Temple’s 52-6 loss to Tulane Saturday down in New Orleans was as rough as the final score would indicate.
The Owls were beaten at the line of scrimmage, overmatched from the first quarter, and fell to 2-7 with three games remaining on the schedule.
A 75-yard touchdown run from tailback Terrez Worthy on a nicely-executed draw midway through the fourth quarter was the only bright spot for the Owls, but it of course came when the game was well out of reach.
Otherwise, Tulane (8-2 overall, 6-0 American Athletic Conference) showed why it’s in great position to return to the conference championship game. The Green Wave racked up 589 yards of total offense, including 327 on the ground, and grabbed a commanding, 28-0 lead at halftime with the help of two rushing touchdowns from Makhi Hughes. The 5-foot-11, 210-pound redshirt sophomore scored on runs of four and three yards in the first half en route to gaining 153 yards on 19 carries.
“They were physically stronger than us,” third-year Temple head coach Stan Drayton said during a postgame Zoom call with reporters. “They played better than us. It’s one thing when you're playing against a team that is bigger than you, stronger than you, but they played better. They executed better than we did as well. So, yeah, that was the case, that we definitely lost the line of scrimmage on both sides of the ball. Wasn't even close.”
Temple’s offensive line, which saw starting center Grayson Mains carted off the field with an injury in the second half, surrendered six sacks and offered little time to throw for quarterback Evan Simon, who completed 11 of 22 passes for just 56 yards. Wide receiver Dante Wright dressed and went through pregame warmups but did not play. Drayton said Wright is “just not quite there yet” in recovering from an injury he sustained early in Temple’s Oct. 19 win over Tulsa.
The Owls were an abysmal 1 of 13 on third downs, recorded just five first downs all day and watched the Green Wave run 30 more offensive plays and win the time-of-possession battle by nearly 20 minutes in the rout.
“This is a very good football team,” a frustrated Drayton said of Tulane. “I mean, they've invested in some players. So, yeah. You could just tell. They're physically very, very strong. Functionally, very, very strong. We had a hard time tackling them. We had our guys around the football at times, and we’ve got to make plays. I'm not going to sit here and sound like I'm making excuses here, but we were outmatched in a lot of spots, and we’ve just got to find a way to play better to equalize that.”
When asked about Worthy’s late touchdown run, Drayton offered a glimpse of how he’ll try to get his team to not let an already tough season spiral way out of control.
“One thing I can't say is that, as bad as it looked, I’ll have to really look hard at the film to see if there's anybody quitting,” Drayton said, “and [Worthy] did not quit. It was well blocked and he was able to be explosive on the on the edge, and that's what we're trying to do with that kid, is to try to get him in space. That’s where he's very dynamic, and he showed off his speed. It was good to see.”
