What do you do when your team has officially become predictable?
In each of its five wins this season, Temple has gotten off to an early lead and staved off its opponents with good defense and clock control. The winning formula: In every game they won, the Owls were the first team to score. They also led after the first quarter in every game (except against Tulsa, a 7-7 tie). No team has come from behind to beat Temple this year other than Memphis, which was down by 10 going into the second quarter but ultimately won by three.
When the Owls’ opponent scores first, the opposite is true. Temple hasn’t won a game coming from behind. This is mostly because opponents can stop sophomore quarterback P.J. Walker when they know he’s going to pass. And when the Owls are playing from behind, they know Walker is going to pass.
Walker was supposed to lead the Owls to the next level this year. As a freshman in 2013, he set Temple records for passing yards (2,084) and touchdowns (20) in only seven starts, also completing over 60 percent of his passes. Coming into camp, it seemed like the quarterback position was the one position head coach Matt Rhule didn’t have to worry about.
Now Temple finds itself 1-4 in its last five games with just two chances left to become bowl-eligible for the first time since 2011 and the fifth time in history. In those five games, Walker has completed less than 45 percent of his passes, gotten hurt, thrown 10 interceptions, followed me on Twitter, completed three pass touchdowns, unfollowed me on Twitter, and thrown over 150 yards just twice despite 28 or more attempts in all four losses.
Obviously there are more factors that go into a quarterback’s success than, well, the quarterback himself.
Other than Jalen Fitzpatrick, the Owls have struggled to find consistency at wide receiver this year. Fitzpatrick has caught a respectable 41 passes for 625 yards but at times has dropped passes he should catch—something that has become contagious among the receiver corps. He’s also undersized, listed at 5-foot-11, preventing him from being an effective red zone target. John Christopher is second on the team with 22 catches. But after him, no receiver has more than 13 receptions.
In my opinion, Walker can benefit from checking down to the running backs more often. It won’t help much in the red zone, but at this point, Temple isn’t even getting that far. He seems to be looking deep too often and throwing passes into coverage even when he isn’t pressured. Kenny Harper, who kind of has the Pierre Thomas role out of the Owls backfield, has proven to be a solid pass catcher. And Jahad Thomas can be Temple’s most dangerous weapon if they can figure out more ways to get him into the open field.
But, one reason they can’t do that is because the offensive line needs extra help. The line, which was up and down in the beginning of the season, has simply run out of gas. It has gotten to the point where head coach Matt Rhule has borderline ripped them to the media:
“I was pretty blunt with people when I said at the start of the season if our o-line stays together, we’ll have a chance. They have not stayed together.”
The line’s struggles have also resulted in keeping Wanemi Omuso (the Owls’ block-only tight end) on the field and Colin Thompson (a pass-catching tight end and four-star Florida transfer) off.
But still, you may think that a quarterback with as much talent as we saw last year should be able to find a way. And you would be right.
Nobody likes to compare every duel-threat quarterback to Michael Vick. And I know Walker and Vick are two different players, but defenses handle them similarly. Temple fans who are also Eagle fans (both are based in Philadelphia) will remember what happened when Vick first came to Philly—he danced around pass rushers and threw 50 yard passes with the flick of a wrist while defenses stood and watched because they had no idea what to do. This led Vick to claim, “You can’t design a defense to stop me.”
That was like Walker’s record-setting freshman year. Vick’s second season was much different; just like they’re doing to Walker right now, defenses blitzed the crap out of Vick and figured out which side to make him run to in order to minimize his effectiveness (to the left for Walker, the right for Vick).
Trust me when I tell you that Walker’s pass accuracy plummets when he’s throwing on the run while moving to his left. Go back and watch the Penn State game for a prime example. Specifically, watch the second half when Temple had five straight possessions lasting less than one minute each and resulting in four turnovers. You’ll notice three things: 1. Penn State’s blitzes are 100 percent effective, 2. Penn State gets pressure on Walker even when it isn’t bringing a blitz, and 3. Walker’s body language: overwhelming frustration. He isn’t having fun anymore. After every pass, he looks to the sideline with a grimace on his face that says, if this were a video game, I would pause it and turn down the difficulty.
Last year, Walker had more weapons—Robbie Anderson and Ryan Alderman—to throw to and a much more experienced offensive line. Without them, it set off a chain reaction. Defenses can pick on the offensive line, causing Temple to hold back tight ends and running backs, giving Walker fewer options and letting the defense focus on stopping him.
Walker has trouble throwing on the run and with his decision making, but these problems can be fixable. Fixing these problems begin in the first quarter and end … in the first quarter.
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