10.13.25
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Game Week Key: Shaking it off

Colby Dant brings up what we all saw (and the refs didn’t), a false start on the 2-point conversion.

Not going to lie, it’s going to take me a long time to get over Saturday’s 32-31 loss to visiting Navy.

So many things were thrown out the window with that loss:

One, a realistic shot to open 6-0 in the conference;

Two, any hope to appear in the American Conference title game;

Three, building on the momentum of the UTSA win;

Four, any chance to capture a lot of those 26,854 Homecoming fans who left bitterly disappointed.

Give a lot of those fans who attended their first game of the year an exciting win over an unbeaten team and chances are they will be back for one of the two remaining home games.

Or both.

Charlotte weather for Saturday: 77 and sunny. Posting this now just to see how much the weather can change in six days.

Instead, I heard a lot of “same old Temple” comments walking down the steps at Lincoln Financial Field after the game from people I only see once a year.

I know it’s not the “same old Temple” and you know it’s not the “same old Temple” but, to them, most of what they’ve seen are bitter losses and this is just another disappointment they don’t want to deal with in the future.

Navy coach Brian Newberry touched on the fact that Temple is improved but, to the casual Temple fan who comes only once a year, that matters little.

Brian Newberry: “Hats off to Temple.”

My recovery period is not nearly as important as that of the Temple players and that will be the key to a successful season. Now a successful season means a bowl game, which I lot of us would have signed off on back in August. My prediction of 6-6 is still in play.

“Let’s see. I could burn Navy’s two timeouts here with two knees, milk another 40 seconds with one more knee and then kick the field goal to win the game. Or I could just score a touchdown and leave it up to our defense. Tough call.” (Photo courtesy Zamani Feelings)

If the kids can “shake it off” they can do that and more. They just had no room for error if the hope was to be in the American Conference title game and they already made that error with the coaching staff refusing to take three knees and kick the game-winning field goal at the 1 with 1:16 left.

Temple enters Saturday’s game at Charlotte (3:30 p.m., ESPN+) as a double-digit road favorite and when was the last time that happened in a conference game?

Hint: It was before The Rod Carey Error and that ended four years ago.

The Owls are also the 49ers Homecoming Game, which means their version of Temple’s Saturday atmosphere should provide that team with a boost just like Temple’s biggest crowd backed the Owls.

The Temple players’ assignment–should they embrace it–is to make sure Charlotte head coach Tim Albin doesn’t have the ball on the Temple 1 with 1:16 left and a chance to burn the Owls’ final two timeouts to post his version of an upset.

There was a clear path to 6-0 in the conference with a win over Navy. Thanks to the three knees thing and a false start on the 2-point conversion that wasn’t called, that path no longer exists. With Navy, Tulane, Memphis and USF in this conference there is no room for error.

Which means going up at least 24-14 and making that 31-14 instead of 24-17.

Easier said than done.

You can write a book about the number of teams, including Temple, who turned a bitter loss into a sour season. This year, you need to look no farther than 250 miles away where Penn State lost a heart wrenching game to Oregon and the hangover showed in losses to UCLA and Northwestern.

Temple is going to have to avoid a similar hangover.

Again, easier said than done.

The defense is going to have to play like the defense that played in the second half against UTSA and not the defense that played in the second half against Navy.

Which means shaking off a lot of disappointment.

Maybe kids are more resilient than us old folk but they had more blood, sweat and tears invested in Saturday’s bitter defeat than we did so it would be understandable if they wonder why bother?

Knowing that they have to is the urgency of this moment. We won’t find out until Saturday if they meet it.

Friday: Charlotte Preview

8 thoughts on “Game Week Key: Shaking it off”

  1. If ever there was a woulda’, coulda’, shoulda’ game, this was it. Given there was still time on the clock for Navy to do there thing, a 50 yard breakaway TD run by Horvath still could have happened. Lets just hope they can shake it off – there’s still a lot to play for. I think KCK knows how to deal with this situation.

    Reply

    • They would not have risked a single run with only 20 seconds on the clock and no timeouts. One tackle inbounds and the game is over. That’s why I’m dumbfounded that such a great coach like Keeler would make sure a monumental mistake in clock management.

      Reply

      • 40 seconds? But there still would have been enough time on the clock for another wide open pass or a couple big runs. Yes, it was a devastating loss that could have been a win after playing Navy head to head, but now its on to the rest of the season and a bowl assuming the kids don’t let it get to them.

      • I also think Keeler probably thought his D would hold them as they did for much of the game except for a couple big plays……

  2. It was a devastating loss but anyone who saw the game had to be impressed by the Owls. Keeler has done a great job in spite of the Navy loss. He’s a keeper.

    Reply

  3. Hey Mike,

    Do you think either Rhule or Golden wind up as the PSU HC? Have you heard any scuttlebutt?

    Reply

  4. I think Kraft being an Indiana grad and him watching Indiana beat Oregon he’s going after Curt Cignetti. Rhule and Golden are only fallback plans. Harder to sell PSU fans on Golden after Miami, even though he faced sanctions in Miami that he wouldn’t at PSU.

    Reply

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