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

The rugby scrum at the 2:43 time stamp is what Temple TUFF is all about.

Maybe halftime adjustments is just another meaningless phrase, but the stark numbers told a different story on Saturday when Temple took control in what turned out to be  34-13 win over Cincinnati.

Ourlads’ Guide has Kiel rated No. 3 QB.

Not only did the Owls shut out the Bearcats in the second half, 17-0, they held someone who will probably be drafted by the NFL, Gunner Kiel, to 0-2 passing in the second half and his offense to no first downs and minus-1 total yards.

Halftime has been a good break to Temple in this three-game winning streak. They were down, 25-14, at half against UCF and won, 26-25, and they built on a modest halftime lead in beating USF. Now this and a lot of the improvement can be traced to the defense.

The words to the alma mater are elsewhere in this post.

As good as Temple’s defense was the two prior years, it had never been THAT good against an offense like Cincy’s. In our mind before the season started, we thought that this defense would be faster across the board than the last two defenses were and that has only been shown the last three weeks.

Maybe Phil Snow has something going right now because the Owls are deep in edge pass rushers (Praise Martin-Oguike, Romond Deloatch, Jacob Martin and Haason Reddick) and have been getting significant inside push from veterans like Averee Robinson, Freddy Booth-Lloyd and Michael Dogbe. Sean Chandler is back in the secondary and that helped, too.

It did not look like the Owls did anything other than keep grinding in the second half and, as they extended their lead, they were able to ramp up the pressure.

This was the same Kiel threw for 348 yards and four touchdowns (no interceptions) in a 31-19 win over East Carolina last week, so what the Owls’ defense did cannot be minimized. Considering that the offense scored 46 and 34 points in the last two weeks over good teams, the inescapable conclusion is that both sides of the ball are peaking at the right time.

Mix in the fact, not fiction, that given that win over ECU and the fact that ECU plastered UConn, 41-3, on Saturday, the Owls probably already took care of the best of the Final Four teams on their regular season schedule. One game at a time, but Temple’s speed advantage across the board on both sides of the ball figures give the molasses slow Huskies fits on Friday night.

A viable now path exists to host the AAC title game at LFF. Owls need to win out (now only three games) and Navy needs to lose to Notre Dame, but win the rest. In that scenario, Temple finishes with the same overall and conference record as Navy and probably will be ranked higher than Navy due to finishing with six-straight wins, including one over a team that scored 52 on the Midshipmen. Temple should take care of its part of the bargain.

The notion that it is “unreasonable” to expect the Owls to run the regular-season table has been debunked by the same numbers that suggest halftime has been a good 15 minutes for Temple.

Monday: What Have We Done?

Wednesday: The Conference Reacts

Friday: UConn Game Preview

Nobody tosses the throwback to the tight end better than P.J. Walker.

For anyone who has ever played the frustrating game of golf, the 2016 football season at Temple  comes down to this:

Completely butchering the first hole, acing the second and getting a penalty for an incorrect scorecard on the third and, after that, the balls have been hit pretty much long and straight.

After botching the Army game plan and getting more penalty yards in a single game than most Temple fans remember, the Owls have been very good and have set themselves up for a nice finish if they can do no less in next four weeks than they have the last two.

Right now, the Owls’ season can be summed up as four one-foot putts. For the everyday hacker, the one-foot putt is a little different with nothing but a beer on the line than a one-foot putt in a tournament with $250,000 riding on it.

In other words, it’s 90 percent mental.

There’s a lot riding on these last four and the Owls’ short game is going to have to be on point, but if they approach the final four weeks the way they did the last two, they should be able to get the job done.

There are a lot of things I do not understand, but this concept of a “letdown” in college football certainly is at the top of the head-scratcher list. I know it exists, otherwise you cannot adequately explain the Army opener or even SMU’s win over Houston on Saturday night, but it should not exist in the game of college football. You work your butt off 353 days of the year to show your skills for 12 days or nights, there is no excuse for a letdown. Major league baseball players, with 162 regular-season games, have excuses. So do NBA and NHL players.

College football players, no. For this Temple football team, in the next four games, as much rides on the line as the UCF and the USF games did. If the Owls can visualize the finish line, they should be also be able to treat every play between now and then as if it is their last.

There is still a viable path for Temple to host the AAC title game and that’s what winning the final four games could mean. Plenty of work to do, but the hardest work is behind them and now most of it involves their mental approach.

Focus and finish should be their motto.

Tomorrow: Fizz Checks In With His USF Thoughts

Wednesday: The Fan Experience