09.09.12
by

Reasons, not excuses for Temple’s loss

This is how the day went for the Owls.

Memo to Chuck Heater: Mike McGloin is a statue. It’s time for Temple to cut him down and wrap a Temple T flag around his head, ala Sadaam Hussein

Way early  in the book of Football Game Planning 101 should be a chapter on true freshman quarterbacks.
The chapter should be titled “Blitz Early, Blitz Often.”
On the way home from Temple’s embarrassing 36-27 loss to Maryland, I remembered all of the video I watched on Maryland’s 7-6 win over William and Mary.
Since I thought it was odd the Tribe stayed in the game until the end, I was determined to find out why.
The Tribe brought two extra linebackers on every passing situation, one from each side. William and Mary rolled the dice and essentially won with the strategy despite losing the game.
Perry Hills, Maryland’s true freshman QB, never had the time to breathe, led alone find a receiver more than 15 yards down the field. The pressure caused Hills to throw three interceptions and allowed a 1AA football team with a 5-6 record to limit a BCS school to seven points.
Going into the game, I figured Temple defensive coordinator Chuck Heater would see that, too, and sic Ahkeem Smith and Nate Smith through open gaps on Hills. Instead, Hills faced a four-man pass rush.
Heater, in my mind, is still the best defensive coordinator in the country but he rolled the dice, too, believing guys like John Youboty and Sean Daniels would get enough pressure on Hills so he could eschew the blitzes.
If you don’t get there, it’s not enough and you should ratchet up the pressure as needed.
Putting the quarterback on his ass is always the best pass defense.
To me, failure to get significant pressure on a mistake-prone true freshman QB was Reason No. 1 why Temple lost today.
 Reasons, not excuses.
My first “oh-no” offensive moment came a couple hours before the game in the parking lot when someone told me Chris Coyer had a 101-degree fever and was getting intravenous treatment. I remembered the old story about Mickey Mantle having a 101.5-degree fever and hitting three home runs in an NBC game of the week, but I forgot Mantle wasn’t being chased by 6-3, 230-pound linebackers with 4.6 speed.
To me, Coyer wasn’t showing the burst I know he has. He must have had some Holy Water sprinkled on him at halftime because he was cured for the final two quarters.
Reason No. 2 Temple lost today was a lack of a passing game in the first half.
Again, a reason, not an excuse.
Three personal foul penalties, a fumble on the opening drive, not a good way to start.
Reasons, not excuses.
As good as Temple’s special teams were last year, you can’t have a field goal from essentially extra-point territory blocked. Had that field goal been made, Temple leads, 30-29, and the complexion of the game changes dramatically.
The Temple fans were GREAT in the second half. Imagine how loud they would have been if Temple had a 30-29 lead?
Maybe Zack Smith’s departure for Ohio State will be felt more than I thought.
The good news is that these mistakes are fixable.
Matty Brown might not be an every-down back in BCS football, but a healthy Montel Harris sure is. Maybe they are saving that nuclear device to drop on State College.
Geez, I hope so.
Memo to Chuck Heater: Mike McGloin is a statue. It’s time for Temple to cut him down and wrap a Temple T flag around his head, ala Sadaam Hussein. I hope they can do it with four but if you can’t get to him with four, send five. If you can’t get to him with five, send six or seven. Heck, you have to send all the guys on the team named Smith through the unblocked gaps to get him, do it.
We all know a healthy Chris Coyer can deliver at a high level. Hopefully, the next two weeks will be good for his mind and body.
Other good news is that future national champion Rutgers beat Howard, 26-0. (If Temple can’t beat Howard, 26-0, they might as well padlock the E-O right now.) Penn State’s 17-16 loss at Virginia is not good news, but I don’t see them as the Penn State team of a year ago. Pitt is 0-2, including a blowout loss at home to Youngstown State.
There are a lot of winnable games left on the schedule, but not if the Owls can’t pressure the quarterback, play with better discipline and avoid turnovers.
It should have happened today, but you can only go forward, not backward.
Oh yeah.
Lafayette won at William and Mary, 17-14.
Freakin’ Lafayette.
I might not have a 101-degree fever, but I’m officially sick.

23 thoughts on “Reasons, not excuses for Temple’s loss”

  1. Where was our sercet weapon.. Spencer Reid?

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  2. Reason number 3 why the Owls lost could be because the Senior Center snapped the ball over the QB's head twice that cost drives! Reason number 4 could be that the Senior Safety gave up 2 third and long pass plays in critical situations when all he had to do was knock the ball down! Dont want to call people out by names but those Seniors should be stepping up

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  3. Block in back on opening kickoff. Fumble on first play from scrimmage. Johnson.celebrating a tackle before whistle blows which leads directly to 3 points. Three personal fouls. Too many men on the field out of a timeout. And that last defensive stand. An exceptionally discouraging performance. We looked unprepared, cocky and slow. One game or a harbinger?

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  4. Spencer isn't fast enough to play at this level. Maybe Kutztown, not here, though.Last defensive "stand" was particularly discouraging because this was the same DL, sans Arob, who pushed around Maryland's OL last year.Senior safety had a poor game, knocked down just one pass and was in position but outfought for the ball on multiple occasions. Time to put an athlete and playmaker like Kevin Newsome out there instead. Got two weeks to get him up to speed.

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  5. Geez, I thought that (the center snap) is what practice is for. Looked like we never even practiced it. We miss Schoenbrenner.

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  6. It's one game if we beat Penn State. Harbinger if we don't. We lost a lot of talent from last year's team but not enough for 38-7 to swing into 26-37. You've got to have a crapload of unforced errors for that to happen.

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  7. There were too many Matt Brown runs up the middle in the 1st half. 3 and out or 2 and out, fumbles, penalties, giving up big plays, confusion. We just looked unprepared mentally and physically. The 2nd half was fun until the 3rd and long completion by MD. 2 weeks until PSU and 4 weeks til we see how they are prepared for USF.

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  8. Love Matt Brown, but I hope Montel is ready to go. Matt is a kick returner, third-down back. I've never known him to be a fumbler, but his fumble today and vs. Toledo were momentum-killers.

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  9. The game was sloppy but #4 has to go. Put in Nate smith put in Newsome or anyone. When you only make 1 out of 3-4 essentially jump balls that is not good enough. those 3-4 plays led to 21 points. Not good enough, once is a fluke play 3 times is a deficiency. I thought Carraway might be the week link in the secondary but he has played well, Gildea really had a bad day an it cost us. That said this game was not lost because of him but he didnt help. You could see in the second half that we should have won that game but you cant spot a team 26points before you decide you want to play

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  10. Painful loss as we're fighting for legitimacy at BCS level. I agree with your assessment of too little blitzing but let's face it the owls should have won this game if they counted to five Mississippi for the Terps offense had they simply executed to their capabilities. The owls were completely out of sync in all aspects of the game including coaching. I know we need to step up to BCS talent but Maryland is a mediocre MAC level team. With the talent delta between where the owls are currently and other BE schools means execution is critical. If we beat PSU that salves the wound but it also reminds us how easily we could have been 3-0 going into BE play. Keep up the great work.

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  11. Steve thinks he needs Kevin to be No. 3 QB because he's worried if Coyer goes down, he's got to rein in Juice because nobody is No. 3. I say OK, he already knows the emergency calls if he's forced into duty. Let's get a 6-3, 215-pound guy in their on defense (who was all-world on defense in high school), who has a 37-inch vertical and runs about a 4.5. I don't know what Justin's vertical is, but it didn't look too high today. These are BCS athletes, not MAC athletes. Got to counter them with BCS athletes. According to Daz, Nate Smith isn't quite ready yet. I'd try Nate on kickoff returns. Good to see Khalif Herbin get a shot at KO returns.

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  12. Cant help noticing no one mentioned the most disturbing thing about the game: 23,000 announced attendance Ill be fine by Wed. or Thurs., but right now, its all doom in gloom here….

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  13. Temple's got a very fragile fan base.If it's on TV, you lose 5K couch potatoes.If they mention rain, you lose 5K more.If you lose to a Maryland team the prognosticators have you beating by 10, you lose 5K who would have come to the USF game.Beat Penn State, though, and you get all 15K of those back and more.

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  14. In the clip above, Its worth mentioning the BLATANT Hold / Facemask penalty committed by MD that sprung the QB for the Touchdown. Instead of a 10 or 15 yard penaly and 3rd and 20-25 they get 7 pts. I felt the ACC officiating crew had more than a few glaring no calls in the Terrapins favor. Not an excuse, a reason.

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  15. Yeah, it was even worse live. The whole crowd saw it and yelled at the officials at the same time. Blatant.Wish I knew what had Steve Addazio yelling at them BEFORE the start of the game.I wonder if one of the ACC refs said something to piss him off.

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  16. I meant Jeremy Schonbrunner in the 9:55 p.m. comment. He was a great snapper. If we're going to snap like that, we might want to go back under center for the time being.

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  17. Very discouraging as this was a very winnable game. I thought Daz was going to be a step up from Golden in discipline and minimizing mental mistakes, especially in statement games. If it wasn't for the fumbles, center snap snafus, costly penalties that continued stalled MD drives ALONE, this team would have won the game. How many points was that, 19? Great they came back, but why was the play calling so predictable in the first half? Losing to MD at home, is bad, not as bad as say Louisiana-Monroe, but bad. They are mediocre with a freshman QB to boot. Got to win, to have any pretensions of hanging at the next level.

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  18. Great comments, Columbus Owl.Love Daz, but it's hard to defend him after that fiasco.Is it possible this was the first time time we had this many bad snaps?If he saw that coming in practice, don't you think he would have gone back to having the QB under the center?Just thinking aloud here.Also, way too stubborn about running the ball in the first half.We were running the ball EVEN when we were down 26-3.Geez.Hard to blame Daz, though, for the fumbles and drops.Now I see why Cody Booth beat out the immensely talented Alex Jackson.Cody is a better blocker and hangs onto the ball, but just doesn't get open as much as AJax.Conundrum.Game plan for Penn State should be to put Mike McGloin on his ass however we have to do it and then have Montel run to set up CC play action.

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  19. Mike:Help me out. Not a Temple grad, but my father went to the dental school. Avid football fan, three year season ticket holder. Was there Saturday, brimming with excitement, Big East looming, ten point favorites. Owls' performance reminds me of my JV high school team. Clueless, undisciplined. Stands empty. Depressing!!Give me some reasons to hang in there. Wife says I might as well be working on the lawn.

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  20. I work on the lawn on Wednesdays just before dusk. I have one of those old-fashioned mowers and I provide my own power. Working on the lawn is pretty boring, so I have WDAS or WRNB on the headphones.NOW, here's a reason:Temple showed some guts, gonads, whatever, in the second half.Temple outscored Maryland, 24-10, in the second half after making every kind of Keystone Cop folly play in the first half.IF Temple came out in the second half and laid the same kind of egg in the first half, then I'd say do the lawn.There's hope. Fix the center snap (I'd personally eschew the shotgun for now). Get Coyer rolling out of the pocket and hitting No. 27 (Khalif Herbin) and No. 5 (Jalen Fitpatrick on the short routes) and No. 87 (Ryan Alderman) on sideline patterns. Keep moving those sticks and keep the D off the field.On Defense, if facing a slow, white, QB, you blitz the hell out of him. If you can't get to him with 4, send 5. If you can't get to him with 5, send 6. If you can't get to him with 6, send 7. If PSU plays Rob Bolden, then back off a little and play cover. Hopefully he throws the ball to Anthony Robey and Vaughn Carraway's side of the field. Tough decisions have to be made about the other corner. Can't keep being beat by 7 yards.

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  21. Will pass along to my wife, should do the trick. Thanks!

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  22. First off Mike great blog, now for my rant; I thought we had a " spread" offense? Our offense doesn't even come close to the damage and speed the likes of Oregon and West Virginia showcase every week. Can we get some more qb roll outs and dumps to the running back out of the backfield?On another note, I've noticed this year as well as last year that there doesn't seem to be any diamond stickers on the owls helmets for their in-game accomplishments. Did I miss the memo on why Daz stopped this nod to our schools founder?

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  23. I'll have to look into the Diamond stickers. I don't remember AG giving them out. I do remember Arians and Hardin giving them out. I will have to look over some old AG game film.One of the great Daz quotes that excited me was that because he had three "spread" QBs this year (and none last year) he could finally run the stuff he wanted.I didn't see any of the true spread in the first half, just a lot of handoffs into the middle of the line.Roll Coyer out and hit Herbin, Fitz and even Brown in space and get them a full head of steam in the middle of the field. That would drive defenses nuts.That would spread the field and open up a draw or two for Harris, not the draw opening up the spread.

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