There's that classic cliche about football games being won and lost in the trenches.
And in Temple's case when it came to the Owls' much-anticipated season opener Saturday night at Navy, its head coach believed the game was lost at the pad level.
Rod Carey did not believe his team’s effort was good enough defensively in Temple’s 31-29 loss to Navy, and that’s putting it lightly.
For a defense whose strength is rooted in its interior with defensive tackles like Ifeanyi Maijeh and Dan Archibong, the Owls couldn’t stop the run. Carey maintained that the team’s issue has nothing to do with Xs and Os or personnel. It was truly a fundamental thing.
Archibong and Maijeh were consistently getting blown off the ball, while linebackers Will Kwenkeu and Isaiah Graham-Mobley were either getting outmuscled or not finishing tackles when attempting to contain the run.
Everything that could go wrong went wrong for an Owls defense that came in with just three returning starters in Archibong, Maijeh and cornerback Christain Braswell.
“They were struggling and we got to get them better, we have to help them and we will,” Carey said of Archibong and Kwenkeu following Saturday’s game. “They’re good players, don’t get me wrong. This was a technique and fundamental thing that we have to get handled, and our pads were just too high. Sometimes that happens in the first game of the year.
"But when you play an option team first game of the year and your pads are high, that’s a bad recipe, and it certainly was tonight.”
Inexperience and lack of continuity were always going to be a factor in the team’s first game, especially with linebackers like Shaun Bradley (Philadelphia Eagles), Chapelle Russell (Tampa Bay Buccaneers) and Sam Franklin (Carolina Panthers) moving on to the NFL.
But the way Navy ran the ball with will up the gut of the defense doesn’t particularly reflect well on defensive coordinator’s Jeff Knowles’ unit.
Over the last 19 years, Navy has consistently been one of the top rushing teams in the country, never finishing lower than sixth. Last season, Navy led the nation in rushing with its school-record 360.5 rushing yards per game. Through three games in 2020, the Midshipmen were ranked 50th in rushing offense, averaging 137.7 yards per game.
On Saturday, they nearly doubled their season average.
Navy rushed the ball 60 times for 251 yards, averaging 4.2 yards per carry. Navy senior fullback Nelson Smith gashed the Owls as he has in the past, taking 20 carries for 120 yards and two scores, averaging six yards per carry.
His 22-yard touchdown run with just over a minute remaining in the third quarter was an egregious example of the Owls allowing a free lane of traffic up the middle all evening. Smith went untouched to the end zone, while Kwenkeu, who just earned a single-digit No. 4 this week, was blocked off his feet.
The players who remain from the 2018 team may remember just how much damage Smith can do when he gets going. In Temple’s 24-17 win over Navy back in October of 2018, Smith had 18 carries for 108 yards and a touchdown. He made them pay then and he made them pay Saturday.
Combined with Temple’s struggles with stopping the run was the defense’s inability to get off the field. The Mids converted 8 of 14 third downs, as well as going 4 of 4 on fourth downs. Temple had opportunities to shorten drives and give itself a breather, but only one drive ended with a three-and-out as Navy punted just once.
“It’s hard, the two fourth downs, they hit us with two screens early on and they were big plays for them,” Carey said when asked how demoralizing the lack of stops was. “Certainly, it takes the wind out of your sail.”
Navy sophomore quarterback Dalen Morris went 2-of-2 passing for 48 yards, with both completions coming on screen passes. One was a 36-yard gain to senior slotback C.J. Williams on a third-and-14. That prolonged drive led to junior slotback Chance Warren punching in a one-yard touchdown to give Navy an early 14-3 lead.
Graham-Mobley said the Owls had not seen Navy execute screens on film this season, so it was something that was “quite new” to the defense. Once they saw the play develop, they had to execute, but it was too little, too late.
Late in the fourth quarter, Graham-Mobley and Archibong teamed up for a sack to force fourth-and-20, but the Mids were still able to put points on the board. Navy’s sophomore kicker Bijan Nichols hit a career-best 50-yard field goal to make it an eight-point game, and his kick wound up being the difference.
All in all, the Owls looked like a team that was just playing their first game of the season. As Carey said, the team’s problems are fixable. However, the team’s suspect run defense was put on alert.
While the Owls are aware they’re at a disadvantage in terms of games played, they’re not using that as a viable excuse. They should have their work cut out for them from here on out.
“It was definitely super later, we were supposed to start September 5th, so we’re a month and five days late,” Graham-Mobley said. “I don’t think it should’ve (affected the team.) We were ready and we executed a game plan that we thought was going to beat them. Playing football is like riding a bicycle. Once you get through the first couple of quarters or plays, you keep rolling. We play football at a collegiate level, so there’s no excuse for our loss today.”
The Owls will look to get back on the bike in their home opener when they host USF at Lincoln Financial Field with a noon kickoff.