Temple out to nab its first win streak of the Stan Drayton era against East Carolina

Fresh off its second win of the season, Temple is in prime position to accomplish two things they haven’t done in years when they travel to play East Carolina on Saturday.

A win against the Pirates would give the Owls their first road win and first back-to-back wins under head coach Stan Drayton, who is in his third year leading the program.

“I know that [the road losing streak] is not from a lack of effort,” Drayton said. “It’s not from our lack of trying or anything like that. Our players don’t feel like there’s a stigma on us when we go to travel. [Against] UConn, the last road game, we were on the 1-yard line to win the ballgame, and we fumbled the football.”

With a strong chance to keep its already slim bowl game hopes alive, here are three things Temple needs to do to pull out a meaningful win.

Quarterback Evan Simon found 13 different pass catchers last week against Tulsa and totaled a season-high 297 passing yards. He did it without Dante Wright, one of the American Athletic Conference’s best receivers, who left the game after the first quarter with a lower-body injury.

In both of Temple’s wins this season, Simon has found more than 10 pass catchers. The Owls are at their best when everyone in their receiver room gets involved. If Wright draws most of the attention from ECU’s defense, then players like John Adams, Zae Baines, and Antonio Jones will need to be available.

The Owls have also found success utilizing their tight ends in recent weeks. Daniel Evert, who missed the first three weeks with a broken hand suffered in training camp, had a touchdown in each of his first two games and added two more catches last week against Tulsa. Peter Clarke and Landon Morris have also shown flashes. Morris had his best game as an Owl since transferring from Utah last week, finishing with 97 yards.

“Landon is very, very talented,” Drayton said. “We have a very talented group of receivers and [it] can’t be Dante Wright being the only target on offense. We have to do a much better job of spreading the ball around, and that comes down to coaching. So we need to expand on what we’re capable of doing from a talent standpoint.”

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Temple recorded three sacks against the toughest opponent on its schedule in a week 1 loss to Oklahoma. But in the weeks following, the Owls’ pass rush was essentially nonexistent.

The Owls got a boost when defensive end Diwun Black, who missed the first several games of the season for what Drayton described as “something Diwun was going through,” returned to the lineup. Against Tulsa, he had five tackles, two sacks, and a forced fumble. He also recorded eight tackles the week prior against UConn.

Black’s return also gives Temple its preferred defensive alignment, with Black on one side of the defensive line and fellow edge rusher Tra Thomas on the other. Thomas has eight sacks during his three years at Temple, with two coming this year.

During training camp, defensive coordinator Everett Withers changed Temple’s defense from a 3-4 to a 4-3, largely to allow Thomas and Black to share the field and attack the passer at the same time — something they were not able to do last year.

“Sitting out that long, I’ve been ready to go for when my turn comes,” Black said. “At a certain point, I felt like I missed a lot of playing time when I wasn’t there so I do feel like I’m trying to catch up.”

Temple has struggled to effectively run the ball all season, but they may have found a bright spot in JUCO transfer Terrez Worthy.

Worthy has 23 fewer carries than fellow running back Antwain Littleton, who leads the team. But Worthy has still outgained him by almost 20 yards. He is also averaging 6.2 yards per carry compared to Littleton’s 3.3.

Worthy first impressed in the Owls’ win against Utah State on Sept. 21 with five carries for 48 yards. But he didn’t get a single touch the following week against Army. In Temple’s last two games against UConn and Tulsa, Worthy had 12 carries in each for 136 total yards, with 95 coming against the Huskies.

The Owls need to use Worthy as their feature back to effectively run the ball and open up the passing game. The threat of a handoff to Worthy could open up deep shots down the field in play action.