November 7, 2020 –
It was a good start for the Temple Owls who scored on their first offensive play. The Owls led 13 – 10 at halftime. Then the #18 SMU Mustangs offense got going in the second half behind the passing of Shane Buechele, who threw for 4 touchdowns, in a 47 – 23 win over Temple at the Linc.
“Our guys certainly fought hard, we had a good plan, but didn’t execute it enough,” said Temple Coach Rod Carey. “At times we did, just not enough. And the end of the game was what the end of the game was.”
In the second half the Mustangs outscored the Owls by a 37 – 10 margin, and Temple scored with 35 seconds to play. In the second half the Mustangs put up 357 yards of offense. For the game the offense was generated mostly in the air for SMU. Buechele threw for 355 yards. His main targets were; wide receiver Tyler Page who had 9 catches for 131 yards and 2 touchdowns, and tight end Kylen Grayson with 6 receptions for 149 yards scoring once.
Temple contained SMU in the first half, but like last week, the game got away in the latter thirty minutes.
“In the past few games we’ve been starting well, but in the second half we have to make sure we finish with the same intensity,” said Temple linebacker William Kwenkue, who led the Owls with 10 tackles.
The Cherry and White got off to that good start when quarterback Trad Beatty threw a 75-yard touchdown pass to Randle Jones who ran it down the right sideline 13 seconds into the game. Eventually, the short handed Temple team would lose both players to injury. Overall, the Cherry and White were down 15 players due to COVID protocol. But the biggest loss was during the week when leading rusher Re’Mahn Davis announced that he was leaving the school and will enter the transfer portal. A team can run out of gas in this situation.
After both teams would get a touchdown the second half scoring started with Buechele hitting Tyler Page with a 44-yard strike. After both squads traded field goals, Buechele threw a 24-yard touchdown pass to Grayson early in the fourth quarter and a 26 -16 lead.
Temple tried to get back gambling with a fourth down try deep in their own territory. Quarterback Re’al Mitchell was stuffed by linebacker Richard McBryde for no gain giving SMU the ball on the Owls 34, and all the momentum the Mustangs needed.
“It was a power run,” Mitchell said. “I tried my hardest, but it didn’t work out.”
“I have to get away from him a little bit more and get that yard.”
Buechele found Grayson with a pass getting the ball inside the Temple 10. The Mustangs scored two plays later, then followed that with two more touchdowns.
Overall, SMU gained 549 yards of total offense, 194 on the ground.
Temple gained 368 yards. On the ground Tayvon Ruley, making his first start in place of Davis ran for 66 yards on 15 carries crossing the goal line once. Mitchell also had 66 yards running, and the scoring toss, his first as a Temple player, went to Aaron Jarman, his initial score as well.
The Owls travel to UCF next week. The quarterback duties will fall to Mitchell. The running back situation will have Ruley as the lead back. For this team it will be another situation where they will need to a changing environment.
Written By: Glenn Papazian
Contact: Glenn@PhillyCollegeSports.com
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