Is a Temple a benchmark for Penn State football?
Maybe, at least for now.
After all, the Nittany Lions have played the Owls twice over the past five games – a 30-13 win at Beaver Stadium on Nov. 15, 2014, and Saturday’s 27-10 loss at The Linc.
That’s a massive margin of victory swing of 34 points.
Penn State’s in-between: A 16-14 loss to Illinois, a 34-10 loss to Michigan State and a 31-30 victory over Boston College in the Pinstripe Bowl. The way it looks now, BC was the outlier.
So, in 42 weeks, did Temple get that much better? Or did Penn State get that much worse?
By this point, you’ve gotten enough about Penn State missteps backwards. I thought so, too. That’s why I wandered into the Temple interview room after Saturday’s game, to figured out what happened from their POV.
OU(WL)CH
The bottom-line: Temple got better. And not that they were bad to begin with. They went 6-6 in 2014, yielding just 17.5 points per game – fourth-fewest in the FBS. And after falling to Penn State last November, they hung tough. The Owls lost 14-6 to a 9-4 Cincinnati, then finished last season with a 10-3 win at Tulane.
Midway through the third quarter of their 2014 game, Penn State and Temple were tied 6-6, and Temple was still within a TD, 20-13, at the start of the fourth quarter. Then the wheels came off. Penn State cornerback Grant Haley made a pick six on Temple quarterback P.J. Walker and Jesse Della Valle added the Lions’ fourth interception of the day against Walker, giving Penn State a runaway win in word, but not in deed.
“The difference this time,” said Temple defensive end Sharif Finch on Saturday, “wasn’t with them. It was with us and how we played.
“It was a little different atmosphere and that impacts how you play under adversity. We got bigger and stronger in the offseason, and we’re better players. We all worked so hard over the offseason. We just had the mentality. We lost to them by a lot of points last year; this year was totally different. The work we put in made the difference.”
Temple swore it wouldn’t crumble again.
Walker imploded last season, throwing four interceptions in the game’s final 17 minutes. On Saturday, he was 15 of 20 for 143, with no interceptions and a 25-yard reception of his own on a trick play. Finch noticed: “P.J. has had his ups and down, but today he never broke. Never broke under pressure.”
Walker kept his poise and kept Temple in the game. “We kept playing today,” Walker said. “We didn’t look ahead to the outcome. We have a mentality from Coach (Matt Rhule) of, ‘What’s next? What’s next?’
“Whatever happens and we’re on the sideline, we’re good with it, we’re good. If offense can’t make plays, it really doesn’t matter. We keep playing.”
That was the case on Saturday. Penn State jumped out to a 10-0 lead, scoring on its first two possessions – which happened just once for the Nittany Lions in 2014, when Sam Ficken made a pair of field goals to open the Michigan game. Temple was playing without defensive end Praise Martin-Oguike, who’s on the Lombardi Watch List.
WHAT’S NEXT?
The deficit and of loss of Praise didn’t matter.
“We just said, ‘What’s next?’ Finch said.
What’s next – it’s all in the tone of voice. The Owls couldn’t wait to see what they could make happen. Penn State, eventually, feared what might happen next.
That included injuries. Linebacker Nyeem Wartman-White left the game with a season-ending injury. Fellow ‘backer Brandon Bell, in the midst of a great effort, played hurt. Haley never suited up.
For Temple, Finch’s interception of Christian Hackenberg was the best next. And for Hackenberg, 10 sacks were the next that never ended. The first sack came with 4:11 in the first quarter. And the last one came on the last play of the game.
Finch’s theft came in the third quarter, with the scored score 10-10 and Penn State facing a second-and-2 on its own 28. Finch read that Hackenberg was going to float a pass in the flat to wide receiver Chris Godwin, and he jumped on it. Two plays after Finch returned the interception to the Penn State 2, Walker scored.
“As the game wore on, we gave them more looks,” Finch said. “I knew what play we had going on for defense. We gave them a blitz we hadn’t shown the whole game. I engaged the tackle. I saw the offensive lineman and his stance, so I knew it was a pass. I saw in his eyes where the ball was going, because he saw the blitz coming. Hackenberg pointed and checked out to his receiver. I knew where the ball was going.
“When you pressure a guy enough, you’re going to force him into mistakes. It comes from inside the team. We have that drive, that confidence. Every play is the most important play. Every play could mean the game.”
For Temple’s offense, one of those plays a one-yard TD run by Jahad Thomas on a third-and-goal that capped off a 12-play, 93-yard scoring drive. The score came on a wide pitch that was new to the Owl playbook.
“That wasn’t drawn up too long ago,” said Thomas, who ran 29 times for 135 yards on Saturday, a stark comparison to the 20 for 61-yard Owl running game against Penn State in November. “We just added to the game plan. And it worked.”
Let’s recap: What was different about Temple, comparing November 2014 and September 2015:
— Homefield advantage.
— Never-say-die, “What’s next?” attitude.
— A continual streak of new looks, new plays and adjustments.
— An experienced defense and quarterback both playing as such.
— An ability to exploit Penn State’s biggest weakness, its offensive line.
— Continuation of the progress it made since it last played Penn State.
And combined, that’s a big part of why the Owls Rhuled.
