Temple Football Falls to ECU in AAC Showdown: Owls’ Offensive Struggles Continue in Week 10 Loss

PHILADELPHIA – Coming off the field after a 45-14 loss to East Carolina, the message to Temple Head Coach KC Keeler’s from his wife, Janice, was simple: “That was a long day at the office.”

But, it didn’t start that way on Saturday afternoon at Lincoln Financial Field. ECU opened up a drive that lasted just 1:52 and a 75-yard, six-play sequence capped off by a seven-yard touchdown pass from Pirates’ quarterback Katin Houser to receiver Yannick Smith.

Back-to-back interceptions from ECU, then Temple handed the Pirates the ball back again in the first, where they extended their lead to 14-0 on an Anthony Smith 45-yard touchdown run, the first rushing attempt in the redshirt senior’s career.

Down 14-0 just 5:22 into the game, it started to seem that ECU could run away with a conference win on the road.

Then, Temple stormed back. ECU’s TJ Engleman Jr. fumbled on a run through the middle on the Pirates’ own 27-yard line. Temple got a hold of the loose ball, and was able to work the ball through the redzone, and punch in a four-yard touchdown from running back Jay Ducker.

Just 3:29 into the second quarter, Temple found themselves evening what had previously seemed like an ECU lead getting out of hand. It came from 29 yards out, as the Owls handed the ball off to Keveun Mason who took it to the house.

“He’s gotten some opportunities,” said Keeler. “We think he has a really bright future, we really do. With (Hunter Smith) and (Jay Ducker), three backs who can play. He’s learning all the blitz pickups and those kind of things. But yeah, we’ll keep increasing his package, there’s no question.”

Unfortunately for Temple, that would be the last scoring drive from their offense. By halftime, ECU had scored two more touchdowns to go up 28-14. The Pirates poured on two more touchdowns and a field goal in the second quarter, and by the 12:06 mark in the fourth quarter, a 14-14 tie score was ancient history from two quarters ago.

“It’s written all over the film,” said quarterback Evan Simon. “It’s a little bit of what ECU did today, but it’s a lot more so of what we did.”

The Pirates tallied 358 yards rushing, and 614 total yards of offense in the win.

“They totally out-physical’d us,” said Keeler. “Everywhere, though. Offense, defense and special teams. They totally out-physical’d us. And that’s disappointing, but at the same time, that’s a good football team.”

“We got to stop the run,” said linebacker Allan Haye Jr. “We can’t be able to stop the run if we can’t stop first and second down. We can’t let guys get four or five yards on first down. We got to make sure the offense stays off schedule so we can be able to stop the run and get our pass rushes out there on third down.”

Temple needs to win just one more game to become bowl eligible this season, with Army, Tulane and North Texas left on the schedule.

“For a lot of us, our clock is ticking on our college football career,” said Simon. “I can either sit on this for 48 or 72 hours, or I can move on, study my butt off and look at Army, and put these seniors in the best possible position so they can dance after winning the seventh game.”

“We have Army next week, we got to bounce back,” said Keeler. “We are a little beaten up right now, but it’s college football. Big opportunity up there at West Point, and we got to get the guys ready to go.”