Temple Pulls Away From Memphis; Sacred Heart Wins

For one reason, he also had an idea of which direction the Owls would take.

Memphis (8-2) and Temple (8-2) each look for their ninth win of the season.

By holding the previously ranked Tigers without a touchdown, the Owls improved to 9-2 overall and 6-1 in the American Conference. The Owls can clinch the AAC East Division with a victory this weekend or next week against CT, or if South Florida loses one of its final two games. Already bowl eligible, each achievement will put the Owls closer to a more attractive postseason game.

Elliott drilled three field goals, the third from 44 yards with 1:28 remaining to cut the deficit to 14-9. “It doesn’t matter what position we get put in, we tell Coach Rhule, ‘We’ve got this”. “Our corners did a great job, but the D-line dominated”. Temple would add to their lead on a 14 yard run by David Hood for a 14-6 lead. Temple would open things up in the 4th quarter starting with a 13 yard touchdown run to Kip Patton to make it 21-12, then they would add a 35 yard field goal for a 24-12 lead.

But the defense was the difference, occasionally bending, but not enough to permit touchdowns. Linebacker Tyler Matakevich recorded his 100th tackle on the season, making this his fourth straight year with 100 tackles. “You have to drive down the field at least once or twice and punch it in”.

Memphis won the toss & deferred to 2nd half, Temple got ball to start the game, On Temple opening drive of the game, they would fumble it and Memphis recovered it, Memphis would go 3 and out on their first drive as they could not take advantage of the turnover.

Lynch completed 25 of 34 attempts for 156 yards.

After Temple had built a 14-6 lead late in the second quarter, Lynch had gotten Memphis into Owls territory again.

“For these guys to come back the way they did is hard to do”, Owls defensive coordinator Phil Snow said. “He has always been a really good quarterback and his touchdown to interception ratio has been pretty good this year”.

Apparently, it was not easy. Matakevich is now one of seven players to accomplish such a feat.

“We know what is at stake”, Matakevich said.

Elliott missed a 37-yarder a little over 10 minutes to play in quarter three as the ball bounced forward off the right upright. We said, ‘We have to get back to our fundamentals. “And that’s playing hard-nosed, tough football for four quarters and being the more physical team”. “We had it in us all along and unfortunately the previous two weeks we weren’t clicking”. “We just did not come out and execute”.

The ability to stop the run was a major reason why Temple earned a 31-12 win over Memphis in Saturday’s American Athletic Conference game at Lincoln Financial Field. “He’s always been a really good quarterback”, coach Matt Rhule said of Walker.

He expressed a wariness of CT. “That’s what it is”.