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Published Sep 1, 2018
Temple upset by Villanova in mistake-filled season opener
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John DiCarlo  •  OwlScoop
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The belief was that this year would be different, that Temple would be more decisive and more impressive in turning aside Villanova in this season’s edition of the Mayor’s Cup instead of escaping with a 3-point win like it did a year ago.

The head coach, Geoff Collins, was heading into his second season with a much better handle on how to run things on North Broad Street. Offensive coordinator Dave Patenaude, also in his second season, would be more confident in his starting quarterback, Frank Nutile, and new defensive coordinator Andrew Thacker, the linebackers coach a year ago, would have the defense humming, even if it had lost three defensive linemen to the NFL.

Instead, after Saturday’s 19-17 season-opening loss to the nation’s 19th-ranked FCS program, the Owls are staring at a whole heck of a lot more questions than answers as they try to put the pieces back together before they can even think of competing for a division or conference championship.

While Villanova did look every bit worthy of its FBS national ranking, Temple also did enough to beat itself Saturday at Lincoln Financial Field before an announced crowd of 32,357 fans. They were outplayed, outcoached and outmaneuvered at the end of the day.

“There are a bunch of guys in there hurting,” Collins said, “upset, obviously. They’ve put in nine months of really hard work. And as a head football coach, I did not get it done today.”

Villanova, which jumped out to a 13-3 lead before Temple scored 14 straight points to gain a 17-13 advantage in the third quarter, scored the game-winning touchdown when its left-handed senior quarterback, Zach Bednarczyk, survived an all-out blitz, rolled to his left and hit 5-foot-7, 155-pound wideout Jarrett McClenton near the Owls’ 10-yard line. McClenton did the rest to finish off a 30-yard touchdown that put the Wildcats ahead by 19-17 with 7 minutes, 17 seconds to go. The point-after attempt was blocked, and Temple still had plenty of time to pull back ahead.

But here’s the thing: that play happened on fourth-and-9. Temple, if it has aspirations of contending with the likes of Houston, Memphis or UCF for an American Athletic Conference championship, is supposed to get the stop there 10 of out 10 times, no matter how good or successful Villanova has been at the FCS level over the years.

Instead, Bednarczyk proved to be the best offensive player on the field Saturday. And when Nutile had a chance to bring Temple back, he threw two interceptions. On the first, just three plays after Villanova’s go-ahead touchdown, Wildcats linebacker Jeff Steeb made a diving pick over the middle of the field. They didn’t convert the turnover to points, but it drained valuable time from the clock.

And then when Temple got the ball back with just 1:18 to go (more on that later), Nutile put too much air under the ball on a throw down the left sideline intended for running back Ryquell Armstead that landed instead in the arms of Villanova defensive back Elijah Trent.

“We were reading the back side of it, and I shouldn’t have made the throw,” Nutile said. “I should have tried to come back side and tried to check it down, but I made a throw, threw the pick and yeah, that’s it.”

In that moment, yes, that was it. But there was so much more.

When Villanova gave Temple a scare last September in the second week of the season, Bednarczyk carved up the Owls over the middle of the field to the tune of 382 yards, but the Wildcats mustered just 20 yards on the ground.

Not this time.

Instead, a Wildcats offensive line that returned four starters essentially pushed around Temple’s front seven to the tune of 151 yards, with 5-9 senior tailback Aaron Forbes getting 111 of them on 16 carries, an average of 6.9 yards per rush. Villanova outgained Temple in total yardage, 405 to 251, tallied 26 first downs to the Owls’ 16, and won the time-of-possession battle, 38:39 to 21:21.

“They did a good job. They were motioning and shifting, which they hadn’t done a lot of in previous years,” Collins said, “motioning and shifting to create two-by-two, three-by-one and having a good plan in the run game. Their offensive line did a really nice job. They had some returners back that we knew were good players, but they were just getting us out-leveraged. And it hurt us when (defensive end) Dana Levine went down as well.”

Collins said he did not have an update on Levine, who left with an injury in the first half and was eventually carted to the locker room.

“I’ll know tomorrow after he sees the trainers and the doctors and all that stuff,” Collins said.

“I give them credit,” said Temple defensive tackle Michael Dobge, who got one of the Owls’ two sacks Saturday. “Their O-line was an experienced O-line. They’re real good up front, and they were able to show some wiggle room for those running backs. They did a good job today.”

And a better job than Temple’s offensive line, whose run blocking left a bit to be desired. Armstead being healthy after battling injuries most of last year was a storyline in preseason camp, but he didn’t have much room to run Saturday, gaining just 31 yards on 14 carries. No other running back got a crack at a carry (Jager Gardner was on the field for at least one play), and wide receiver Isaiah Wright’s lone carry went for a loss of two yards. Rob Ritrovato, who doubles as a tailback and fullback, caught one pass for four yards.

Villanova was 8 of 16 on third down conversions, including 3 of 3 in the first quarter when it jumped out to a 13-3 lead on a 1-yard touchdown pass from Bednarczyk to tight end Ryan Bell and a 17-yard scoring toss to Brandon Chadbourn, the latter of which gave the Wildcats a 10-point cushion with 1:03 left in the opening quarter.

Temple finally got a shot in the arm, but it came on special teams when defensive end Quincy Roche blocked Drew Kresge’s 31-yard field goal attempt and cornerback Kimere Brown returned it 74 yards for a touchdown that helped close the gap to 13-10 with 7:47 left before halftime.

And then when Nutile capped a 12-play, 70-yard third-quarter drive with a 15-yard touchdown pass to Wright near the left corner of the end zone, Temple finally pulled ahead for the first time and enjoyed a 17-13 lead with 5:45 left in the third quarter. And when linebacker Sam Franklin picked off Bednarczyk late in the third quarter, the momentum seemed to be staying in the Owls’ favor. And it looked that way when third-string quarterback Todd Centeio came on at the start of the fourth quarter to complete a 20-yard pass to Ventell Bryant on third-and-2 to keep the ensuing series going.

But that drive flamed out when Aaron Boumerhi sent a 29-yard field goal attempt wide right. Then Bednarczyk capped the next series with his game-winning touchdown pass.

And later in the fourth quarter, just before Temple got its last shot at a comeback, things got murky with the clock and Temple’s time management.

Villanova got the ball at its own 32 with 6:45 to go and eventually got to the Temple 46. On third-and-14, Bednarczyk completed a pass to wideout Jevon Jones for eight yards. He was shoved out of bounds by safety Rodney Williams right around the two-minute mark, but the whole sequence ended with Collins burning the Owls’ second timeout of the half with just 1:27 left to play.

So what happened?

“Chapelle tackled him out of bounds, right at two minutes,” Collins said of linebacker Chapelle Russell, who was also in on the play. “I thought it was under, the clock should have stopped. It was just over (two minutes). They reset the clock, let it run. And then once we were arguing about it, there was 10 seconds left (on the play clock). Then they took the delay of game and were going to reset i(the clock) again to take another 25 seconds off the clock, so we had to use our timeout. Having known that, we would have banged it (called the timeout) right away and still had two minutes left, but that wasn’t the case.”

Villanova punter Nathan Fondarco dropped his kick inside the Temple 10-yard line, and Wright got tripped up at the 8. Nutile threw his costly interception on the next play, and the Owls began to absorb their first loss to an FCS program since a Joe Moorehead-coached Fordham program beat Temple at the Linc in 2013.

So where does Temple go from here?

It’s worth noting that the Owls suffered a similarly-deflating loss to Army, 28-13, in their season opener at the Linc just two years ago before finishing 10-4 and winning a conference title. Phillip Walker, who’s currently hoping to stick with the Indianapolis Colts’ practice squad, struggled mightily that day, completing just 12 of 26 passes and throwing three interceptions.

Nutile was Walker’s backup that season, and he was asked if there was anything he could take from looking back at that experience as he tries to help the team he’s now leading regroup.

“For sure,” said Nutile, who completed 18 of 32 passes Saturday for 185 yards, with his longest completion going to Wright on a 22-yard throw. “P.J. was obviously one of the best quarterbacks to ever play here, so anything I can get from him would be huge. So I’m definitely going to be in contact with him over the next couple of days, try to get a tape out to him to see what he saw and just go from there between him and Coach P (offensive coordinator Dave Patenaude), Coach AD (assistant coach and former Temple quarterback Adam DiMichele) and just any way to fix my game and make me better so I can put us in a better position to win.”

“I know Frank is probably frustrated himself,” Collins said. “I think he did a good job getting the protections set, and there were just some throws that were off, but Frank’s a competitor. He did throw some nice balls, too, out there, and we all know Frankie’s value as a leader, getting us in the right run play, getting us in the right protection. It’s just that we were behind today and just never, never could recover.”

Collins, Nutile and Dogbe were the only coaches and players made available to the media after the game. With tears in his eyes as he walked to the podium to being his postgame press conference, Collins spoke in a somber tone.

“We just had some bad news in the football family,” Collins said, “so obviously I’m upset about the game. If you see me emotional, it’s a little more than that.”

A team spokesperson said after the game that a member of the staff – not a player or a coach – was hospitalized and is seriously ill, and Collins and the team were set to go see that team member shortly after the game, hence the abbreviated postgame media availability.

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