Penn State beaten by Temple for first time since 1941
PHILADELPHIA — Temple reserved Lincoln Financial Field, where the Philadelphia Eagles play, for its home game against Penn State on Saturday, drawing a record crowd of 69,176. The home team was well-represented but still seemed to be outnumbered by Nittany Lions fans who filled the parking lots to start celebrating what surely would be another in a long series of wins over the Owls.
The last Temple victory over Penn State came in October 1941. Since then, the Lions were 38-0-1.
Now a “1” can be in the middle.
When someone checked the microphone in the interview room after the Owls' 27-10 victory, all their points coming unanswered, Temple coach Matt Rhule, a State College native and former Penn State linebacker, deadpanned, “This must be big for someone to get a mic check.”
Big it was. Temple's fans went bonkers. The Penn State crowd sullenly filed out, many early, missing the last of the 10 sacks Temple inflicted on quarterback Christian Hackenberg.
Yes, 10 sacks.
The first came after Penn State took an early 10-0 lead, and it was here that coach James Franklin said things began to come apart. For all the punishment Hackenberg took last season, physical and otherwise, while being sacked 44 times, never in one game had the sacks hit double-figures.
But Temple, a member of the American Athletic Conference, which resides somewhere outside the boundaries of Penn State's Big Ten and the other so-called Power 5 conferences, did it.
If it wasn't the Owls overpowering the Lions up front, it was stunts and blitzes and mind games that seemed to render Penn State clueless. Aside from Akeel Lynch's 42-yard touchdown run and a couple of jet sweeps by freshman receiver Brandon Polk, the running game sputtered. The defense, often dominant in 2014, yielded a 93-yard touchdown drive in the second quarter as injuries thinned out the linebacking corps.
“I know our fans, I know the alumni, I know everybody is really disappointed,” said Franklin, whose start to his second season was as much a body blow as what Hackenberg had to take. “There's nobody as disappointed as the men in that locker room right now.”
The Owls have 10 starters back from their 2014 defense. But the manner in which Hackenberg was treated seemed to defy belief, especially after all the happy talk during the spring and summer about how things would be better.
“Obviously, sacks are an issue,” Franklin said.
Perhaps most discouraging from the Penn State standpoint, Franklin said the players starting on the offensive line are the five best.
“The guys that are backing them up are redshirt freshmen that we don't feel are ready,” he said. “Obviously, there are going to be some adjustments that we will have to make.”
Yes, so much was obvious.
Hackenberg, who talked all preseason about how comfortable he was in the second year of Franklin's offense, looked anything but on the field. The sacks aside, he was 11 for 25 for 103 yards and an interception that Sharif Finch, a 257-pound defensive end, returned 26 yards to the Penn State 2. It led to the go-ahead touchdown late in the third quarter when it was 10-10.
Penn State fared no better in the fourth quarter, gaining just 11 yards.
After the game, Hackenberg seemed no worse for the wear, which could not be said about several injured Nittany Lions, notably redshirt junior middle linebacker Nyeem Wartman-White, a Philly native who looked forward to his homecoming. Now he is lost for the season with an apparent knee injury.
Hackenberg, mentioned as a possible high NFL Draft pick, refused to blame anyone or even try to pick apart what went wrong.
“It is what it is,” he said. “They came out and executed better than we did today. That's a really good football team.”
Senior center Angelo Mangiro said the Temple linebackers were active and that overall, “They did a great job.”
He added, “We have to play better. We've got to learn from our mistakes.”
There is plenty from which to learn.
Bob Cohn is a staff writer for Trib Total Media. Reach him at bcohn@tribweb.com or via Twitter @BCohn_Trib.
