Through the first seven games of the season, Temple’s defense had been the team’s bright spot. But on Saturday against East Carolina, a team that fired head coach Mike Houston a week prior, the Owls’ defense had by far its worst showing of the season.
After forcing just a single turnover in the first five games, Temple (2-6, 1-3 American Athletic Conference) wreaked havoc with five turnovers in the next two games. The unit created two takeaways during the game against ECU (4-4, 2-2 AAC), but it was its collapse in the second half that made headlines instead.
Temple’s offense scored 34 points on Saturday — which should be enough to win a football game. But the defense’s underwhelming performance stunted its chance to win back-to-back games for the first time since Stan Drayton was hired as head coach.
“We had just things that were just not characteristics of our defense,” Drayton said. “A lot of guys missing gaps, eyes in the wrong place. We just did not execute on defense that well at all today.”
ECU ran circles around a Temple defense that gave up an abysmal 500 yards. Pirates’ quarterback Katin Houser diced the Owls up for 269 yards and a career-high five touchdown passes, beating up a stout Temple secondary.
The result was a 56-34 blowout in Greenville, North Carolina on Saturday. The 56 points are the most points the Owls have given up all season and just a week after Drayton and linebacker Tyquan King said they were better than their record showed, they proved the exact opposite.
“I think we’ve learned some lessons from those games and win or loss that’s what you need to do,” Drayton said. “You got to be able to flush it and get to the next play, the next game. That’s our mindset.”
The defense reverted to its old form where it was gashed by opposing offenses in the early parts of the season. There were constant mistakes even while holding the ECU offense for the first half. A blown coverage left wide receiver Anthony Smith wide-open for the first touchdown of the game and it only got worse from there.
ECU had four plays of 40 yards or more, and Temple had no answers for the entire second half. Two of the big plays resulted in touchdowns for ECU and an eight point Temple lead turned into a 28 point deficit in the blink of an eye.
The secondary that had been highly anticipated all offseason had the doors blown off of them. Safety Andreas Keaton was beaten numerous times resulting in big plays, while cornerbacks Torey Richardson and Jaylen Lewis were unable to stop the duo of Smith and Chase Sowell.
“I didn’t feel any quit in this football team,” Drayton said. “I did feel some bad execution. This team does not have [quit] in them and that’s why I love them. We’re going to go back to work this week and try to figure some things out.”
Last week in Temple’s win against Tulsa, the Owls’ secondary was called for numerous penalties, most notably against Richardson, who was called for back-to-back pass interference penalties on a drive where the Golden Hurricane scored a touchdown.
The same happened to Richardson again on Saturday, he was targeted most of the afternoon because cornerback Ben Osueke was inactive with an undisclosed injury. Keaton’s pass coverage also didn’t help and it left his zone wide open all day, giving the Pirates an advantage.
Temple has had impressive defensive outings this season, but the progress seemingly vanished against ECU. The Owls held UConn, a top-ranked rushing team, to just 99 yards on the ground on Oct. 5 and was on the doorstep of a victory. Against Tulsa, they allowed just 10 points all game and were even able to fend them off when the Golden Hurricane attempted to mount a second-half comeback.
The game against ECU felt like a step backward. After holding its own against decent competition, the unit fell apart. Now Temple looks to get back on track during a bye-week before taking on Tulane on Nov. 9. The uphill battle against the Green Wave eliminates the Owls from making a bowl game for the fifth straight season.
“We’re going to continue to reassess,” Drayton said. “Really try to evaluate what went wrong today. What was it from a mindset standpoint, or whatever it was because this team put together two really good weeks of practice. I was not expecting to see this lack of execution out here today.”
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