Owls lost the line at Army

WEST POINT, N.Y. – In Saturday’s 14-13 loss to the Army Black Knights, the story of the game for the defense was its struggle to hold the Black Knights’ offense from converting on third-down and short-yards-to-gain scenarios.

Never was it more evident than in the fourth quarter, when Army used an 18-play, 53-yard drive to sap out the remaining 9 minutes, 53 seconds off the game clock. The Black Knights converted twice on third-and-short and twice more on fourth-and-short. Army quarterback Cale Hellums, needing to convert a third-and-1 from the Temple 4-yard line, got three yards and slid down just shy of the goal line to put the game on ice inside the last two minutes. From there, he took two more knees to drain out the clock and send Temple to a loss that puts its bowl hopes in jeopardy with two games remaining against two of the American Conference’s better teams in Tulane and North Texas. 

 “It all starts up front,” defensive tackle Allan Haye said. “We got to be able to knock the guys back and get the line of scrimmage. That sounds about right.”

Army only attempted three passes Saturday and completed just one, but that completion was arguably the biggest play of the game. It came on the opening series of the second half when Hellums faked a run and rolled right before throwing and completing a 26-yard pass to Black Knights tight end Parker Polosky, who got past  Temple linebacker Curly Ordonez on a critical conversion that helped set up Hellums’ three-yard touchdown run seven plays later, one that ultimately proved to be the game-winning score. 

“They kind of waited for our secondary to fall asleep,” Haye said, “Kept trying to run the ball and they needed a play, so they took a shot.”

Army did what it does well and controlled time of possession, 37:28 to 22:22. Due to the Black Knights’ methodical approach of slowly moving the ball downfield, both teams had just six offensive possessions Saturday. 

Nothing about that approach is new, and Army won despite gaining just 250 yards of total offense. A shorthanded Temple defense that was playing without several injured starters and contributors like defensive linemen Sekou Kromah and Demerick Morris, as well as starting safety Donate Pollard and starting linebacker Eric Stuart, simply could not stop the Black Knights when it mattered. 

Haye was asked by a reporter if Army’s approach Saturday was agonizing.

“It’s not really agonizing,” Haye said. “We got to understand when you’re playing these military teams, it’s really about discipline and just understanding you can’t get bored with the basics. You’ve got to line up and keep doing the same thing over and over until the clock says zero zero.”

Haye also dove into how different it was to face an offense like Army’s, one that  runs downhill into the teeth of the defense on virtually every play in an effort to wear it down.

“It’s football,” Haye said, “but it’s not like what you’re gonna see when you play, like, Tulane or Oklahoma and stuff like that. They’re blocking a little different. It’s just a different mentality. They just execute, and they dive into the ground, cut blocks and stuff that we don’t really face on the regular.”

But again, as Haye noted, that approach from Army is nothing now. 

“There’s really no excuses,” he added. “We practice all that stuff throughout the week. We just got to come out here and get our jobs done.”

Penalties were also a detrimental factor for Temple’s defense. On first-and-10 from the Owls’ 12-yard line on Army’s second possession, defensive lineman Charles Calhoun lined up offside on a play in which Hellums gained three yards. Instead of second-and-7 from Temple’s 9-yard line, the Black Knights instead had first-and-5 from the Owls’ 7, and fullback Jake Rendina scored on a 7-yard run on the very next play to open up the scoring. , including an offside call on defensive lineman Charles Calhoun deep in the Owls’ territory that put Army even closer to the end zone. 

Temple head coach K.C. Keeler spoke about the importance of minimizing penalties at the line of scrimmage, especially with an offense like Army’s that  thrives off of short-yardage situations.

Keeler, however, offered a hint of frustration with the officiating and implied that Army center Brady Small moved the ball around to prompt some movement at the line.

Keeler first said he didn’t want to comment on the offside call. Then he commented on it. 

“From the angle I saw, I’m not sure how we’re calling that,” Keeler said. “I just saw the tablet. I stand on the line of scrimmage the entire game. If I thought he was offsides, I would have called timeout or pushed him back or something. So there’s some close ones. And the thing that was happening, also, their center was moving the ball around, and we warned them. We said, ‘Listen, he has a tendency to move that ball up and back,’ and so sometimes, you get lined up and also the ball moves up. But, five-yard penalty. It  definitely didn’t help us at all.”

Temple fell  to 5-5 overall and a conference record of 3-3 on the season and once again failed to secure the sixth win that would bring the program bowl eligibility for the first time since 2019. 

With time winding down, a bye week could potentially do the trick ahead of a Nov. 22 home game against Tulane, especially for a team that needs to get healthy. 

“We are banged up,” Simon said. “We’ve had a tough stretch of games. We got to utilize it (the bye week), both mentally and kind of taking a load off, but at the same time looking at a good Tulane football team.”