Temple picked up its first win of the season, beating Akron on the road 45-24 Saturday afternoon. The win came after the Owls suffered a blowout defeat against Rutgers in week one and fell behind the Zips by 14-0 early on.
“It’s a ton of hard work that goes into this non-stop, and we haven’t gotten a lot of payoffs,” head coach Rod Carey said after the game. “Certainly, we didn’t execute and didn’t play physical enough last week. We certainly came back, and we’ve got a lot to correct, but we played much more physical today.”
With starting quarterback D’Wan Mathis out with an injury, Temple turned to true freshman Justin Lynch, who performed much better than he did last week against the Scarlet Knights. Lynch finished the game completing 19 of 23 passes for 245 yards and two touchdowns and ran for a third.
After allowing the Zips to score 17 points on their first three possessions, Temple’s defense ended up holding Akron to 362 total yards and 24 points while forcing two turnovers.
Here are some other takeaways and key moments from the game.
Turning point
It came in the second quarter when Layton Jordan ran down Akron quarterback Kato Nelson for a strip-sack that William Kwenkeu to scoop up the ball and return it for a 38-yard touchdown.
That made the score to 17-14, bringing Temple within three points after the Owls had trailed 14-0 in the first quarter.
On the ensuing Zips possession, Temple defensive end Manny Walker made an impressive read to jump up to and intercept a screen pass from D.J. Irons that he returned for a touchdown, giving Temple its first lead of the game at 21-17 with 5 minutes, 12 seconds left in the second quarter.
Once Temple took the four-point lead, it never looked back and outscored Akron 24-7 the rest of the way.
This sequence came after the Owls’ defense failed to stop Akron on their first three possessions. Akron converted twice on fourth down, and Temple bailed the Zips out with poor tackling and penalties multiple times.
After getting shell shocked by sudden changes in week one, it is especially encouraging to see the defense respond after a rough start to Saturday's game.
Justin Lynch has promise
Lynch was thrown into the fire last week against Rutgers, and he, predictably, struggled to the tune of two turnovers and zero completions.
This week was a different story, as Lynch looked significantly more poised and comfortable in the pocket. Temple clearly simplified the offense a little bit, as they leaned on using a lot of bubble screens and push passes, especially in the first half.
Lynch credited his success to blocking outside noise this week, he said after the game.
“I wouldn’t say pressure,” Lynch said. “I like to just not listen to the outside and everything going on. Just rely, like I said earlier, on my teammates going on back on them because I have trust in them.”
To his credit, Lynch executed well, didn’t turn the ball over and made throws down the field when he needed to. Arguably his best throw of the game came with 9:34 remaining in the third quarter when he floated the ball down the field to Randle Jones for a 27-yard touchdown that put Temple ahead 31-17.
Lynch hooked up with Jones for his first collegiate touchdown pass in the first quarter when Jones came in jet motion before the snap, took the push pass and outran the Zips’ defense 70 yards to the end zone.
Lynch added 34 yards on the ground and scored his first career rushing touchdown late in the third quarter, which put Temple up by 38-17.
If Lynch is forced to start again next week, this performance is a good building block to increase his confidence and increase the coaching staff’s trust in him.
Temple’s playmakers rebounded
Temple’s top two receivers, Jadan Blue and Jones, did not make much of an impact against Rutgers, but things could not have been more different Saturday.
Jones finished the game with seven catches for 170 yards and two touchdowns, while Blue finished with five catches for 22 yards after combining for just two catches last week. The Owls’ offense made it a point to feed Blue and Jones the ball throughout the game.
Jones said Temple knew it could burn the Zips with jet sweeps and touch passes after studying film this week.
“We worked on it all practice, the jet sweeps, because we saw it on film,” Jones said. “It came down to execution, everybody blocking and being ready to ball.”
Besides his two touchdowns, Jones also made an impressive back shoulder catch in the third quarter as he skied into the air for a gain of 17 yards, setting up his 27-yard touchdown a few plays later.
Offensive coordinator Mike Uremovich got much more creative this week and lined up Blue and Jones in the backfield on several occasions and used them on jet motion multiple times. This created some easy throws for Lynch and allowed Jones and Blue to create big plays with the ball in their hands.
Defensive standouts
Temple’s defense ended up having a strong day after a rough start, but two players, Kwenkeu and Jordan, stood out throughout the game.
Jordan finished the game with one tackle, two sacks and the forced fumble that changed the tide of the game. Kwenkeu was all over the field in the first half and finished with seven tackles, two tackles for a loss and one sack on the day.
One of the biggest question marks on Temple’s defense was where they were going to get pressure from, and it looks like Jordan could be the answer. He was consistently winning on the outside rush track with his speed and length and got Irons off his spot multiple times.
One of Jordan’s sacks came in a critical third-down in the red zone, as he brought down Irons and knocked Akron out of field goal range. Then, Jordan tackled Irons a couple of yards past the line scrimmage and forced a turnover on downs that helped maintain Temple’s 31-17 lead.
For Kwenkeu, he proved that his experience and physicality are still an asset to a team with some talented young linebackers nipping on his heels for playing time.
Kwenkeu will have to duplicate this performance if Temple wants to compete against better competition next week in Boston College and when they get to American Athletic Conference play.
What does the win mean moving forward?
Temple needed to win this game, and it did, which is undoubtedly good. With that said, Akron is one of the worst FBS teams in the country, and that makes Temple's much-maligned start to Saturday's game still concerning.
Another area of concern from Saturday has to be penalties. Temple finished the game with seven penalties for 70 yards. Several of those penalties extended drives for Akron when the defense should have gotten off the field.
Falling behind 14-0 and giving away free first downs isn’t going to fly next week against Boston College.
On a positive note, Temple played well on both sides of the ball starting around the middle of the second quarter, which is something the Owls can build on as they prepare to face the Eagles next week. This is a team that needed a confidence boost, and they should get one after Saturday.
If Lynch starts for Mathis again, the coaches should have a little more trust in him, which might lead to more down-the-field passes. The offensive line also played much better Saturday, helping Temple’s three-headed backfield of Edward Saydee, Ra’Von Bonner and Tayvon Ruley run for a combined 139 yards and two touchdowns.
For the defense, it can hang its hat on holding Akron scoreless from the middle of the second quarter until just under three minutes remaining in the game.
It wasn’t the prettiest victory, but it counts the same.
The real test is next week in the team’s home opener.
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