little more than six minutes to play.
When Drayton was asked if this was the type of performance he now comes to expect from the McKeesport High School graduate, who, with 4.5 sacks this season, has now already more than doubled his career total.
“Yes, absolutely. His job is to be an impact player,” Drayton said of Jordan. “His job is to make plays when his number is called within the defensive scheme. And he’s just doing his job. That’s his job. He’s doing what he’s supposed to do. It’s nothing special there. We expect him to do those things that he’s doing.”
Other Temple players have started to follow suit and helped limit a Rutgers offense that had scored 88 points in the first two weeks of the season.
Cornerback Jalen McMurray, who led the Owls with seven tackles Saturday, and Temple’s secondary made sure Rutgers’ wide receivers like Aron Cruickshank (five catches, 18 yards) and former Temple wideout Sean Ryan (one catch, 11 yards), didn’t hurt them, and the defense held the Scarlet Knights’ two-quarterback tandem of Gavin Wimsatt and Simon to a combined 10 of 17 passing for just 59 yards with last year’s starter Noah Vedral out with an injury for the third straight week.
Getting back to Drayton’s aggressive approach Saturday, his defense played well and limited the damage when fourth-down gambles didn’t work out.
The first was a fourth-and-1 at Temple’s 34-yard line later in the second quarter when backup quarterback Quincy Patterson was stuffed at the line of scrimmage. But defensive coordinator D.J. Eliot’s group held Rutgers to just 14 yards on the next eight plays, and the Scarlet Knights came away empty-handed when McAtamney missed his only kick of the day on that from 38 yards out. It was a particularly strong series for linebacker Yvandy Rigby, who had three tackles on that drive.
That stand kept Temple within three at 10-7 heading into halftime.
Later in the third quarter, with Rutgers ahead by 13-7, Drayton and offensive coordinator Danny Langsdorf again elected to go for it on fourth down in their own territory, this time from their own 43, but Edward Saydee only got one of the two yards he needed, and the Scarlet Knights again took over on downs. Rutgers got just 24 yards on its next nine plays, with McMurray stopping Cruickshank a yard short of a first down on a third-down catch, and the Scarlet Knights settled for a 38-yard McAtamney field goal that made it a 16-7 game five seconds into the fourth quarter.
There were plenty of standouts on the defensive side of the ball. McMurray, the redshirt-freshman single digit, was all over the field in the run game in addition to his tight coverage at cornerback. And in addition to Jordan’s outstanding play, the linebackers continued to excel for another week. Single-digit Jordan Magee, Kobe Wilson and Rigby had five tackles apiece, and redshirt freshman outside linebacker Balansama Kamara showed up with six tackles, a career-high single-game total for the Central High School graduate.
The one thing Temple’s defense has yet to do through three games this season is force a turnover. And the Owls will have some things to learn when they look back at the tape of Rutgers' final drive when tight end Johnny Langan, who was utilized again Saturday as a wildcat quarterback, racked up 38 yards on five carries on the game's final series to close out the clock.
But after a forgettable first week of the season at Duke, the unit has continued to improve and kept the Owls in the game.
“This is the style of play that we want out of our players who play on our defense, Drayton added. “We’re definitely trending in the right direction.”