Even after a historic win over a team Temple hadn’t beaten in 74 years, Matt Rhule still had to play second fiddle to Penn State for a brief moment.
Rhule stepped to the podium following Temple’s dominant 27-10 win over Penn State in its season opener at Lincoln Financial Field on Saturday, but before he could get to fully dissect the victory, an announcement was made that the Nittany Lions’ press conference was being held across the hall. Rhule patiently waited as half of the assembled media scurried out the door.
“Thank you guys very much for staying. I appreciate that,” Rhule said to laughter in the room.
It was the only time all day that Temple allowed Penn State to dictate what happened at the Linc.
The Owls overcame an early double-digit deficit by scoring 27 unanswered points to beat the Nittany Lions for the first time since Oct. 18, 1941.
“I’m really proud of Temple. I’m proud of our fans, our students. I’m proud of our trustees, our president and everybody that stuck with us in some dark times,” Rhule said. “Hopefully, this won’t be the highlight of the season. That’s my goal.”
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It’s going to be pretty hard for Rhule’s group to top this one. It’s not every day that you snap a 39-game winless skid against your intrastate rival in front of a record 69,176 crowd.
“It’s just awesome,” linebacker Tyler Matakevich said. “We put in so much time and so much work to come out with a win in college football. It’s hard to win a college football game, let me tell you that. … It’s so rewarding to see all your guys do their job and celebrate. At the end when the clock says zero you look up at the scoreboard and it says what the score was, that’s the greatest feeling in the world.”
Temple looked like it would have to wait yet again for that feeling after falling behind by 10 points in the first quarter. The Owls looked to have some early-game jitters as they allowed the Nittany Lions to score on their first two possessions.
That’s when defensive coordinator Phil Snow began dialing up the blitzes in bunches to get to PSU quarterback and potential NFL first-round draft pick, Christian Hackenberg.
That philosophy worked in a huge way, as Temple exposed a Penn State offensive line that let Hackenberg get sacked 44 times a season ago.
The Owls racked up an American Athletic Conference record 10 sacks to help rattle Hackenberg.
“We just kept attacking,” said Nate D. Smith, who accounted for two of those sacks. “Their O-line was a little weak and we exposed the weaknesses.”
“The biggest thing we did today was we started disguising,” Matakevich said. “You could tell [Hackenberg] got really uncomfortable. We started disguising and he started making checks right away.”
With Hackenberg out of sorts, Temple was able to find its own offensive rhythm. The Owls put together a 93-yard touchdown drive before the half to cut the deficit to three. Then they tacked on a field goal midway through the third quarter to tie things up.
That’s when TU’s masking of its blitzes really got the best of Hackenberg.
On 2nd-and-2 at the PSU 28-yard line, Hackenberg dropped back and quickly fired to his right after feeling pressure. Only the QB didn’t see Temple defensive end Sharif Finch drift into pass coverage. Finch plucked the ball out of the air for an interception and rumbled down the sideline before being knocked out of bounds at the 2-yard line.
Temple quarterback P.J. Walker scored on a zone-read run two plays later to give the Owls their first lead of the game. They followed that up on their next possession with a 24-yard TD run by Jahad Thomas (135 yards rushing, two touchdowns) to essentially put the game out of reach.
“It was a great play. We were giving them a couple of new looks and a new blitz. We blitzed the whole game,” Finch said of his crucial interception. “I kind of engaged the tackle and saw in his eyes where the ball was going because he saw the blitz coming. I knew it was coming out quick, so I just jumped out.
“You put the pressure on him and you’re hitting him, he doesn’t like to get hit,” he added about Hackenberg. “We saw the look in his face. He was just kind of rattled. When you hit a quarterback a lot, he gets sacked, he’s thrown a pick, he’s going to get rattled. The look in his eyes was kind of like dazed.”
The numbers support those claims. Hackenberg was 11 of 25 for 103 yards and one interception in the loss, as Penn State mustered just 54 yards of offense after the first quarter.
The dismal effort did nothing to bump Hackenberg’s draft stock in front of a host of pro scouts. It also did nothing to change the perception of PSU head coach James Franklin as merely a good recruiter and motivator, and not a coach able to make adjustments.
“We’ve got to protect him. It starts with that,” Franklin said. “It’s our job as coaches and as offensive players to protect, and we’ve got to be able to run the ball consistently as well. Hey guys, it’s the same message as last year. We’ve got to protect him consistently and we’ve got to run the ball consistently.
“When you play the way we did today, I would be disappointed. People can question. It’s our job to silence the questions. It’s our job to get out on the field and produce and play well. That’s our responsibility. There’s going to be criticism. I get that, but I am as committed and determined today as I’ve been since the day I got the job, and it’s our job to silence the critics.”
There was no criticism of Temple on this day. The Owls were finally able to step out of the shadow of their neighbors in Happy Valley and prove that they can stand on their own against the giants in college football.
“The reason I believe that we won, besides having good players that did what we asked, is because they focused on themselves and not Penn State,” Rhule said. “We didn’t play Penn State music. We didn’t have the scout team wear blue jerseys. We focused on us and the players bought into that.
“Even at the end I said, ‘Hey, it’s not the fact that we beat Penn State. It’s the fact that we won.’ It’s about Temple, not Penn State.”