Owls’ report card doesn’t make the grade

Quarterback
Considering the conditions, redshirt senior Adam DiMichele played a pretty decent game. The first of his two interceptions was not his fault, as the ball deflected off the hands of redshirt senior wide receiver Travis Shelton.

DiMichele also didn’t benefit from all the drops the pass catchers had, specifically Shelton’s drop on a bomb that could have easily resulted in a touchdown toward the end of the third quarter.

Overall, he came to play and showed off his athleticism by escaping a number of sacks.

Grade: B+

Backfield
Redshirt freshman Joe Jones and sophomore Marquise Liverpool combined to rush for 73 yards on 22 carries. Both are more athletic, east-west type runners and didn’t benefit from playing in the wet conditions.

However, this was a game where a team needed to rely heavily on its ground attack. And the Owls showed a weakness here.

Grade: D

Wide Receivers/Tight Ends
When the weather allowed the Owls to pass, this group was as good as it was against Army.
But the drops killed, as did their inability to get open. Senior wide receiver Bruce Francis finished with just one reception for 20 yards, a number that should be better no matter how difficult it is to throw.

Grade: C-

Offensive Line
The Owls’ front five, headlined by redshirt senior center Alex Derenthal, protected DiMichele adequately, giving up just two sacks.

But sophomore left guard Derek Dennis was flagged a few times for holding, and the holes just weren’t consistently there for Jones and Liverpool to run through.

Grade: C

Defensive Line
This was the story of the game.

Connecticut redshirt junior tailback Donald Brown ran all over the Owls’ front four, totaling 220 yards on 36 carries. Senior quarterback Tyler Lorenzen added 77 of his own to compound the domination. The group also added no sacks and just two tackles for losses.

In short, it was really bad.

Grade: F

Linebackers
Junior John Haley had 15 tackles and an interception, junior Alex Joseph had 12 tackles and a forced fumble and sophomore Amara Kamara notched 11 tackles and the Owls’ lone sack.

Sure, the improved numbers were a direct result of the defensive line’s poor play. But results are results, and the linebackers did a decent job limiting UConn’s short passing game and keeping Brown from gaining double-digit yards on every play.

Grade: B-

Secondary
The unit lost senior Evan Cooper, Jr. to an injury early on but still managed to limit Lorenzen to just 86 yards passing.

The weather helped them out, as it put less pressure on pass coverage and more pressure on helping out the front seven. Sophomore free safety Jaiquawn Jarrett led the way with 12 tackles, and redshirt junior strong safety Dominique Harris chipped in with five tackles and a key fumble recovery.

Things were pretty solid here. They can’t be blamed for the 302 rushing yards the Huskies had.

Grade: B

Special Teams
Redshirt junior kicker Jake Brownell hit all three of his field goals, and sophomore Jeff Wathne hit two of his seven punts inside the 20.

But the return game featured nothing special, and they gave up a 31-yard punt return to sophomore defensive back Jasper Howard.

So there was some good and some bad.

Grade: B-

Coaching
It pretty much comes down to whether or not you think the Owls should have gone for it on fourth-and-1 from their own 34 at the end of the fourth quarter.

It was a risk. It didn’t work. But coach Al Golden doesn’t regret it.

Otherwise, the Owls came out in their usual shotgun, multiple wide receiver formations, but had to go to more running formations when the weather took a nasty turn.

That went against their strengths, but at least offensive coordinator Matt Rhule understood what had to be done.

Still, some kind of an adjustment should have been made about Brown.

Grade: C

Todd Orodenker can be reached at todd.orodenker@temple.edu.

Owls’ search for justice ends in a rainy mess

Playing through the torrential rain and swirling winds of Tropical Storm Hanna, the football team came up short in a 12-9 overtime loss to Connecticut Saturday afternoon at Lincoln Financial Field.

UConn redshirt junior tailback Donald Brown rushed for 220 yards on 36 carries, and senior quarterback Tyler Lorenzen added 77 yards off his own. All told, the Owls front line surrendered 302 yards on the ground to the Huskies attack.

It was total domination for the UConn rushing game against the Temple (1-1) defensive line, something coach Al Golden and his team didn’t shy away from admitting after the game.

“Got to give them credit,” Golden said. “Their game plan was to run. Our defense fought, we really did a good job in the red zone again…[But] Connecticut was just better than us today.”

Senior defensive end Terrance Knighton, who finished with three tackles, echoed the thoughts of his coach.

“They just kept pushing, they kept running the ball,” he said. “They stuck to their plan and they got us at the end. They finished better than us.”

But, much like last season, that finish didn’t come without a little controversy.

During redshirt senior quarterback Adam DiMichele’s 16 yard completion to senior wide receiver Travis Shelton on the opening play of overtime, junior wide receiver Dy’Onne Crudup was flagged for a holding penalty.

Because the holding infraction occurred in the midst of a positive gain for the Owls, the 10-yard penalty would instead result in a first-and-four from the UConn 19, due Shelton being tackled at the Huskies 9-yard line.

But, the chain ganged ruled that the next play would begin with the standard first-and-ten, which made things more difficult for the Owls to advance the ball and changed up their playcalling.

Needless to say, Golden wasn’t very pleased with yet another incorrect ruling going against his team.

“If you’re first-and-four, you guys who go to [Atlantic City] know you’re playing with house money,” the Owls’ third-year coach said. “They said it wrong, they ruled it wrong on the field, and they apologized afterwards…How [the refs] can do that, I don’t know. End of story.”

After the penalty, the Cherry and White attack fell short of the end zone, and instead settled for redshirt junior kicker Jake Brownell’s third field goal of the contest.

Once UConn (2-0) got the ball for their overtime possession, it took Brown just three plays to find the goal line and the win for the Huskies.

Yet, despite the officiating mistakes and the weather eliminating the Owls hopes of capitalizing on their downfield attack, Golden’s squad only has themselves to blame.

Turning the ball over twice, getting flagged eight times for 85 yards, dropping passes, miscues in short yardage situations, missing tackles; all of it combined to cost the Owls a chance to start 2-0 for the first time since 1981.

“We didn’t tackle, we dropped big plays,” Golden said. “We had interceptions. We didn’t tackle well. Our punt coverage wasn’t very good, so that’s it. We did enough to lose this game.”

But for Shelton, who dropped a sure touchdown at the end of the third quarter and whose bobble led to an interception, it was all about moving on to the next play.

“Everybody makes mistakes,” he said. “I make drops, [offensive] lineman miss blocks, a quarterback might miss something, you’ve just go to flip the switch and keep it going.”

That kind of mentality can only help the Owls next week, as the open up their Mid-American Conference schedule on the road against Buffalo.

Game Notes
Temple announced a crowd of 17,194, but due to the inclement weather, it looked like less than half of that showed up…Senior cornerback Evan Cooper, Jr. was taken out in a stretcher in the first half, there was no word on his status…With the loss, the Owls advanced to 0-5 all-time in overtime games…A distraught DiMichele declined comment after the game.

Todd Orodenker can be reached at todd.orodenker@temple.edu.

Owls take flight on opening night

That was easy.

No, no, seriously. It was.

Behind three takeaways and a 98-yard kickoff return for a touchdown by sophomore cornerback Jamal Schulters, Temple cruised to a 35-7 win over Army Friday night at Michie Stadium in West Point, N.Y.

Defense and Special Teams lead the way for the Owls, as they collectively notched two scores and set up another. In addition to Schulters’ second-half opening return, freshman defensive end Morkeith Brown scooped up a fumble and returned it 18 yards for a touchdown, and senior cornerback Tommie Williams recovered a muffed punt in the first half to give the Owls an early lead that they would never relinquish.

Though play was sloppy at times, the Owls turned the ball over twice and committed eight penalties, overall coach Al Golden was fairly pleased with how his team played.

“We hung in there,” Golden said. “It was a tough attack, we didn’t know what they were going to do…but I would say that we hung in there together. It’s the first time since I’ve been here that we produced in all three fazes [offense, defense and special teams].”

And it was the second of those fazes that cemented the Owls dominance of this game.

Leading 14-0, Black Knights junior quarterback Carson Williams lost control of the football in the backfield. Brown, playing in his first game as an Owl, picked up the ball and fought off numerous tacklers as he stumbled his way into the endzone.

As a defensive player, specifically a defensive lineman, seeing a loose football with nothing but green in front of you isn’t something that comes around everyday.

So obviously, Brown was thinking about nothing but six points.

”Get in the endzone, get that touchdown,” he said. “Got to get that touchdown, we don’t get them often. So when I saw it, I was like, ‘got to go, got to get in there.’”

While that score put Army in a massive hole, what really put the game out of reach was Schulters’ near length-of-the-field return that opened up the second half.

Waiting to return the ball alongside electrifying senior wide receiver Travis Shelton, Schulters followed two massive blocks and went untouched in the end zone.

It put the Owls up by four possessions, and at that point, there was no looking back.

“I just saw one of my teammates blocking, and I just ran off his [backside],” Schulters said. “The rest is history.”

However, the game started out like so many other Temple games have before: with a turnover. On the Owls second play from scrimmage, DiMichele’s pass was intercepted by Army sophomore field corner Richard King, catching the ball after it deflected off of Shelton’s hands.

But unlike so many of those previous Temple games, there were good things lurking around the corner.

After the Temple’s next possession faltered at their own 40 yard line, senior punter Jeff Wathne kicked the ball away to Army senior wide receiver Carlo Sandiego. With the Owls coverage team bearing down on him, Sandiego decided not to call a fair catch and fumbled the football. Williams pounced on the ball, right on the Black Knights eight yard-line.

Suddenly, Temple was in business.

And three plays later, DiMichele hooked up with senior wide receiver Bruce Francis for a five-yard score.

The play took some time to develop, but with ample time in the pocket, DiMichele was able to wait for Francis to get open and score the first six points of the game.

“[Francis] kind of got behind the defender,” DiMichele said. “I wasn’t sure, I was hoping that a guy [from] the backside wasn’t going to come and clean clock me. But I just floated it up there, and he did a good job running underneath it.”

It was the first time since 2002 that the Owls won their opening game, when they beat Richmond at Franklin Field.

But for Golden, well, he’s certainly not paying attention to things like that.

“I don’t know,” Golden said. “You’re talking to a guy who didn’t even know we were on a two year losing streak two years ago when we beat Bowling Green. Something like that doesn’t even enter our locker room.”

The Owls return to action on Sept. 6 for a rematch against Connecticut. It will be the home opener for the Cherry and White, with kickoff set for noon at Lincoln Financial Field.

Game Notes

DiMichele, Schulters, and junior defensive back Dominique Harris were the captains for the game…Francis extended his consecutive games with a reception streak with 27…There was a fairly sizeable Temple cheering section, including a handful of students…Temple University President Ann Weaver Hart, the cheerleaders, and even school mascot Hooter, were in attendance.