Blue White Illustrated

Thanks to a stifling Temple defensive effort, the Nittany Lions' 10-0 first quarter lead slowly evaporated into a 27- 10 loss to the Owls. The defeat was Penn State's first against Temple since 1941. "We've got to give Temple credit. They played extremely well," Penn State head coach James Franklin said a?erward. The compilation of Nittany Lion short- comings in the opener was laundry list long. Coming off a season in which its offen- sive line surrendered a staggering 44 sacks, Penn State's most telling stat Sat- urday a?ernoon was similarly discourag- ing. With linebacker Tyler Matakevich supplying a trio of takedowns, the Owls managed to put Nittany Lion junior quarterback Christian Hackenberg on his back 10 times. A team captain for the second year, Hackenberg managed to emerge from the game physically unharmed. His mental state, though, suggested another damag- ing blow to the progress that Penn State was thought to have made during the off-season. "It is what it is. You've got to give Tem- ple a lot of credit. They came out and they executed better than we did today," Hackenberg said. "That's a really good football team. I've been saying that all week. Give them a ton of credit, but right now it's just kind of… we're on to Buffalo. We're focusing on what we've got to do to come out next week and get better." The digression came quickly, even though it wouldn't show up on the scoreboard at the same pace. Starting in the second quarter, Temple defensive end Haason Reddick managed to outmaneuver Penn State juco transfer Paris Palmer to sack Hackenberg for a 5- yard loss. Two plays later, Haason was in again on a sack, this time skirting past right tackle Andrew Nelson to produce a 9-yard loss. From there, the floodgates opened, beginning with a season-ending knee injury to linebacker Nyeem Wart- man on an innocuous punt play. Although Brandon Bell put the ball back in Penn State's hands when he forced a fumble by Temple's P.J. Walker, Hackenberg was immediately sacked again and Penn State was forced to punt. Twelve plays and 93 yards later, Temple put its first points on the board when running back Jahad Thomas swept a yard into the end zone on a clever misdi- rection. "I thought they dominated up front, on each side of the ball. Our offensive line had a hard time with their defensive line obviously," Franklin said. "And I thought their offensive line played well against our defensive line. The zone read gave us some problems. Obviously the sacks are an issue. We did not punt the ball well, which put our defense in some tough spots. We need to obviously get that re- solved." The hal?ime break did not alleviate the Lions' issues. A Penn State offense that produced just 20 yards in the second quarter continued to struggle into the third. With the Lions floundering, Austin Jones tied the score, 10-10, with a 40-yard field goal. And then came the decisive moment. When Hackenberg dropped back to pass on second-and-2 at the Lions' own 28-yard line, Owls defensive end Sharif Finch jumped in front of an airmailed pass, kept the ball in play on his finger- tips, hauled it in and rumbled 26 yards to Penn State's 2-yard line. Two plays later, a 1-yard carry by Walker put the Owls ahead for good. A?er Penn State started the fourth quarter with another sack on third-and- long, the Owls again capitalized with a 5- play, 49-yard drive capped by another Thomas carry into the end zone, this time for 24 yards on a brilliant inside draw to his le?. Trailing 24-10, the Lions went blackout dark on offense, surrendering another five sacks and producing just 11 total yards on 12 plays, even with a 30-yard pass completion to Chris Godwin in- cluded in that total. With Penn State needing to regroup before heading back to State College for its home opener, Hackenberg said he will simply try to get his dejected offensive line to shi? its focus onto the next oppo- nent. "I'm just going to say we're on to Buf- falo. Really get them in the right mindset. I think we all need to look in the mirror and see what we can do better," he said. "We're going to do that and we're going to get focused and ready for a new chal- lenge next week." Franklin concurred. Accepting blame for the disheartening start to a season that had been promoted with such promise, Franklin said he, his staff and the entire program will go back to the drawing board to correct the mis- takes of the a?ernoon. "We've got a lot of work to do. I don't need to tell you guys that. It's obvious to everybody that we've got a lot of work to do," he said. "We'll practice tomorrow, we'll watch the film, we'll be very, very honest with ourselves, including myself, looking in the mirror, being very critical, looking at areas that we need to fix, looking at areas that we need to get bet- ter at." SCORING SUMMARY 1ST 10:47 PSU Julius, Joey 34-yard field goal 8 plays, 53 yards, TOP 1:53........................................................................ 3-0 6:34 PSU Lynch, Akeel 42-yard run (Julius, Joey kick) 6 plays, 75 yards, TOP 2:41...................................................................... 10-0 2ND 2:25 TEM Thomas, Jahad 1-yard run (Jones, Austin kick) 12 plays, 93 yards, TOP 6:40.................................................................... 10-7 3RD 6:23 TEM Jones, Austin 40-yard field goal 7 plays, 57 yards, TOP 3:35.................................................................... 10-10 1:00 TEM Walker, P.J. 1-yard run (Jones, Austin kick) 1 play, 2 yards, TOP 0:10 .......................................................................17-10 4TH 11:14 TEM Thomas, Jahad 24-yard run (Jones, Austin kick) 5 plays, 49 yards, TOP 2:47.................................................................... 24-10 5:41 TEM Jones, Austin 30-yard field goal 6 plays, 25 yards, TOP 3:36.................................................................... 27-10 S E P t E m B E R 5 , 2 0 1 5 B l U E w h i t E o N l i N E . c o m 2

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