Thursday’s loss to Army has Temple still searching for back-to-back wins in the Stan Drayton era

On Thursday night, Temple had a legitimate opportunity to win two games in a week, significant when you consider head coach Stan Drayton has not won back-to-back games since taking over the program.

He’ll still have to wait a while longer as Temple lost to a red-hot Army team, 42-14 at Lincoln Financial Field. The Owls (1-4, 0-2 American) put up three scoreless quarters but had two touchdowns in the fourth. However, the Black Knights held off Temple’s comeback attempt en route to their third conference win.

Here are three takeaways from what amounted to the Owls’ fifth consecutive AAC loss.

The Owls picked up minus-five yards on the ground on 22 attempts, its lowest total on the ground this season. Quarterback Evan Simon had to throw 30 pass attempts, completing 19 for 224 yards and one touchdown. However, the junior transfer was sacked seven times, the most Temple has given up since 2010.

“Credit to Army; everyone will tell you they were the better team,” Simon said. “They really were. They were a physical team; they play hard.”

Temple had 15 third-down opportunities and needed to pick up more than five yards on 11 of those attempts. The Owls converted just seven third downs against Army. The Owls crossed into Army’s territory just four times, and their longest drive was seven plays and 75 yards at the end of the third quarter.

Army entered the matchup as the second-best rushing offense in the country. In this game, the Black Knights had 412 rushing yards, only needing three pass completions to do damage.

They also held the ball for about nine more minutes, finishing with 35 minutes on offense. Quarterback Bryson Daily led all rushers with 152 yards and three touchdowns, and running back Kanye Udoh added 128 yards and a score.

“No one has stopped the run against [Army] all year,” Drayton said. “I don’t really want to use that as an excuse. That’s what they do. They’re really damn good at it. We have to find a way to interiorly be more stout than we were today.”

Temple hadn’t given up more than 400 rushing yards since its 34-14 loss to South Florida on Oct. 23, 2021.

The Owls had several chances to change the game’s complexion — but couldn’t take advantage.

Simon found junior wide receiver Antonio Jones on a 49-yard catch-and-run in the first three minutes of the game, but offensive lineman Diego Barajas was penalized for holding.

Then, long snapper Andrew McIlquham nearly recovered a muffed punt in the second quarter, but the officials ruled Army recovered the ball after the scrum. The referees made a similar call near the end of the first half, ruling Daily made an incomplete pass when defensive end Diwun Black appeared to strip the quarterback.

“We did everything out there today that warrants losing the ball game,” Drayton said. “Didn’t protect the quarterback very well today; we’ve got to figure that out. [We had] a lot of miscommunication going on out there. Holding penalties taking touchdowns off the board, just sloppy play early. We need to address what’s happening in the interior on defense.”

The Owls get a bit of a break before trying to bounce back on the road against UConn (2-2) on Oct. 5 (3:30 p.m., CBSSN). In another series of firsts, a win against the Huskies would be Drayton’s first-ever road victory as well.

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