Written by Lisa Chung
Philadelphia, Pa – After last week’s embarrassing loss against the Villanova Wildcats, Temple came into Saturday’s game looking to bounce back American conference opponent Buffalo.
A wild back and forth game would ensue at Lincoln Financial Field, but the Owls would not be able to hold off Bulls long enough suffering a 36-29 loss in the final minute.
The game was scoreless until the Buffalo Bulls (2-0, 1-0) scored the first touchdown with 1:51 left on the clock in the first quarter, when quarterback Tyree Jackson found Charlie jones for a 33-yard score.
Temple started the second quarter with an interception thrown by Frank Nutile. The Bulls scored quickly with running back Kevin Marks breaking free for a 22-yard touchdown run with 11:10 on the clock. Instead of going for an extra point they went for a two-point conversion. The Owl’s Rock Ya-Sin intercepted the two-point attempt.
With less then two minutes left in the half, the Bulls had the ball. Jackson of Buffalo threw it in the end zone and Ya-Sin intercepted the pass again. Temple had the ball with less than 10 seconds left on the clock and facing fourth and four on the Buffalo 39. Brandon Mack caught the “hail mary” from Nutile ending the first half with Temple’s first touchdown of the game. At the end of the first half the score was 12-7 Buffalo leading.
“It was a huge. Just the fight that those guys have, how tough they are. That was huge play for us, going into half time,” Owls head coach Geoff Collins said after the game.
The Temple Owls started the second half strong by aggressively getting the ball down the field within the first minute. Nutile threw the ball to Randle Jones for a 44-yard touchdown. The touchdown was Jones’ first of his career. The touchdown put the Owls in lead 14-12. It was exactly what the Owls needed in order to get some momentum.
With less then 10 minutes left on the clock in the third quarter, Buffalo’s Cameron Lewis intercepted the pass from Frank Nutile intended for Vendell Byrant. That interception led to a 1-yard touchdown by the Bulls Kevin Marks, putting Buffalo in the lead once again, and later tacking on a field goal to make it 22-14.
Early in the 4th quarter it looked like Rock Ya-Sin would get another interception however it was overturned. Temple would make it up by recovering a blocked punt for a touchdown to make it a 22-22 tied game, with 11:00 on the clock.
Buffalo scored another touchdown in the fourth quarter by the Bulls Antonio Nunn making it 29-22. Just when you thought the game was over the Owls came back and scored another touchdown to tie the game again. Frank Nutile threw a game tying touchdown to Brandon Mack their second touchdown connection of the day, making the score 29-29.
The clock ticked down to 1:00 as the Bulls came back with another touchdown, Jackson found Anthony Johnson for 29 yards making it 36-29. The Owls tried to comeback even with 15 seconds on the clock, The Bulls Onwuka forced a fumble on the Owls ending the game and giving Temple their second loss of the season.
The Owls will travel down to the University of Maryland next Saturday looking to crack the win column with an upset of the Big Ten opponent.
