Temple escapes Tulsa with 38-37 overtime win
Evan Simon called it a “culture” win. It certainly was an exciting one.
Either way, Temple’s 38-37 overtime victory at Tulsa Saturday bumped the Owls to a 5-3 record and one win shy of bowl eligibility for the first time in six years.
Simon, the Owls’ star of the day, completed 24 of his 35 passes for 265 yards and five touchdowns. He made quick work of Tulsa’s defense in the extra period when Temple lost the coin toss but got the ball first in overtime. The redshirt senior hit Colin Chase on a 24-yard throw on first down and then Kajiya Hollawayne for a 1-yard touchdown connection in the back of the end zone to put the Owls ahead by 38-31.
Tulsa quarterback Baylor Hayes proved to be up for the challenge on the ensuing possession, just as he had all day. On fourth-and-6 from the Temple 9-yard line, Hayes found his tight end Brody Foley for a touchdown pass that was set to help tie the game with an ensuing extra point and prompt another overtime period.
But Tulsa head coach Tre Lamb elected to go for the win instead with a two-point conversion attempt and trotted Foley out as a wildcat quarterback, just as he had on a handful of occasions earlier. This time, Foley tried a jump pass, but Temple defensive tackle Allan Haye got in front of the football at the goal line.
The ball hit the ground, and Temple rejoiced in its gritty road win.
“Temple is changing,” Simon told ESPN during his postgame interview on the field. “We’ve got five wins now and we’re looking forward for our sixth. … (It’s) just culture.”
The Owls, who outgained the Golden Hurricane (2-6, 0-5 in the American Conference) by 447-436 on the day, had a chance to win the game on their last possession but couldn’t advance past Tulsa’s 49-yard line. When Dante Atton punted the ball down to the Golden Hurricane 20, Lamb elected to have Hayes take a knee with 27 seconds left in regulation and send the game go to overtime, even though Tulsa had two timeouts left against a Temple defense that had just committed two pass interference penalties on the previous series.
In some ways, Saturday’s win might feel like retribution for a Temple team just two weeks removed from losing a heartbreaker to Navy in which the Midshipmen successfully converted a two-point conversion pass to get the game-winning points with 39 seconds left.
Instead, Temple scratched out a win on a day in which it surrendered early momentum and watched its secondary struggle against a crafty quarterback in Hayes, who consistently avoided pressure and completed 19 of his 31 attempts for 296 yards and three touchdowns. The Owls squandered a 72-yard run by Hunter Smith in the second quarter by falling short on fourth-and-goal from the Tulsa 2 four plays later. Hayes responded by leading the Golden Hurricane on a 99-yard scoring that put them ahead by 17-14 with three seconds to go before halftime.
Temple scored on its first two drives of the third quarter courtesy of touchdown passes from Simon, a 13-yarder to running back Jay Ducker and a 6-yard toss to Hollawayne, who caught 10 passes for 85 yards and three touchdowns on 15 targets Saturday, becoming just the third player in program history to record at least 10 catches and three touchdowns in a single game.
After the Owls’ next two drives stalled, they grabbed a 31-24 lead with 6:05 left in regulation courtesy of Carl Hardin’s career-long, 52-yard field goal. Needing a stop from there, Temple’s defense turned in its worst series of the day. Linebacker Jayvant Brown bailed out Hayes and the Tulsa offense on third-and-10 with a pass interference penalty, and safety Avery Powell was called for the same foul on the next play. (Powell, by the way, had to be helped off the field on Tulsa’s overtime series after getting injured.)
Two plays after Powell’s flag, Hayes hit Josh Smith on a 43-yard pass in which Temple cornerback Ben Osueke was positioned to make a play on the ball but did not. Dominic Richardson scored from a yard out three plays later to help tie the game at 31-31with 3:44 left in the fourth quarter.
Stat stuff
Temple’s offense, which started Mausa Palu at left guard for the second straight week in place of an injured Eric King, benefitted from multiple playmakers once again. Smith (10 carries, 92 yards) and Ducker (16 carries, 78 yards) combined for 170 yards and a 6.5 yards-per-carry mark. Simon completed passes to five different receivers, with JoJo Bermudez (four catches, 58 yards), Ducker (four catches, 23 yards) and Peter Clarke (three catches, 71 yards) chipping in.
Following Saturday’s performance, Simon has completed 132 of his 209 passes for 1,610 yards, 21 touchdowns and zero interceptions this season.
Defensively, Jaylen Castleberry and linebacker Curly Ordonez paced Temple with eight tackles apiece, and linebacker Katin Surprenant had seven stops, teamed up with safety Dontae Pollard for the Owls’ lone sack of the day and forced a fumble that redshirt freshman Russell Sykes recovered. Temple converted that turnover into a 10-play, 59-yard drive Simon capped with his first touchdown pass to Ducker.
Up next
Temple is playing for bowl eligibility and its third-straight win when it hosts East Carolina next Saturday at 2 p.m. at Lincoln Financial Field. The Pirates (4-3 overall, 2-1 American Conference) will be coming off a bye after their 41-27 win over Tulsa back on Oct. 16.
