After witnessing Navy dominate offensively, save three fumbles, for the better part of 58 minutes, the Owls had one chance to make a play as time turned premium.
Sophomore P.J. Walker resumed possession on Temple’s 26-yard line with a little more than two minutes left to play and zero timeouts. Navy had just missed a field goal, handing Temple a last lifeline.
Walker moved the team down with a collection of short passes and three fourth-down conversions.
After Walker scrambled to Navy’s 24-yard line with less than 10 seconds to go, he received the snap for what would be the last play of the game, scanned the field and began to scramble. He decided to try and run the ball in instead of throwing the ball into the end zone.
Walker was quickly surrounded by Midshipmen defenders and was forced to pitch it around the line of scrimmage, before the Owls’ late desperation lateral attempts to put to a quick halt as time expired on the Owls’ 31-24 loss in the home opener at Lincoln Financial Field Saturday.
“I should have thrown it to the back of the end zone or just checked it down … it was my mistake on a bad throw,” Walker said.
After dominating every statistical category last week, the Owls were dominated in every category this week.
Navy racked up 517 yards of total offense – 487 of which came on the ground – and totaled nearly eight yards per play.
“We did not play good defense at all today and we know that and we were out physicaled … that’s disappointing for us,” coach Matt Rhule said.
Despite struggling for most of the contest, the defense made a play early.
Lined up inside Navy’s 10-yard line, sophomore linebacker Sharif Finch forced first of Navy’s three fumbles and recovered it in the end zone for the game’s first score.
But, Navy’s triple-option attack soon plowed through Temple’s defense. The Owls allowed the Midshipmen to have a 60 percent success rate on third down and were on the field for nearly 40 minutes.
“Our defense was a victim of time of possession,” Rhule said. “We couldn’t stop them … we have to work together.”
Not long after the Finch-induced fumble, one of two he’d recover on the day, Navy drove the ball down the field and kicked a 29-yard field goal to pull within a 7-3 score. After an Owls punt on the ensuing possession, junior quarterback Keenan Reynolds dashed 48-yards for a touchdown.
The Owls then moved the ball down the field, into Midshipmen territory. Sophomore quarterback P.J Walker was faced with a 1st-and-10 after converting on third down the play before. Walker dropped back, scanned the field and threw into double coverage before Navy senior Parrish Gaines leaped into the air and intercepted the ball in his own end zone.
“I should have thrown it to the back of the end zone or just checked it down … it was my mistake on a bad throw,” Walker said.
Reynolds and the Midshipmen set the tone early and continued to run wild through the remainder of the contest. They finished with 240 yards rushing in the first half, while Reynolds alone amassed 158 rushing yards in the period, 56 more than the Owls had as an entire team through 30 minutes.
“That goes on me,” Rhule said. “It’s my job to make sure that we are executing. It’s my job to make sure we are the tougher team.”
With just under two minutes to go, Walker and the Owls methodically drove down the field and scored on a leaping grab from sophomore tight end Romond Deloatch in the back of the end zone.
The play was originally called incomplete on the field, but the officials reviewed the play and determined that Deloatch had one foot in bounds.
Yet, defense remained the story of the game for the Owls.
“They were the tougher team today, the better football team today, they out-executed us,” Rhule said. “We did a lot of things that are uncharacteristic of us. It just was not the way we wanted to play.”
Michael Guise can be reached at michaelguise@temple.edu or on twitter @MikeG2511.
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