Temple’s bowl game hopes are officially gone following a 52-6 throttling against Tulane (8-2, 6-0 American Athletic Conference) on Nov. 9 in New Orleans — the latest in a string of underwhelming losses.
Leading up to the week, linebacker D.J. Woodbury Sr. was asked about his team’s slim chances at making their first bowl since 2019. His answer was short, sweet and direct.
“That’s on my mind,” Woodbury said. “We need all four of these games. We all think that’s on our minds.”
Woodbury’s side of the ball was a major reason why Temple (2-7, 1-4 AAC) was on the receiving end of an equally uninspiring 56-34 blowout loss to East Carolina the week prior. The Owls’ defense has now had its two worst games of the season in consecutive weeks, taking a major step back after being the strongest part of the team for most of the season.
The Owls came in as an overwhelming underdog and never even looked like a threat to the Green Wave. The only silver lining was a 75-yard rushing touchdown by running back Terrez Worthy when the game was already out of reach.
Now, the Owls are again playing meaningless games in December for a fifth straight year with three games remaining. Temple has looked like a better team than it was in the last two seasons, but inconsistent play proved to be its downfall yet again.
“It’s a matter of the offense not being able to sustain drives,” said head coach Stan Drayton. “It was our punter putting against the wind, our defense playing short field and [Tulane] being really good on offense.”
The Owls gave fans room for optimism at the halfway mark of the season. They lost to three nationally-ranked teams in the early part of the season but appeared to find their footing shortly after. They had a potential game-tying drive against Coastal Carolina on Sept. 14 and then poured on 45 points in its first win of the season against Utah State on Sept. 21.
But the team’s early season struggles came back against Tulane, with Temple looking completely outmatched. Simon couldn’t get the offensive engine revving with just 56 passing yards and the rest of the team didn’t do any better. The Owls punted on their first 11 drives while Tulane scored at will.
Temple had just 79 total yards heading into the final quarter of play and Worthy’s run nearly matched it to give a boost to the box score. Temple only had 27 yards on the ground without Worthy’s score and the offensive performance was a far cry from its game against the Pirates. The Owls put up 34 points in its last outing but went stagnant after scoring 21 points in the first half.
“They played better than us,” Drayton said. “It’s one thing when you’re playing against a team that is bigger than you, stronger than you, but they played better. They executed better than we did as well.”
Temple’s defense didn’t fare much better — a recent trend for the past two and a half games. The defense looked to be holding the team together for much of the season. The unit kept Temple within reach to make comeback efforts against Coastal Carolina and Utah State and was nearly perfect against UConn on Oct. 5.
The Owls forced seven takeaways in a three-game span earlier this season but those turnovers have vanished in recent weeks and Saturday put it on full display. Temple gave up 56 points against ECU and 52 against Tulane and never stood a chance against a Green Wave offense ranked fourth in the country in scoring.
The Owls looked lost for much of the afternoon and Tulane took full advantage of it. The Green Wave scored on eight of their 13 drives and racked up 589 yards from scrimmage to blow Temple out of the water.
“We play really well at times on defense and at times our offense kind of struggled,” Drayton said. “In this last game our offense kind of showed up. The last couple games, they showed up in spots and our defense has had a rough go.”
Running back Makhi Hughes gashed an Owls’ rush defense that ranked second to last in the AAC with 153 yards and two scores. Tulane had 327 rushing yards and Temple has gone on a downward spiral after its defense was a bright spot for most of the season. Temple’s secondary gave up 269 yards passing last week and couldn’t bounce back.
“You get toward the back of the season in November, there’s teams that have things to play for and there’s teams that don’t have as much to play,” Drayton said. “The true character of your football team is going to be exposed in November.”
Temple is now playing for pride the rest of the season and will look to pick up a win against Florida Atlantic (2-7, 0-5 AAC) on Nov. 16 at 2 p.m.
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