In a matchup billed as one between David and Goliath, David is not just beating Goliath but pummeling him - 241 total yards for Temple as opposed to 129 for UCLA. The Temple Owls are another Cinderella story this post season, not having gone to a Bowl game for 29 years until the JoePa understudy Al Golden took over the program.
And even more surprising is to see that they have not adopted the strategy used by many lower tier programs which is to spread the field and throw the football in order to overcome obvious size mismatches. Temple has run the ball between tackles and then thrown both out of play action as well as with a direct 3 step drop from under center. The first score came on 2 gorgeous throws from QB Charlton. The second was a back breaker as Temple methodically marched down the field with a balanced mix of pass and run and 'The Bug' their 5'5" RB Matt Brown scored from 2 yards out. The third TD resulted from a INT thrown by Bruins QB Prince giving Temple the short field to work with.
The Eagle Bank bowl is played to assist the wounded warriors and right now the Bruins look like they could use some of that assistance. They are not executing on offense for the most part with several dropped passes and missed blocks and tackles. Their only TD came on a beautiful grab by WR Rosario using his size mismatch with the CB when UCLA started the drive in Temple territory as a result of a good punt return.
The big question though is can David slay Goliath? Or will the fact that UCLA is supposed to have better depth and better quality of athletes bear out eventually? Temple is charged up going into the half with a 10 point lead. Stay tuned for an intriguing second half.
