Two days after his team lost at Navy and fell to 0-2 on the season, Temple head coach Stan Drayton met with reporters for his weekly Monday press conference.

After the Owls lost their season opener at then-No. 16 Oklahoma, Drayton was lamenting his team’s six turnovers. Monday, it was about the eight offensive penalties and three turnovers that played a large role in Temple’s 38-11 loss to Navy.

Now, as the Owls turn to Saturday’s home opener against a 2-0 Coastal Carolina team, Drayton said there are still things his team can “control and fix.”

Whether that happens or not remains to be seen.

You can listen to Drayton’s Monday press conference here.

The QB is day-to-day

Temple quarterback Forrest Brock took a hit to the helmet late in Saturday’s loss. After the game, Brock said he was OK.

Asked about Brock on Monday, Drayton said the redshirt junior is “day to day.”

“We took care of him today,” Drayton said, “but from a mindset standpoint, he's ready to go. But we're just going to be smart. He'll be all right.”

Later on in Monday’s media session, Drayton was asked if Brock would be considered a game-time decision at this point. Would Brock be the player to start at quarterback if he’s cleared and feeling OK?

“Yep,” Drayton said. “That’s it.”

Brock went 30 of 46 passing for 277 yards, a touchdown and two interceptions Saturday. As was the case at Oklahoma, he got little help from his running game, and the Owls found themselves throwing more once they fell behind, staring at a 23-3 halftime deficit.

Groun(ed) game

Temple had just 42 rushing yards on 19 carries in Saturday’s loss, with Brock posting the best yards-per-carry average of 3.2 yards per attempt. Maryland transfer Antwain Littleton mustered just 22 yards on nine carries, and E.J. Wilson had four yards on two carries.

While the season is just two weeks old, Temple once again finds itself among the worst teams in the nation when it comes to running the football. The Owls have tallied just 52 rushing yards per game so far, and that puts them at 130th nationally out of 133 teams. Only Houston, Miami of Ohio and Colorado have been worse.

Asked about what’s ailing the running game, Drayton said the issues that grounded Temple Saturday at Navy were different than what Oklahoma presented.

“Navy is a pressure front that does not stand still,” Drayton said. “We have to do things to set up the run in situations like that. So they brought pressure and movement. They did a great job of doing it. They established the line of scrimmage, and we had a tough time of dealing with self-inflicting penalties to get it going. So when you are playing behind the scoreboard, playing behind schedule, it forces you to get into a totally different mindset than you initially prepared for as you go into a game offensively with your game plan. That's, that's pretty much what it is.

“We were playing uphill pretty much all day, and obviously got to get better with some of our perimeter game and blocking guys in space and things of that sort to help create some of those explosives in the run game. But again, it's the penalties that have been in the way of our momentum that we're trying to create and rhythm that we're trying to create on offense.”

Getting lined up

Unlike last season when Temple was starting multiple lineups along the offensive line due to injuries and a lack of talent and quality depth, the Owls have started the same five players on the line, and those five players – redshirt freshman left tackle Kevin Terry, graduate left guard James Faminu, redshirt sophomore center Grayson Mains, graduate right guard Wisdom Quarshie and redshirt freshman right tackle Melvin Siani – have also played every snap of the first two games.

But the continuity hasn’t resulted in better production, and the offensive line accounted for five of Saturday’s penalties. Quarshie drew a personal foul flag that pushed the Owls even closer to the end zone Saturday two plays before Brock took a safety that got Navy on the board. Faminu was whistled for a false start and holding, and Terry and Siani were each whistled for holding.

“You're not even getting the series started right,” Drayton said. “And then, the personal foul was just not a very smart play by a veteran on our football team.”