BOX SCORE
Matt Brown looked over his shoulder on his way into the end zone to see if there were any Army players within reach.
The Black Knights were lagging behind on that first-quarter score and so were teammate Bernard Pierces stats while on the sideline as Brown took the early lead in their friendly rivalry.
Temples top running backs took turns gashing the defense as Brown and Pierce combined for 290 of the Owls 335 rushing yards in a dominant 42-14 victory over Army at Lincoln Financial Field.
We go back and forth on the sideline and I told him last week that was his only free pass that he was ever going to rush for more yards than me when were both playing in the game, said Pierce, who suited up for last weeks win over Miami (Ohio) but did not play as a precaution for a head injury. He held true to his word, rumbling for 157 yards and three touchdowns.
We were actually talking to each other like, Ill have more yards than you. No, Im going to have more yards than you, said Brown, who finished with 133 yards on the ground and two scores. Then, it looked like I was going to finish out with more yards, but he broke that big run. I was so mad. I was like, No, coach, put me back in but time ran out.
Its good, the competition is good. It just brings out the best in us.
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The competition also helped bring out some of the best in Temple (7-4, 4-3 MAC) program history. The Owls five TD runs gave them a school record of 32 for the season. A victory also gave Temple seniors 29, the most of any four-year class at the school.
It was a team win for us, a great team win, head coach Steve Addazio said. Its really critical in November that youre playing that kind of football.
That brand of football for Army (3-8) means futility when it comes to playing at the Linc. The Black Knights are winless at the stadium in nine tries.
Well, theyre a better than we are, OK. Lets start with that, Army head coach Rich Ellerson said. Theyre a better football team than we are, but weve got a better football team than that.
The thing we talked about going into this is we knew we didnt match up well with them defensively. The offensive line was a lot more physical than ours. But frankly they didnt have to be because it didnt matter if they blocked us or not. And as hard as we were leaning on that part of the game, we leaned crazy hard on that and they still did it well. Thats heartbreaking.
Temple was headed in the right direction from the opening kickoff. The Owls took the first possession and used just six plays to drive 80 yards for the games first points when Brown raced in from 22 yards away. They followed that up on their next series by going 88 yards on 15 playsall rusheswith Pierce hurdling over the pylon on an 11-yard touchdown just before the first quarter expired.
After a Pierce one-yard plunge made it 21-0, Chris Coyer took advantage of the Black Knights secondary on a 36-yard strike to wideout Joe Jones for a TD to effectively close the curtain before halftime.
Obviously, any time you can rush for 335 yards, thats a lot, Addazio said. We threw the ball five times. Our stats throwing will continue to be what they are that way, but it doesnt matter. We just won our seventh game and thats the plan to win, especially this week. That was by design so it was great.
While everything was clicking on offense for the Owls, Armys heralded rushing attack was sluggish out of the gate.
Starting quarterback Trent Steelmans return to the Black Knights offense from an ankle injury lasted just two plays as he appeared to aggravate it on a pair of runs. Without Steelman, the triple-option scheme looked unable to get on track in the first half and put the squad in a hole.
The Owls believe it helped that Addazio played in the offense in college and ran it as a high school coach.
The coaches did an unbelievable job, said safety Kevin Kroboth. They got the scout team really prepared for how Army was going to come at us. Coach Addazio took a lot of time out of being with the offense and came over to our defense and taught the whole scout team how to run those option plays. They did an incredible job and got us ready.
When Army finally found some running room that produces points in the second half, Temples two-punch combination at running back responded. Brown ripped off a 52-yard TD in the fourth quarter and Pierce added a dazzling 49-yard score for good measure to cap the victory.
The Owls win in front of the home crowd on Saturday meant a lot to the program, but little regarding their fate in the MAC East. That had already been decided when Ohio edged Bowling Green earlier in the week to secure its place atop the standings.
For a team out of the mix in its own conference, Addazio made sure to let his players know greater goals are still attainable.
We talked all about respect and legacy, he said. Here we are, we have an opportunity to go get our seventh win and we have a chance then to get eight wins. We have a chance to go to a great bowl game. Theres such great legacy for these seniors here and so many great things to play for.
E-mail Matt Haughton at mhaughton@comcastsportsnet.com