Matt Rhule talks about the bye week.

When the Temple Owls raced out to a 7-0 record a year ago with a win over Penn State and at Cincinnati, a lot of people were surprised.

Not as surprised, though, as what the team has done since the poor choice of black helmets and uniforms at Memphis.

The Owls have been more than just dapper in their choice of wardrobe since. Just think of this four-game winning streak this way:

Temple 26, UCF 25—Since the Owls vanquished the Knights in their own stadium, the Knights have beaten Tulane, 37-6, and went up to UConn and won. They also had a big lead at Houston before falling by a touchdown. This might be the game that wins it for the Owls because, according to a computer projection BEFORE the 70-yard drive, the Owls were given just a two percent chance of winning that game. That was a miracle in the Orlando swamplands for sure.

Temple 46, USF 30 –The only game USF played since getting thumped by the Owls was an impressive one, leading 45-21 over visiting Navy in the second quarter before holding on for a backdoor cover. The Bulls were never really in jeopardy of losing that game as Navy scored on the last play of the game. Much will be learned about the Bulls on Saturday, when they travel to Memphis.

Temple 34, Cincinnati 13—The Owls totally dominated after taking a 17-13 lead at the half. Cincy’s only game was a 20-3 loss to visiting BYU at home, breaking a 30-game non-conference winning streak. Yet, at times, Cincinnati was impressive this year, including  a 38-20 win at Purdue and a 31-19 win over East Carolina.

Temple 21, UConn 0—Look, everyone knows UConn is having a down year but this is a team that beat Cincinnati, 20-9, beat a Power 5 team (Virginia) and lost a competitive game at Navy, 28-24.  In reality, Temple should have beaten this team, anywhere from 35-0 to 42-0 had they continued to attack the soft middle of the Huskies’ pass defense, the weakest part of an overall pass defense that was ranked No. 118 in the nation. Instead, the Owls inexplicably tried a couple of passes in the corner of the end zone that were picked off.

What does this all mean?

The Owls beat some teams that have talent on them and beat a team badly, which has a lot of talent on it, in perhaps their biggest game of the season.

The Owls need to clean some things up (see the last sentence of our UConn synopsis), but they are playing their best ball at the right time and a better time than now with the final two games against two of the weaker teams on their schedule.

If they end this season with the same seven-game winning streak they started last season, they will be hoisting the overall AAC trophy. There is nothing to suggest that they cannot do it.

Friday: We Are All Fans Of Someone This Weekend

When I started out in the workforce as a 14-year-old kid in the summer washing and packing Good Humor trucks in Northeast Philadelphia, I forgot to punch the time clock the first week I worked there.

Nervously, I approached the manager and told him of my mistake.

“Son, we don’t sweat the small stuff,” the foreman said, then gave me a piece of paper to sign.

As a lifelong Temple fan, the comment rolled around in my head after watching the Owls beat  Connecticut on Friday night, 21-0. The Owls were a 10-point favorite on the road and won by more than double that.

Sure, it would have been nice had my favorite Temple quarterback, maybe of all time, P.J.Walker, not forced two throws in the red zone. Sure, it would have been even nicer had Temple coach Matt Rhule not gone all Ghandi-like on Bob Diaco after the first 14 plays, but one thing is clear.

We do not sweat the small stuff, nor should any of my fellow Temple fans.

Looking at the stat sheet, other than the two Walker mistakes, my biggest complaint was that Temple threw the ball on seven of the first 14 plays and ran the ball on 67 of the next 87 plays. In those first 14 plays, the Owls completed all seven passes and scored three touchdowns.

That should have been a clue as how to attack the rest of the game, so maybe that’s why Temple radio play-by-play man Harry Donahue made a point to mention that Owls’ offensive coordinator Glenn Thomas looked upset exiting his spot in the press box on Friday night in the last minute of the game.

As far as murderers go, you have Adolf Hitler and Saddam Hussein on one end of the spectrum and Ghandi and Matt Rhule on the other. Rhule could have put his sharp-cleated foot on the throat of Bob Diaco by throwing the ball—particularly over the soft middle of the Huskies’ defense—but instead was satisfied on running out the clock with a 21-0 lead.

Had the Owls put the foot on the Huskies’ throats, there is no doubt in my mind that this would have been a 43-0 type win, rather than a 21-0 win. A win, though, is a win and the Owls do not get style point from the CFB playoff committee with a 43-0 win. Losses to Army, Penn State and Memphis eliminated the Owls from that kind of contention, so Rhule’s salting away the win was the right strategy. Phil Snow deserves kudos for recording his first FBS shutout since 1986 when he was the DC at Boise State. (On the other hand, Chuck Heater had back-to-back shutouts for Temple in 2011.)

Style points would have been nice but, with two games left to ice the AAC East, style points pale in comparison to getting the win.

As the Good Humor executive once said, son, do not sweat the small stuff.

Monday: P.J. Walker Appreciation Day

One of the best twitter comebacks was Temple-Made

The LSU fan who liked the way Temple’s offensive line blocked in that video we published last week said the words “shots fired” to describe the way the Owls were plowing down foes.

No shot was more on target, though, than the ones fired by the Owls’ band at Cincinnati coach Tommy Tuberville (above tweet, since mollified for political correctness). That was a beautiful thing enjoyed not only by Temple fans, but even Cincinnati fans on their board.

Which brings us to how, exactly,  most of the rest of the conference looks at Temple.

One of the more entertaining pursuits after a particularly satisfying Temple win is to check out the reaction elsewhere in the conference.

The facts, as we know them, are these: Temple looks like a strong favorite to win out and clinch its second-straight AAC East title. Once there, this Temple team looks to be in better shape than the last one to bring home the coveted overall AAC trophy.

If you are expecting a pat on the back from any of our conference brethren, do not hold your breath.

There is significant biting of fingernails being done in Tampa, the home of the USF Bulls, who, for the last two seasons, think they are better than Temple. The realization, though, is sinking in that they will be on the outside looking in again.

On the UConn side, there is a lot of angst leading up to the game on the Boneyard Board, saying that any of their fans who think they will “miraculously become competitive” against Temple was smoking something other than cigarettes:

It will probably be a long time before the Owls get the grudging respect they deserve, but they have to realize by now that they have to earn that respect by winning out.

Maybe the rest of the conference will never say the same kind of nice things about Temple that they did about Houston a year ago, but it would be nice for once to find out. In a month or so, we should have our answer.

It’s a three-game season now, one game at a time.

Friday: That One Game

                                                             By    Dave (Fizzy) Weinraub

Well, double wow!  It’s obvious the Owls have a new confidence which emanates from the Central Florida miraculous comeback, and they refuse to be denied.  There was some pinpoint passing from Phillip Walker and two great catches for touchdowns.  The two-pronged running attack of Thomas and Armstead, along with outstanding blocking, wore down Cincinnati in the second half and put the game away.  Not only do we seem to have more depth than all our opponents except Penn State, which was about even this year and not the reason for the loss, we also seem to be better conditioned.  Finding our new kicker “Boomer,” was great scouting.  Props to the coaches.

Boomer: Great Scouting

There are, however, a few puzzling strategies that should be discussed.  For most of the first quarter, the defense pressured off and on with a five man rush and the Cincinnati quarterback was only modestly successful.  In the second quarter, we mostly went with a four man rush, and they scored two touchdowns. In the second half we went back to the pressure and shut them out.  Gunner Kiel is not a fast nor mobile quarterback, and no threat to pickup large chunks of yardage on the ground.  So why didn’t we blitz most of the time?

I did not enjoy half-time at all.  The reason was, when we got the ball back with 1:17 left on the clock in the first half in decent field position and we with all three timeouts (for the first time ever), the coaches chose to be very conservative and basically run the clock out.  The game was close then, why would you not throw the ball down-field and try to score?  A few weeks ago we went seventy yards in thirty seconds with no time outs.  Cincinnati ended up with forty seconds left to do some damage.

       Yeah, yeah, I know, we’re winning, and I’m thrilled. But I’m not just picking nits.  We have three more games in which we should be favored and we can’t afford any letdowns, either by the players or the coaches. Pedal to the metal, always.

Gossip:  Pre-game, I had a chance to speak with Pat Kraft our good guy A.D.  He was surprised to hear I’m totally against building a stadium on campus.  When he asked why, I told him to look around at the 25,000 or so people parked and tailgating in one spot, and that we can’t duplicate this.  I went on to predict we would lose many of the over fifty year-old season ticket holders who won’t drive to campus and have to walk to the stadium from remote parking.  I also foretold monster traffic jams at Broad & Vine.

The Other Football Team:  After the first three Eagles games I thought Doug Pederson was the second calling.  Then, he helped blow the Detroit game by being entirely too conservative in his play calling in the last two possessions, which precipitated the fumble.  This week, after he made so many bad and too conservative decisions against Dallas, he refused to shoulder any of the blame.  One more time and he will forever be known as Andy Jr.  “Time’s yours !”  

Tomorrow: Conference Reaction