09.11.23
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This is the week to avoid the trap

Down only 13-7 in the fourth quarter, Temple TUFF means grabbing this game and taking it away. That didn’t happen. Stan Drayton has to diagnose why and provide a pill to cure the Owls this week.

Most doctors will be able to diagnose a simple problem by asking you what the symptoms are, when did they happen and what changes in the diet might have caused the sickness.

Changing the lifestyle or a simple pill usually–not always–solves the problem.

Staying the course of a bad diet or habit usually exacerbates it.

The big temptation Temple head coach Stan Drayton has is to stick to the plan he brought into the season and make it work or determine if a 36-7 loss to a team that got shut out, 37-0, by Maryland two games ago is acceptable.

From this perspective, it isn’t. I’m not a doctor but I watched Wayne Hardin, Bruce Arians, Al Golden annd Matt Rhule work on some pretty sick teams so I’m confident that a change is needed right away. Watching Hardin coach all by himself was better than a 13-year stay at a Holiday Inn Express.

The symptoms are pretty clear, Temple has not been able to establish a running game and E.J. Warner subsequently has been under intense pressure.

The Owls have run out of offensive line pills but half the battle there was not having a running back with the ability to 1) Make people miss and 2) break tackles.

Temple has that pill in Joquez Smith. He separated himself from the other Temple backs on Saturday night. Take one Joquez and call me in the morning. That should cure the headache of a bad running game. This kid has the unique ability to get lost behind the offensive line and come out the other end. No other Temple back is that slippery. Put him in the game and give him 20 carries.

My guess is that he goes for over 100 yards against Norfolk State and gives Miami something to think about in two weeks.

The other “pill” is fixing the passing game.

Smith being in there certainly would open the lanes for Warner to throw deeper and that’s what he needs to do. Once Smith gets rolling, Warner can fake it into his belly and pull it out, freeze the linebackers and throw over the defense. Receivers like Dante Wright, Zae Baines and Amad Anderson need to get the ball in space downfield and work their magic. Five-yard outs ain’t doing it.

Temple has too many talented edge players to come away with just seven points against any team, even Big 10 ones.

If Warner can’t get these guys the ball with an improved running game, Quincy Patterson deserves a shot. Defenses will be looking for Patterson to run and with that threat, more lanes to throw will be open. If you can live with the stomach ache of five-yard outs all year, keep E.J. in the game. If you want a multi-dimensional offense, try a Quincy Patterson pill. It might be a placebo and it might not, but you will never know until you try.

Smith’s running will keep the defense off the field and nothing helps a defense that gave up 23 fourth-quarter points than an offense that controls the clock and moves the sticks.

Norfolk State will be the perfect game to make these changes. You can beat NS with Edward Saydee and doing the things you did to beat Akron but you can’t win an AAC title sticking to that plan.

It might be a bitter pill to take now but holding your nose and talking it gives your team the best chance to get over the malaise of a 36-7 loss that should have never happened. Bold changes are needed now, not next Tuesday.

Otherwise you fall into a trap that could lead to another 3-9 season.

Friday: The Biggest Worry of The Season

13 thoughts on “This is the week to avoid the trap”

  1. Saturday night was painful. The fundamentals aren’t there. The team needs technique and strict adherence to technique – that coaching. A lot of times, technique can win battles against “better talent.” Also, time to give Patterson a shot. Now. Yes, a good running game would help Warner, but that isn’t going to magically appear. The fixes necessary for the rush attack, or, lack there of, will take a long time. As such, let’s see what Patterson can do with the same lack of a running threat. 36-7 to Rutgers? The state of the entire program is dire. Patterson. Now.

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  2. we will be at the game again Saturday, hope to see maybe 15,500 ??? Anyway, no nothing about this team, so assuming they are similar to Delaware State from a few years ago. THEY ar least had a spirited Band, maybe these guys will also ? I know NOTHING about Norfolk State, so I think they are a mostly Black School, to which Temple is giving some creds by having this game… Hope they bring a good band, Yup…. I enjoy many of those HBC’s bands.

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    • You do have a chance at a running game with Joquez. He’s a gamer. Edward Saydee must be the greatest practice player in the history of the game to earn a single digit because, other than USF, have not seen any ability to make people miss or run over them from him. Teams that play Temple have guys who can break tackles. Joquez was the first back I’ve seen in two years break tackles on a consistent basis.

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    • If you only saw 12,343 for Akron probably are not seeing 15K for Norfolk State. Beat Rutgers and you would have seen 30,000 for Norfolk State. The belief system diminishes with Temple fans after disappointing losses. Even beating Norfolk State isn’t getting any fans back. Beat Norfolk State and Miami then you get even a bigger crowd for Homecoming than usual and that’s always plus 30K.

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  3. The single digits are given out too easily. It should be given for extraordinary toughness. 36-7 against Rutgers suggests maybe there should be just one or two single digits out there.

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    • In the age of the transfer portal only should give it to Temple players in the final year of eligibility. Seeing Braswell and IGM play for Rutgers and BC after getting that digit here made me throw up. “You can tell he’s tough because he got a single digit at Temple” the announcers said. Single digits should mean toughness and a four-year commitment to Temple.

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      • We have a few “weight-room” single digits…, Drayton needs to add “performance” to the selection criteria.

        Impossible to be Temple Tuff when you are Temple Tiny on the O-line. If you think the line is bad now just wait until next yr, three out of the five average dudes will depart. Is it too much to ask for at least one of the five to have a chance at making all-conference?

        WR position. The clue is the single digit at WR can’t get on the field. Enough said about the position.

        QB. Arm strength, accuracy, timing, ability to extend the play? Enough said about the position.

        What is the identity on offense? What kind of offense is Drayton recruiting for, what is he trying to build? Dunno, and neither does he.

  4. “Weight-room single digits.” Bingo. Hit the nail on the head. Saydee is a nice player but he’s not an AAC feature back. Must have lifted a lot of weights for that No. 2. I don’t remember Stewart doing anything that stood out in a game other than dropping that sure touchdown pass against Rutgers. I’m sure he did a lot of great things in the offseason to earn that No. 1. Good for him. I’m from the Allen Iverson School. “We’re talkin’ about practice. Not a game. Practice.” Give the single digits to the guys who score touchdowns, get sacks, interceptions and block kicks … in a game.

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  5. Saydee did a nice job catching some passes and gaining some yards, at least against Akron – use him for that if nothing else. To those who think Temple should drop down to FCS level – if we do there will be even less incentive for recruits to want to come to Temple and the program will disintegrate to never beating programs like Nova. Working on playing eastern programs into a quasi-conference could work: (UMass, UConn, rivals Rutgers and Nova (we always play at least one FCS team annually), Army, Navy, etc. would be a start. But don’t drop down to FCS. The answer is to hire better coaches – for 2 mil a year Temple should be doing better in that regard – maybe Drayton can make it work but he was never even a coordinator and Temple hires him (for 2 mil!) – I mean, what the hell!.

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    • Can’t play FCS ball in a 70K stadium. We’re having a hard-enough time attracting FBS fans to that stadium.

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      • If Temple did drop down to FCS it really wouldn’t matter where they play their home games. Build a half-shell around the EO field, play at Franklin Field or a large HS field. The real point is that the trustees obviously don’t give a crap and allow lousy coach hires repeatedly, can’t work out something for an OCS, continue funneling millions into Lurie’s pocket, the list goes on and on. There’s something inside me that keeps me coming back, wanting to see some success, still liking to watch games even when they stink but Temple continues to refuse climbing out of that rabbit hole of failure they put themselves in. How can a school like Nova 1/4 to 1/3 the size of Temple have the success they do in ALL sports and Temple keeps wallowing around in mediocrity – something just isn’t right!

  6. Off topic, but want to share.

    From another program site where writer is concerned with offensive philosophies. His comments fall right in line with what Mike has been lamenting for several seasons. I’ve removed any team and player references since they really aren’t relevant and would provoke comments away from Temple football.

    “So, I have a couple of thoughts: the old-school way of thinking is that you need to open the game running the ball, get that moving, and then work in play-action as the game goes on. That’s kind of been the prevailing theory for much of football’s history.

    In the last 8 years or so, there’s been a lot of studying that the inverse is even better: go after the deep pass early and often while defensive backs aren’t fully warmed up yet, move into play-action to keep them guessing, and then go full anaconda with the run game to suffocate out the game.

    Regardless, both methods have proven very effective throughout football’s – and both require something that was lacking last week: play-action.

    There’s basically no reason to not have some sort of misdirection on any given play. Even for quick timing passes that need to have the ball moving faster than a true play-action allows, you can still have wide receivers or running backs going with horizontal movement pre-snap to keep a defense from being able to key in on a certain direction.

    On Saturday, there was extremely limited play action and even less horizontal… anything…. No screens. No sweeps. No fake sweeps. No jets. No wonder the opponent was able to key in on plays ahead of time.

    On top of the lackluster play design there, I also noted multiple times on Saturday that, even when the they did call a play-action, QB gave very minimal effort at selling that fake. He’d just kind of point the ball somewhat in the direction of the running back while still keeping his body poised to make a pass. It didn’t slow any defenders down for even half a step, and was just a poor effort.”

    Perhaps some thinking along these lines could be incorporated at this late date into game planning.

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    • We’re the masters at the weak play action the last two seasons. I’d like to see some real play-action where we establish the running game first, put a prolonged (1.2-second) fake into the successful RB body and pull it out and throw all over the place. Haven’t seen that since Sharga, Rhule and Thomas/Armstead.

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