UConn Blows Late Lead; Falls in OT To Temple

There is a big difference between a good loss and a bad loss. No matter whatever way you skew the UConn Huskies game on Saturday afternoon, it’s a bad loss.

The Temple Owls scored a late 4th quarter touchdown and then took advantage of Chad Christen’s fourth field goal miss of the game in overtime. They got the win in OT when Brandon McManus hit a 29 yard field goal to give them a 17-14 win in front of 37,279 at Rentchler Field in East Hartford, CT.

It’s the second straight loss for the Huskies who fall to 3-4 (0-2 Big East) on the season. It’s Temple’s second straight Big East win as they improve to 3-2 (2-0). It’s also the first time in their history of Big East play that Temple has won two Big East games in a row. You may remember they were kicked out for being awful.

The way this game got started for UConn, it looked like they were going to dominate Temple on both sides of the ball. The offense opened up a little as Chandler Whitmer kept finding open receivers. Unfortunately on the first drive, Christen missed a 36 yard field goal.

After the UConn D forced the Owls to a three and out, Whitmer once again drove the Huskies down the field. This time though the result was different as he hit Michael Smith for a 15-yard touchdown. On the next series, the Huskies defense held strong and forced the Owls to punt.

And once again, Whitmer got the Huskies in the end zone when he hit Ryan Griffin down the seam for a 42-yard touchdown pass to give the Huskies a 14-0 lead.

From there though, UConn’s play calling got conservative. They were without leading rusher Lyle McCombs who was out with a hand injury suffered in last week’s loss to Rutgers. Max DeLorenzo filled in for him and wasn’t bad finishing the game up with 91 yards on 23 carries.

The problem though was the Huskies weren’t able to move the ball on the ground despite the success of DeLorenzo early on. But instead of calling pass plays, they sat back on offense.

The other problem was when they did drive the ball down the field Christen missed field goal attempts. With a chance to give the Huskies a cushion in the 4th quarter after the drive stalled at the Temple 24, Christen missed from 42 yards. Midway through the 4th quarter, he had another chance to make it a two possession game but this time his field goal from 44 yards was blocked.

Then in overtime, Christen had a chip shot field goal from 28 yards that he pushed right.

So if you want to pin this loss on Christen, you can. For me, it still all goes back to the conservative play calling.

At one point early in the 2nd quarter, UConn had almost 250 yards of total offense to about 30 or so for the Owls. Folks, UConn finished the game with 393 yards of total offense. That means for almost 2.5 to 2.75 quarters they had just over 140 yards. So you tell me what the problem is.

The Huskies were their own worst enemy on Saturday. And this loss is going to probably going to cost them any chance of going to a bowl game. There’s five games left in the season. They need to win at least three to become bowl-eligible but four wins would be more desirable. Two of those games are against ranked teams in Louisville and Cincinnati.

So to get the four wins, they need to pull of an upset. They also need to win the games they are supposed to win and not sit back on their asses like they did on Saturday afternoon. I say that because this was a game they should have beaten the Owls handedly.

They didn’t though and it becomes a bad loss.

Scoring:

1st quarter

CON – 05:50 – Michael Smith 15 Yd Pass From Chandler Whitmer (Chad Christen Kick)

CON – 00:05 – Ryan Griffin 42 Yd Pass From Chandler Whitmer (Chad Christen Kick)

2nd quarter

TEM – 03:09 – Montel Harris 24 Yd Run (Brandon Mcmanus Kick)

3rd quarter

No scoring

4th quarter

TEM – 00:19 – Jalen Fitzpatrick 14 Yd Pass From Chris Coyer (Brandon Mcmanus Kick)

Overtime

TEM – Brandon McManus 29 Yd Field Goal

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Offensive Player of the Game:

Temple QB Chris Coyer drove his team 72 yards in the 4th quarter to tie the game and force overtime.

Defensive Player of the Game:

Temple freshman LB and Stratford, CT native Tyler Matakevich had 19 tackles (nine solo, 10 assisted) and one pass break up.

Turning Point(s) of the Game:

Chad Christen’s four missed field goals, two of them coming in the 4th quarter and the one in overtime.

Offensive Notes:

Chandler Whitmer was 22-of-39 for 293 yards and two touchdown passes. While he didn’t throw any interceptions, he did have a lost fumble. Max DeLorenzo filled in admirably with 23 carries for 91 yards. Shakim Phillips had seven catches for 100 yards while Michael Smith had five catches for 54 yards and a touchdown. Ryan Griffin had two catches for 67 yards and a touchdown.

Defensive Notes:

Byron Jones and Yawin Smallwood both led the Huskies with 13 tackles. Jones also had an interception while Smallwood had a pass breakup, forced fumble that he also recovered. Jory Johnson had 12 tackles (six solo, six assisted) including one for a loss of three yards. Sio Moore had nine tackles and was credited with 1.5 sacks. Ryan Wirth had seven tackles and a 1/2 sack while Trevardo Williams and Tim Willman each had a sack. Blidi Wreh-Wilson and Dwayne Gratz were each credited with two pass breakups.

Special Teams Notes:

Well we already know that Chad Christen missed four field goals on the afternoon, one of which was blocked. The misses were from 36 yards, 42 yards and 28 yards. The blocked field goal came from 44 yards. Christen also had no touchbacks on his three kickoffs. Cole Wagner averaged 41.9 yards on nine punts. He had three downed inside the 20 and one that went for a touchback. Nick Williams had three punt returns for -1 yards while he did return two kickoffs for 41 yards.

Injuries:

Michael Smith appeared to have the wind knocked out of him but returned to the game. Reuben Frank appeared to suffer an upper body injury but he also returned to the game.

Officials:

Referee: John McDaid; Umpire: Jeffrey Akers; Linesman: Jon Stabile; Line judge: Jeffrey Cooney; Back judge: Mark McAnaney; Field judge: Rick Santilli; Side judge: Bruce Williams

Game Notes:

Temple Owls @ UConn Huskies 10.13.12 box score

Here are the postgame quotes from UConn head coach Paul Pasqualoni and Temple head coach Steve Addazio as well as players from both teams.

Here are the starters for the Huskies:

OFFENSE
WR 85 Davis, Geremy
TE 89 Delahunt, John
TE 94 Griffin, Ryan
LT 72 Bennett, Jimmy
LG 69 Greene, Steve
C 50 Bullock, Tyler
RG 63 Masters, Adam
RT 77 Friend, Kevin
QB 10 Whitmer, Chandler
RB 44 DeLorenzo, Max
WR 31 Williams, Nick

DEFENSE
DE 48 Williams, Trevardo
DT 53 Wirth, Ryan
DT 59 Stephen, Shamar
DE 56 Pruitt, Angelo
SLB 3 Moore, Sio
MLB 33 Smallwood, Yawin
WLB 28 Johnson, Jory
CB 5 Wreh-Wilson, Blidi
S 16 Jones, Byron
S 15 Brown, Ty-Meer
CB 7 Gratz, Dwayne

Here are the game notes courtesy of the UConn Football Sports Information Department:

• Redshirt freshman Max DeLorenzo made his first career start at running back for Connecticut Saturday.
• Lorenzo was the first Connecticut native to start at running back for the Huskies since Matt Lawrence did in 2004.
• Lorenzo’s 91 rushing yards in the game was a career high.
• With the loss Connecticut fell to 3-8 all-time against Temple and snapped a streak of five consecutive overtime wins (the longest active streak in the country entering the game)
• Freshman tailback Joseph Williams recorded his first career carry on a 4-yard run in the first quarter.
• Redshirt sophomore wide receiver Shakim Phillip’s 25-yard reception in the first quarter was the longest of his career.
• Phillips had 7 catches and 100 receiving yards in today’s game, which were both career highs.
• Senior wide receiver Michael Smith’s 15-yard touchdown reception in the first quarter was his first touchdown of the season and his third career score.
• Smith had 5 total catches this afternoon, the most for him in a game this season. He has 12 career catches against Temple in his career.
• Redshirt senior Sio Moore’s sack in the first quarter was his 4.5^th sack of the season and the 12.5^th sack of his career.
• Redshirt sophomore quarterback Chandler Whitmer’s 42-yard touchdown pass to redshirt senior tight end Ryan Griffin at the end of the first quarter was the longest touchdown pass of his career. Whitmer in the first quarter: 8-10 159 yards, two touchdowns.  He finished 22-of-39 for 293 yards and two touchdowns
• Griffin’s 42-yard touchdown reception in the first quarter was his longest reception of the season. It was his third touchdown of the season, tying a career high.
• Griffin’s 67 receiving yards in the game were the most for him this season.
• Redshirt sophomore Byron Jones’s interception in the third quarter was his first of the season and Connecticut’s fourth interception this year.
• Jones registered a team-high 13 tackles in the contest, a career-high
• Redshirt sophomore linebacker Yawin Smallwood also had 13 tackles in the game
• Connecticut has allowed 100 yards rushing in back-to-back games after not giving up that total in any game last season.
• The Huskies allowed 204 rushing yards today, the most in a game this season.
• Redshirt sophomore fullback Reuben Frank caught his second pass of the season early in the fourth quarter.
• DeLorenzo’s 20-yard run late in the fourth quarter was a career long.
• Connecticut redshirt junior kicker Chad Christen missed four field goals today. He came into the game with just three misses the entire season.
• Redshirt junior defensive tackle Tim Willman recorded his first career sack in the fourth quarter.
• Senior defensive end Trevardo Williams recorded his team-leading 7.5^th sack this season in the fourth quarter.
• Saturday’s contest was the first overtime game for the Huskies since 2010 against West Virginia.
• It was the second overtime game ever between Connecticut and Temple. The last one was in 2008.

Big East Games and Results:

Saturday, October 13

(18) Louisville 45
Pittsburgh 35

Syracuse 15
(20) Rutgers 23

Fordham
(21) Cincinnati, 7 p.m.

Things to Work On:

• Protect Chandler Whitmer – The offensive line had improved in recent weeks but last week they gave up sacks on Whitmer. This week they allowed six sacks.
• Open up the kicking competition – After four misses by Chad Christen, it’s time to open up the kicking competition during practice this week and give Bobby Puyol a chance to steal the job from Christen.
• Play calling – This is the second time we’ve seen UConn go conservative on offense with a big lead. The first time almost cost them the game. This time, it did cost them the game.

Up Next:

UConn heads to to the Carrier Dome on Friday night for a matchup with the Syracuse Orange. Kickoff is scheduled for 8 p.m.

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Photo credit: john woike – hartford courant (no. 7, no. 9 in gallery)