Some progress, some shortcomings in Temple's 16-14 loss to Rutgers
Three weeks into the Stan Drayton era at Temple, the storyline has changed a bit.
On an afternoon when Temple was 18.5-point underdogs and missing seven key players due to injury in its homecoming game against Rutgers at Lincoln Financial Field, its defense held the Scarlet Knights out of the end zone, and the Owls got more promising play from their true freshman quarterback.
Some playmakers are starting to emerge, as is a pass rusher.
It didn’t amount to a win, though.
That Rutgers offense – particularly its offensive line and wildcat specialist/tight end Johnny Langan – did just enough to outlast the Owls late in the fourth quarter and deal them a 16-14 loss that dropped Temple to 1-2 on the season.
This was a Temple team, however, that could barely move the ball two weeks ago in a 30-point shutout loss at Duke. There were only a handful of players on both sides of the ball who looked like they belonged. And it took a win over an FCS program in Lafayette last week to take a step forward in figuring things out at quarterback.
Saturday against Rutgers, there were several more players in Temple uniforms who looked like they belonged against a Big Ten team, and it almost came together in a win.
E.J. Warner got the start at quarterback and completed 19 of his 32 passes for 215 yards and a touchdown, a 47-yard scoring pass to tight end Jordan Smith under some pressure that closed the gap to that 16-14 final margin just 45 seconds into the fourth quarter. He also threw a pass in the direction of Shaquan Loyal in the second quarter that the defensive back batted into the air back to himself and took 43 yards into the end zone for Rutgers’ lone touchdown of the day.
Outside linebacker Layton Jordan tallied six tackles and two sacks, including a big one in the fourth quarter that took Rutgers out of field goal range. He has a team-best 4.5 sacks on the season and helped lead a Temple defense Saturday that held Rutgers to just 212 yards of total offense and just 3.6 yards per play.
Placekicker Jude McAtamney turned out to be the Scarlet Knights’ most valuable player. He converted three field goals of 45, 25 and 38 yards, with the last one making it a two-score game at 16-7 with 14:55 to go.
Drayton said Saturday that he doesn’t want moral victories to be a thing as he rebuilds a program that went 4-15 over the last two seasons.
“But there are a lot of great things that we can learn and build from from this game,” Drayton said, “so we’re going to take that approach and go back to work.”
Fair enough.
Turning point
Give Drayton this much credit. He called an aggressive game Saturday, and he showed a lot of faith in his defense.
The Owls went for it on fourth down six times Saturday and converted half of them. But one missed fourth-down conversion cost Temple and helped decide the game.
Facing a fourth-and-2 from the Owls’ 43-yard line with a little more than four minutes left in the third quarter, Drayton and offensive coordinator Danny Langsdorf elected to go for it instead of punting, but tailback Edward Saydee came up a yard short, and Rutgers got the ball back with a short field ahead.
Nine plays later, McAtamney knocked through the 38-yard field goal that made it a two-score game and provided the two-point cushion the Scarlet Knights needed to squeeze out the win.
“Well, I knew it was gonna be a tight game, and we went into this game as underdogs,” Drayton began in explaining his rationale for going for it on that fourth-down situation. “We use analytics that put us in those situations to be aggressive, and I really have a lot of trust and faith in our defense, especially the momentum that they carried out through most of that game. And I just felt that that was the right thing to do, to give ourselves a chance to win the ball game.”
Yes, things could have changed in terms of time, place and situation had Drayton decided to punt there, and the game could have taken a different course. But giving Rutgers a short field there afforded it the opportunity to eventually get the 38-yard field goal from McAtamney that made it a two-score game.
Warner shows more signs of promise
After replacing D’Wan Mathis last week and going 14 of 19 passing for 173 yards and two touchdowns in Temple’s 30-14 win over Lafayette, Warner was listed atop the depth chart released Monday. Drayton never officially named him the starter, but Warner earned the start Saturday and took another step forward.
Among other traits, he showed for a second straight week that he’s not afraid to stay put in the pocket and deliver the ball.
On the 47-yard touchdown pass to Smith, he didn’t get rattled and got his tight end the ball over the middle of the field. Smith made Avery Young miss and did the rest in getting to the end zone.
Warner and Smith were not made available to reporters Saturday following the game. Only wide receiver Adonicas Sanders and defensive end Darian Varner were.
Count Sanders among those who’s impressed with Warner so far.
“E.J. is a very big leader for our offense,” said Sanders, a Georgia Tech transfer who led Temple with eight catches for 90 yards Saturday. “He prepares very well throughout the week. He’s always in the film room. He spends hours and hours in the film room. He’s got that mindset where he’s a leader on the offense, and he prepares like he’s an NFL-ready quarterback at the age he is. So he’s definitely showing leadership.”
The interception return for a touchdown was more of an athletic play by Loyal than a bad read by Warner, and Sanders tried to take the blame for not coming up with a catch on fourth-and-4 from the Temple 41-yard line that marked the Owls’ last opportunity to complete a comeback win, although it was more so a situation where Warner faced more pressure in the pocket and didn’t get enough time to deliver the throw he wanted.
Still, it would be a surprise if Warner, the son of former NFL quarterback and Hall of Famer Kurt Warner, isn’t under center next Saturday against UMass, and it looks like the Owls have something to build upon there.
It should also be noted that at least for one week, Drayton and Langsdorf found a role for backup quarterback and North Dakota State transfer Quincy Patterson, who didn’t play at all last week when Mathis was removed from the game. He came in on the Owls’ second offensive series and capped a 12-play, 73-yard drive with a 1-yard touchdown run that helped give Temple an early 7-0 lead at the 6:41 mark of the first quarter.
A developing defense
Rutgers is facing its own issues on offense with last year’s starting quarterback Noah Vedral missing his third straight game due to an injury, so Scaret Knights head coach Greg Schiano again went with two quarterbacks in sophomores Evan Simon and Gavin Wimsatt. The two combined to go 10 of 17 passing for just 59 yards, and Temple held running backs Kyle Monangai and Al-Shadee Salaam to just 34 yards on 15 carries.
It was actually tight end and wildcat quarterback Johnny Langan who did the most damage Saturday. He tallied 79 yards on nine carries, and 38 of them came on the final drive when he took all five carries on the last series of the game to wind down the clock and seal the game.
Still, what defensive coordinator D.J. Eliot’s unit did Saturday marked some significant growth. This was a Temple team that lost at Rutgers 61-14 to open the 2021 season, and a defense that allowed Duke quarterback Riley Leonard to complete his first 15 passes in this year’s opener just two weeks ago.
Yes, the Owls have yet to force a turnover in their first three games, and they’re still looking for a solid corner opposite Jalen McMurray.
But again, Saturday was representative of some progress, and Jordan is starting to look the part of a true difference maker.
“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.”
The injury front
Temple was without seven players due to injury Saturday in quarterback D’Wan Mathis, right tackle Adam Klein, safety DaeSean Winston, running backs Darvon Hubbard and Jakari Norwood, tight end David Martin-Robinson and linebacker Tra Thomas. Drayton did not offer anything definitive in terms of when they might return.
With Klein out at right tackle, James Faminu started in his place after starting the year at left guard and then not playing last week. With Hubbard and Norwood out, Edward Saydee got just 27 yards on 16 carries, while Trey Blair contributed 25 yards on six carries. Martin-Robinson hasn’t played yet this year and has been considered day-to-day the whole time, with Drayton not offering too many details on injuries.
Up next
After losing by a combined 97-20 in its first two games against Tulane and Toledo, UMass picked up its first win of the season Saturday against FCS program Stony Brook, 20-3. The Minutemen, who will play Temple at Lincoln Financial Field next Saturday at 2 p.m., got 90 yards and a touchdown from quarterback Gino Campiotti in the win.
Front page photo by Amber Ritson