The game came and went, and we are now left with just as many questions as answers as we had heading into last weekend. Yes, Temple was way better than any of the Nittany faithful were expecting this past weekend and they came out and punched Penn State right in the mouth. It was a great test of adversity, but we learned a lot from this past weekend.
Temple came out of the gates like a ticked off teenager this week and seriously brought it to the Nittany Lions. This was not the same Temple team that we have faced in previous years and they deserve credit for making this into a serious contest because our team needed a game like this before Big Ten play. All credit to the Owls and Al Golden for bringing in a team that came in with the expectation to win, and if they had some semblance of a passing game, they just might have pulled off the feat. I think the rest of the country will realize who Temple is at the end of the year, when they finish the season as MAC champions with an 11-1 record.
As for the game, Temple got off to a pretty fast start with their physical play and everyone got to see a glimpse of Bernard Pierce in action as he accounted for both of their first quarter touchdowns. Who would've known that Temple would have come in and seized the lead early in this game against Penn State (Steve Pick). They showed that they could play just as physical a game as Penn State, and they made something happen that needed to happen. They gave us even more of a reason to play with an edge, especially after going in to halftime down 13-9 to Temple.
Penn State came out in the second half on fire on the defensive side of the ball. I think the defense found its leaders in Nate Stupar and Mike Mauti, did anyone notice how fast they were flying to the ball? That is something that we have been missing since game 1. The rest of the defense fueled off of their attitude and starting making plays all over field, and simply shut Temple out for the remainder of the game to the tune of only two first downs for Temple the entire second half.
Another aspect of the game was the way Royster was running. He's back and he looked good breaking off at least five runs of ten yards or more. I don't want to hear this is Temple, he should've had 300 yards because the truth is that Temple's defensive line has two future NFL players on it and a future NFL linebacker that are pretty good at stopping the run. Either way, its great to see Royster run well and even better to see him get more than 9 touches and get into a rhythm. My hats are off to the coaches as they made excellent decisions by sticking with the run and allowing Royster to break out of his "slump" right before a big match-up looming with Iowa.
As for the rest of the offense, they did a great job of staying balanced and I loved that they opened it up a little bit and loosened their hold on Bolden. They are letting him take more chances and actually take the reins of the offense, they are truly starting to let him run the show. I have to give the coaches credit for their play calling all game, taking risks with Bolden, knowing that they were in a dog fight with Temple. It was so great to see them have faith in their young QB to lead the team in a tight match-up and develop some sort of an identity.
As for the play of the offense, they did a great job all over the field except for one area....the red zone. A majority of their drives ended in field goals rather than touchdowns and that needs to change. We need to start converting more of these opportunities if we want to have a chance at competing with the likes of Iowa and Ohio State. On a more positive note, Bolden did lead a late 96 yard touchdown drive that all but sealed the victory for Penn State. If they can continue to build off of that, then we got a great chance of making some noise during Big Ten play.
All in all, the game was pretty ugly by our standards because we would have liked to see a blowout over Temple. In my opinion, I think it was a beautiful game, there is nothing better for a team than a true test before conference play. This reminds me of 2005 when we struggled against a lowly USF team, and only beat them 23-13. By the end of the year, a lot of the players were saying that that game (and the NW game) helped them identify what they needed to get done in order to win.
Up Next: Iowa Preview
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