Temple Was Poised to Win, But UConn Wins 29 – 20
October 5, 2024 –
The Temple Owls were in position to win the game. They drove the ball 71-yards to the Connecticut Huskies one-yard line trailing 23 – 20. The clock showed 3 seconds to play. After a timeout the Cherry and White lined up for what could be a game-winning touchdown. Their second attempt to score from one-yard away. Emulating the Philadelphia Eagles tush-push, a play they called Hurts last year. This year it did. The ball was snapped to quarterback Tyler Douglas, He could not control it. The ball was on the ground, UConn defensive back Jordan Wright who picked up and took it to the house from 99-yards away to seal the win for the Huskies 29 – 20.
Stunning, unreal, hard to take, do you believe this, OMG, all appropriate descriptions.
Temple showed mettle in getting to this point. The team took a gamble. Douglas ran the same play on a 4th and 1 from the UConn 10 with 1:52 to play for a first down. Then the UConn defense showed their mettle forcing four plays that set up the dramatic ending.
Special Game for the Special Teams
Neither offense would score a touchdown until the 2:11 mark of the third quarter. The Huskies led 9 – 7 on three field goals. The Owls scored a touchdown on a blocked punt by Antwone Santiago that was recovered in the endzone by John Adams.
In the third quarter Maddux Trujillo made two field goals, the first from 60-yards away to give the Owls a 10 – 9 edge. Trujillo became the third kicker in NCAA history to have multiple made field goals of 60-yards or more in the same season. Tony Franklin of Texas A&M (64, 65) in 1976 and Russell Erxleben from Texas (64, 67) in 1977 were the others. His field goal from 42-yards away put Temple ahead 13 – 9. Trujillo missed from 32-yards in between his makes.
Offenses Got On Track
Connecticut answered right away taking a 16 – 13 lead on a 58-yard touchdown pass from Joe Fagnano to TJ Sheffield.
Temple took the lead back when quarterback Forrest Brock ran for an 8-yard touchdown to cap a 5-play 44-yard drive that started by an interception by Elijah Deravil with 9:52 to play. The lead went back to UConn when Durrell Robinson crossed the goal line from a yard away. A significant drive that went 70-yards in 10-plays that took 3:31 at the 3:46 mark.
Temple Defense
The Owls had a gritty defensive effort hold the high powered Huskies rushing offense to 99 yards. Temple had two interceptions by Jaylen Lewis and Deravil. Robinson ran for 52 yards for UConn and Cam Edwards gained 40. Sheffield was their main weapon hauling in 9 passes for 141 yards. Linebacker Tyqual King made a game-high 15 tackles for the Cherry and White. Andreas Keaton added 11 stops.
The Running Is Worthy
Torrez Worthy led the Temple running game carrying the ball 12 times for 95 yards. He had a 35-yard in the final drive to put Temple in proximity to the goal line. The Owls ran for 134 total yards. One can imagine if they put up 135. Brock returned to the starting lineup and ran for 14 yards while completing 18 of 32 passes for 136 yards. He was intercepted once.
Other Numbers of Note
Huskies quarterback Fagnano completed 24 of 41 passes for 272 yards.
Dante Wright caught 8 passes for 67 yards.
Both teams punted the ball 15 times (Temple 8 UConn 7). Neither were successful on 3rd Down Conversions with Temple going 4 of 17 and Connecticut successful 3 of 15 times.
Up Next
Let’s see how 1 – 5, 0 – 2 Temple responds to this game. They have a bye week in get past this game, then hosts Tulsa in the Homecoming Game on October 19.
Written By: Glenn Papazian
Contact: Glenn@PhillyCollegeSports.com
Be the first to comment