Two short: Owls fall in season opener at Navy

If conventional wisdom were a thing in 2020, it might have suggested that Temple could be at an advantage heading into its season opener Saturday night at Navy.

The Midshipmen were limping home fresh off a 33-point loss at Air Force the week before. They owned the nation’s worst rushing defense, had started three different quarterbacks in three games, and they had no 2020 game film on a Temple team that had waited seven weeks to play its first game.

Instead, conventional wisdom stuck to its pre-2020 roots.

Navy did what it normally does well – run the ball and control the clock – and instead looked like a tested team that had already played three games and wasn’t shaking off rust and making costly errors. The result was a disappointing 31-29 loss for the Owls in Annapolis that left them lamenting their mistakes and coaching decisions.

Because despite falling behind by as many as 11 points on two occasions and surrendering 120 rushing yards and two scoring runs of 26 and 22 yards up the gut to Navy fullback Nelson Smith, Temple had its chances to win the game, or at least send it to overtime.

After Navy (2-2) went ahead by eight at 31-23 courtesy of a career-long, 50-yard field goal by Bijan Nichols with 4 minutes, 56 seconds left, Temple quarterback Anthony Russo and the Owls‘ offense went right to work with a 10-play, 74-yard drive that culminated with a 1-yard touchdown run by sophomore running back Re’Mahn Davis with 1:02 to go.

Temple, of course, needed the 2-point conversion to tie the game, and Owls head coach Rod Carey used the team’s final timeout to discuss what they would do next.

Russo, out of the shotgun, threw to his right to Davis, but he was well covered by Navy’s Terrell Adams. The sophomore linebacker swatted the ball away with his right hand at the 3-yard line, and Temple’s last hope was an onside kick attempt.

Will Mobley looked to his right, then kicked to his left to the weak side instead in an attempt to catch Navy off guard, but wide receiver Ryan Mitchell corralled the football and officially ended the Owls’ comeback hopes.

Carey took responsibility on the 2-point conversion play call, telling reporters that he overruled what offensive coordinator Mike Uremovich had dialed up.

“We should have gone with his in retrospect,” Carey admitted. “I thought mine was a good one. They covered it, so he didn’t really have any place to go with the ball. So it was a bad call. It wasn’t Anthony. It was my fault.”

Russo, who ran for two touchdowns and threw for a third, wouldn’t let his head coach take the blame, however.

“That play was more of a zone play,” Russo explained. “We’re hoping to have a 2-on-1 with that WILL (weakside) linebacker. They ended up playing us cover zero man, which isn’t ideal for that. But for me, I’ve got to have the football IQ, too. Even if Ray caught the ball there, he’s getting tackled at the 2(-yard line), and that’s a must throw into the end zone.

The coaches are going to say it’s their fault with the play call. But at the end of the day, I’ve got to be a football player and a smart football player at that and make sure that no matter what, I’ve got to fight and scratch and claw and either run that thing in myself or give somebody a chance to make a play in the end zone so we get those two points.”

Russo, now a graduate student who was originally recruited by Matt Rhule, is finally getting the chance as a starter to play for the same offensive coordinator in consecutive seasons. His performance Saturday night was similar to some of his others in the past.

He made some great throws. He made some throws he’d like to have back. And he talked, just as he has on several occasions in the past, about how relying too much on his arm talent can get him into trouble.

With the Owls trailing 7-0 midway through the first quarter following Navy’s 17-play, 75-yard scoring drive that chewed 9:38 off the game clock, Russo looked sharp early. Instead of running more against a Midshipmen team that had yet to stop anyone on the ground, Carey and Uremovich called for Russo to throw early and often, and he initially made them look good for doing so. He completed 6 of his first 7 throws for 72 yards, and Temple had a second-and-goal at the Navy 8-yard line with a chance to tie the game early.

But Russo, who finished 21 of 30 passing for 206 yards, misfired on consecutive throws to Branden Mack and Jadan Blue in the end zone, and the Owls had to settle instead for a 25-yard field goal from Mobley. Those could be filed under the ones he’d like to have back.

The costly one was an interception he threw into the arms of Midshipmen linebacker John Marshall at the Navy 5-yard line with less than a minute to go in the second quarter and Temple trailing by 21-10. Russo was looking to muscle a throw to Blue in the end zone, but the ball never had a chance to get there.

Instead of Temple having a chance to cut the deficit to either four points with a touchdown or eight with a field goal before getting the ball back again on the opening kickoff of the second half, Russo’s interception cost the Owls valuable points and momentum.

“It was just a simple four verticals play,” Russo said of the interception. “I thought I had Blue and I lost track of No. 1 (Marshall). Being a third-year starting quarterback, I’ve got to know that a seam like that and a throw like that down in the red zone, if it’s not wide open and I can’t guarantee it’s a completion … We had our tight end (David Martin-Robinson) coming on a little drag route. With all those guys dropping (into coverage), I can’t get greedy and try to fit one into a tight window when I can just dump it off, get a 5-, 6-yard gain on a little shallow route, and go to the next play. That one’s going to be tough to watch on the film tomorrow because I knew right away after I threw it that it was a bad throw, bad decision. But I can promise you I won’t make that same mistake twice this year.”

To be fair, Saturday’s loss wasn’t all on Russo’s shoulders, and he shouldn’t be the only one who will find it tough to watch film Sunday.

Middle linebacker Will Kwenkeu, who decided to redshirt last season, just earned his No. 4 single digit this past week, but he got outmuscled in run defense through much of the first three quarters, as did defensive tackle Dan Archibong. It’s not uncommon for Navy to put up high rushing totals through its triple-option attack, but the Midshipmen ran their fullback dive plays with what seemed like relative ease at times. Smith was barely touched on his 26-yard touchdown run that helped give Navy its 21-10 lead.

Kwenkeu and Archibong did combine for 17 tackles but did little to stop Navy’s ground attack up the middle.

“They were struggling,” Carey said, “and we’ve got to get them better. We’ve got to help them, and we will. And they’re good players, don’t get me wrong. This was a technique and fundamental thing that we’ve got to get handled, and our pads were just too high. And sometimes that happens in the first game of the year. But when you play an option team the first game of the year and your pads are high, that’s a bad recipe and it certainly was tonight.”

Navy’s 4.2 yards-per-carry average Saturday night wasn’t anything Temple should not have been able to overcome, but the Midshipmen did convert on 8 of 14 third-down opportunities, and they hit on all four of their fourth-down conversions.

Defensive coordinator Jeff Knowles’ unit also looked fooled when Navy found success on a pair of screen passes from quarterback Dalen Morris, which amounted to his only pass attempts and completions on the night. One came on a 36-yard toss on third-and-14 from the Temple 38 in the second quarter on a play in which Morris dropped the ball to slot back CJ Williams. Four plays later, Chance Warren’s 2-yard touchdown run helped lift the Midshipmen to a 14-3 lead.

And on Navy’s next drive, Morris found Mychal Cooper on a 12-yard screen pass on fourth down to keep that series alive. Two plays later, Smith scored on his first touchdown run.

“We prepared super well all week,” said linebacker Isaiah Graham-Mobley, who was making his return to the field after recovering from a season-ending ankle injury he sustained last November. “We tried to get an edge on them. We haven’t seen them run screens this year, so it was something that was quite new to us.”

A lot of this, of course, is quite new to Temple. All of the practicing and scheduling complications brought on by the Coronavirus pandemic wiped out the Owls’ first four nonconference games against Miami, Idaho, Rutgers and UMass, and this game at Navy was originally supposed to be played back on Sept. 26 before both teams agreed to push it back to the open date of Oct. 10 they had on their schedules.

A Temple team that couldn’t really practice at full capacity until a few weeks ago due to Philadelphia public health guidelines still had plenty of time to prepare for Saturday. At times, they looked sharp and ready. On other occasions, their defense most certainly looked like one that was replacing nine starters, including four now playing on NFL rosters.

Nothing’s broke, Carey said. A couple of things are bent. And the COVID-19 pandemic has made this anything but a typical college football season.

But Carey doesn’t want to get lost in that as the reason for what happened Saturday night.

“I will not use it as an excuse,” Carey said. “Are we were we should have been if COVID hadn’t hit? No. But nobody is.”

Extra points: Branden Mack led Temple with seven catches for 80 yards, and his 7-yard touchdown reception in the third quarter got the Owls within four at 21-17. A former quarterback at Cheltenham High School, Mack also threw a 35-yard trick-play pass to tight end David Martin-Robinson, who caught 5 passes for 72 yards. ... Re'Mahn Davis finished with 97 yards and a touchdown on 23 carries and surpassed the 1,000-yard rushing mark for his career Saturday night.