Instant analysis: Boston College 28, Temple 3
Temple dropped its second game of the season after losing, 28-3, at home against Boston College on Saturday afternoon.
For the third straight game, Rod Carey's team fell behind by two scores early as Boston College jumped out to a 14-0 lead, which Temple was never able to overcome.
“All of the penalties today and key situational football that we failed in led to that,” Carey said after the game. “Certainly, offensively, Justin [Lynch] knows this, so I’m not speaking out of turn, just did not play well in the first half. And I’m not placing it on him because we weren’t running the ball very well either. No one was playing well offensively.”
Saturday’s game was a battle of backup quarterbacks as Lynch, a true freshman, made his second career start in place of D’Wan Mathis, and Dennis Grosel started in place of Phil Jurkovec.
Temple’s defense made a number of big plays in the first half, including an interception by cornerback Keyshawn Paul early in the first quarter that kept the game close. However, Temple’s offense was unable to capitalize as the Owls recorded just 58 total yards in the first half and didn’t get a first down until their fourth drive of the game.
The defense held Boston College to three points in the second half but was unable to overcome committing 11 penalties for 66 yards.
“It wasn’t [anything] that the coaches did,” Temple wide receiver Jadan Blue said about the penalties. “It was just on us as players. We've got to execute. We take that all on us. At the end of the day, we can’t blame nobody but ourselves.”
Here are some other key moments and takeaways from the game.
TURNING POINT
The turning point in this game with eight minutes and 34 seconds remaining in the second quarter was when Lynch tried to convert a fourth-and-3 on a quarterback draw play, but was stoned in the hole and ultimately held short of the first down. To add insult to injury, the stop was by former Temple linebacker Isaiah Graham-Mobley.
This drive was the only time in the first half when Temple moved the ball into Eagles’ territory, so not coming away with points on that possession was a big momentum swing.
Boston College didn’t score on the ensuing possession, but Temple was unable to move the ball the rest of the first half and went into halftime down, 21-0, which made things much harder on Temple, Carey said after the game.
“That touchdown at the end of the half that made it 21 really hurt,” Carey added. “We felt like if we could get it in 14-0 into the halftime then we could come out and get ourselves back into this thing but that 21 was hard.”
OFFENSIVE STRUGGLES
Temple’s offense looked inept from the start of today’s game and things didn’t get much better from there. Lynch finished the game 15-of-20 for 156 yards, zero touchdowns and zero interceptions.
As a group, the offense finished with just 239 yards and averaged 4.2 yards per play.
Lynch missed a couple of easy throws, especially in the first half, that ended drives. The Owls used a lot of the same jet motion and bubble screen pass plays to get Lynch some easy completions, but Boston College’s defense did a good job stopping those plays for minimal gains.
Lynch made some nice throws to Blue for a gain of 32 yards and a throw to Darius Pittman off a flea-flicker that gained 29 yards. Outside of those plays, however, it was mostly slim pickings for the young signal-caller.
Temple wasn’t able to get much going in the running game either. Lynch finished with 20 carries for just 24 yards and, as a team, the Owls finished with 78 rushing yards on 36 carries. Edward Saydee led the team in rushing with six carries for just 25 yards.
The first two times Temple got into Boston College territory, the Owls were stopped on fourth down. The first of which was Graham-Mobley’s tackle on Lynch, but the second was late in the third quarter with Temple still down 21-0.
On that drive, Temple had fourth and one from around the Eagles’ 20-yard line, but running back Tayvon Ruley was called for a false start that made it fourth and six. On the next play, Lynch found Randle Jones, who fought close to a first down but didn’t make it.
Temple’s offense would eventually score its first points early in the fourth quarter as Rory Bell converted a 32-yard field goal to make the score 21-3, but it was too little, too late.
The Owls had first goal at the 9-yard line but a penalty on right tackle Michael Niese and a sack by former Owl Khris Banks pushed them back to around the Eagles’ 15-yard line.
The sequence was a perfect encapsulation of Temple’s offense. They repeatedly shot themselves in the foot, and it cost them points.
MAYBE THE DEFENSE IS GOOD?
Things didn’t start off strong for Temple’s defense as the Eagles drove right down the field for a touchdown on their opening possession off a 19-yard touchdown pass from Grosel to Jaden Williams. In their defense, the Eagles returned the opening kick 61 yards to set up their offense deep in Temple territory.
After that, the Owls’ defense settled in fairly well, including shutting out the Eagles in the third quarter. Overall, Temple gave up just 224 total yards and defended the pass exceptionally well. Grosel finished the game completing with just five completions for 34 yards and the one touchdown to Williams. Temple's defense did give up 190 rushing yards on 33 carries.
The Owls also held wide receiver Zay Flowers in check for most of the game as he finished with just one catch for 10 yards and one rush for 47 yards.
“Depending on where [Flowers] was at, we would have to double him,” safety M.J. Griffin said. “You see he’s a fast guy, a small guy, he did all right but he didn’t really do too much against us.”
The Owls’ defense did a great job of consistently getting penetration in the backfield as they recorded six tackles for loss by six different players in the game.
Temple’s pass rush also had a strong day. Defensive end Manny Walker had an impressive sack in the first quarter when he bull rushed Eagles’ left tackle Tyler Vrabel back into Grosel’s lap.
The Owls would’ve had another sack by Kobe Wilson, but Paul was called for holding in the secondary extending the Eagles’ drive.
Temple’s defense got some contributions from some young players on Saturday including Griffin, who led the team in tackles with seven and recorded a tackle for loss.
Like the offense, Temple’s defense had some untimely penalties of its own but, generally speaking, the Owls played like a potential top half of The American defensive unit against a team with multiple future NFL players.
They were the best unit on the field against Rutgers— that’s not saying much, but still— dominated Akron for three quarters and kept Temple in the game all day today. If there is a positive to take away from this game, it is the play of this defense.
WHAT DOES THIS MEAN GOING FORWARD?
Three games into the season, Temple’s problems are obvious. The Owls are an undisciplined team that lacks offensive execution and continuously falls behind early in games.
That recipe isn’t going to lead to a ton of wins this season if things don’t change. Next week, Temple plays Wagner, a team from the FCS, which the Owls should win against by multiple scores. However, Saturday's game serves as a much better model for what Temple will see when it enters AAC play.
Getting Mathis back could help rejuvenate the offense, but it wouldn’t be smart to assume he will fix all of the Owls’ problems on offense. Mathis can’t prevent the offensive line from false starting, nor can he manufacture separation for the receivers.
The only real positive worth taking away from this game is the defense did its part and has largely played well this season when not put in a bad spot by the offense.
The defense might be able to keep Temple in games but if the offense doesn’t turn it around and special teams continues to give up short fields, the Owls will struggle to find wins this season.
CAREY SAID IT BEST
“To me, the two games that we’ve lost here have more to do with us than the other team," the third-year head coach said.