Temple led by eight with a little less than 10 minutes to go Saturday afternoon at East Carolina against a Pirates team playing its first game under an interim head coach.

But in a turn of events marked by some awful play from the Owls’ secondary, ECU scored 21 unanswered points and 29 in the third quarter en route to pinning a 56-34 drubbing on Temple that dropped the Owls to 2-6 overall and 1-3 in the American Athletic Conference.

If Temple wants to get bowl-eligible by the end of November, it must win out, and conventional wisdom would suggest that’s unlikely, especially after a secondary that had previously been solid completely unraveled against a three-win ECU team that had just fired head coach Mike Houston and handed the reins to defensive coordinator Blake Harrell.

ECU quarterback Katin Houser, a Michigan State transfer, threw for 269 yards and five touchdowns, and ECU’s 56 points were the most the program has scored since joining the American Athletic Conference.

Playing without his starting left tackle Kevin Terry and his leading wide receiver Dante Wright, Temple quarterback Evan Simon completed 23 of his 41 passes for 297 yards and three touchdowns and ran for another, but his three interceptions included two passes deflected at the line of scrimmage, one that went for a pick-six and another that set up another ECU touchdown.

In addition to a 1-yard QB sneak that gave Temple its first first-quarter touchdown of the season at the 8:04 mark of the opening period, Simon completed 11 of his 20 attempts for 157 yards in the first half and found wideout Ashton Allen for touchdown passes of 60 and 27 yards, the first two scoring grabs of the former USC track star’s football career.

The 60-yard throw hit Allen in stride as he beat Dontavius Nash and helped give Temple its first lead at 14-13 with 3:22 left in the first quarter. The 27-yarder was a back-shoulder throw on third-and-14 after an intentional grounding flag had previously put the Owls in a tough spot on that second-quarter series, and it helped Temple grab a 21-13 lead at the 9:39 mark of the second quarter.

But the Owls’ secondary offered up its worst game of the season before halftime had even arrived and negated much of what Temple did offensively.

Cornerback Jaylen Lewis lost track of Anthony Smith on a 42-yard touchdown throw on third-and-10 that gave ECU a 7-0 lead less than two minutes into the game, and Lewis later collided with safety Andreas Keaton as Jhari Patterson caught a ball on an out route and finished it off for a 17-yard touchdown catch with Keaton and Lewis behind him. Noah Perez missed the extra point, but the gaffe from Keaton and Lewis helped give way to a 13-7 ECU lead with 4:18 left in the first quarter.

Houser’s 9-yard touchdown pass to Winston Wright on fourth-and-2 came courtesy of a nicely-executed play-action fake and got ECU within a point at 21-20 with 6:29 left in the first half, but his 45-yard touchdown pass to wide receiver Chase Sowell with just eight seconds left in the first half came as Keaton got beaten badly in coverage.

Temple lost control of the game in the third quarter after the two teams traded touchdowns – a Rahjai Harris 4-yard scoring run and a 25-yard touchdown pass from Simon to tight end Landon Morris in response that closed ECU’s lead to 35-28 with 6:25 left in the third quarter.

Then the rout ensued.

Three plays into the next possession, Temple linebacker D.J. Woodbury ended up in coverage on Sowell downfield. Keaton didn't close and it went for a 56-yard pass. On the next play, Marlon Gunn Jr. blew past Keaton for a 7-yard touchdown run that staked ECU to a 42-28 lead.

After a brief dose of momentum courtesy of Tyler Stewart’s 35-yard kickoff return that started the Owls’ next drive at midfield, Simon’s first-down pass got deflected at the line of scrimmage, went off the hands of wideout Kajiya Hollawayne and into the hands of freshman defensive back Ja’Marley Riddle, who returned it 55 yards for a touchdown. Those two scores, just 17 seconds apart, opened up a 49-28 lead for ECU.

Two plays after that touchdown, Simon threw his second interception of the day when defensive lineman Jaden McKenzie, an Ohio State transfer, beat left guard Eric King, got his hand on Simon’s pass and corralled it for an interception that set up the Pirates at the Owls’ 20-yard line. Two plays later, Houser connected with Yannick Smith on a 16-yard touchdown pass that helped lift ECU to a 56-28 lead with 3:39 left in the third quarter.

King and running back Terrez Worthy, who tallied 88 yards and a fourth-quarter touchdown run on 20 carries, both left Saturday’s game with an injury but returned. Center Grayson Mains left the game in the fourth quarter but didn’t return and was replaced by redshirt junior Chris Smith.

Temple’s second bye of the season arrives next weekend ahead of the Owls’ Nov. 9 road game at Tulane, the best remaining team on Temple’s schedule. The 6-2 Green Wave beat North Texas 45-37 Saturday behind a monster rushing performance from Makhi Hughes, who gained 195 yards and a touchdown on 30 carries.

EXTRA POINTS

Temple placekicker Maddux Trujillo came up short on his lone field goal attempt of the day, a 58-yarder with 27 seconds left in the second quarter. That miss came before the defense's biggest letdown of the afternoon when it allowed the 45-yard touchdown pass from Houser to Sowell with eight seconds left before halftime. ... Lost in the poor play of the secondary was another effective game from defensive end Diwun Black, who produced the hit on Houser that led to Tra Thomas' interception and helped set up the 27-yard touchdown pass from Simon to Allen four plays later. ... Javier Morton later registered an interception in the fourth quarter, but it was another example, albeit less noteworthy, of Temple's secondary not playing smart football. On fourth-and-four from the Temple 33, ECU decided to go for it, and Houser threw the pick to Morton, who brought the ball down at the Owls' 10-yard line. The smarter play would have been to bat the ball down and allow Temple to take over at its 33 needing as much time and yardage as it could get if it wanted to pull off a comeback.