Temple Football (2-2, 0-0 American Athletic Conference) delivered its first shutout since Nov. 2016 in a 28-0 win against the FBS Independent University of Massachusetts (1-3). Although the scoreboard showed a dominant result, Temple’s play on the field was far from perfect.
Temple’s quarterbacks have been under duress all season and it finally showed in the box score on Saturday as the Owls allowed their first sack of the year. True freshman quarterback E.J. Warner, who took the sack, has taken hits in the pocket all season and handled the pressure well. Against UMass though, the pass rush led to some mistakes.
Along with the sack, Warner was hurried on several occasions. The constant pressure led to the freshman throwing two interceptions and only completing 50 percent of his passes. Head coach Stan Drayton mentioned a need for the offensive line to improve its protection of the young quarterback after the 16-14 loss to Rutgers University. One week later, the line delivered an even worse performance.
Concerned about UMass’ several blitz packages, Drayton and offensive line coach Chris Wiesehan shuffled the personnel grouping prior to Saturday’s matchup. Graduate offensive lineman Adam Klein, who started at right tackle before missing last week’s game with an undisclosed injury, started at center on Saturday. Redshirt-freshman James Faminu, a transfer from the University of Houston that has played at offensive guard for the Owls this season, filled in for Klein at right tackle.
“What UMass did a phenomenal job of doing was presenting a lot of multiple defense that included pressure coming from everywhere,” Drayton said. “For us, that centerpiece had to be a great communicator, had to get us in and out of issues today. We had to put a single-digit there.”
As Drayton highlighted in Saturday’s postgame press conference, teams don’t want to shuffle their offensive line unit, which relies on chemistry, around in the middle of a season. Luckily for Temple, as Klein mentioned, Wiesehan is known for cross-training his players to be ready to step in at multiple positions.
The constant pressure kept Temple’s offense stagnant in the first half before Warner connected with redshirt-freshman wide receiver Ian Stewart for an 11-yard touchdown late in the second quarter. At halftime, Drayton decided to get dual-threat redshirt-junior quarterback Quincy Patterson more involved.
In the second half, Patterson became Temple’s most effective rusher, totaling 52 yards and a touchdown on 10 carries for the day.
“When you have the ability to run your quarterback, it equates to numbers in the run game,” Drayton said. “That was exactly what we needed to do to get the ball moving.”
For a team that came into the week ranked last in The American in rushing, it was beneficial for the Owls to continue finding ways to utilize Patterson in the run game on Saturday. Perhaps it’s even better that Warner doesn’t feel like the North Dakota State University transfer is stepping on his toes as the defined running quarterback.
“It’s just been awesome to have [Patterson] there teaching me how to go through college on and off the field,” said Warner, who is Patterson’s roommate. “Having those guys around has been huge and helping me translate to the field really well.”
Defensively, the Owls are continuing to click, forcing their first two turnovers of the season with first career interceptions for sophomore safety Alex Odom and redshirt-junior outside linebacker Layton Jordan. The edge rusher made a one-handed catch that he returned for a 41-yard touchdown in the third quarter.
Although Temple allowed 179 rushing yards, the Owls held UMass to just 80 yards passing en route to a shutout. It is worth noting that Temple hasn’t played a pass-first team since the 30-0 season-opening loss at Duke University, so the numbers may be skewed in Temple’s favor. The Owls will play Blue Devils offensive coordinator Kevin Johns’ former team in the University of Memphis (3-1, 1-0 AAC) next week and feel confident in their abilities.
“Personally, I believe that we will be ready for [Memphis],” Odom said. “Because we got a passing team [on our record] and we got multiple running teams, so we’re probably gonna get a mixture of both from Memphis.”
Temple isn’t at its peak heading into conference play, but the program has its identity as a defensive team trying to find its way on offense. The Owls begin conference play on Saturday, Oct. 1, at Memphis.
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