 BOWLING GREEN 13, TEMPLE 10
Bowling Green is 4-4 overall and 2-2 in the MAC while Temple falls to 5-3, 3-2.
“This is a big win and this keeps us in it,” BG head coach Dave Clawson said. “Heading into late October, we’re still in position to compete for a MAC title.”
“All the work we put in all year finally paid off for us today,” said BG quarterback Matt Schilz. “It’s a huge win.”
The eventual game-winner came on a 24-yard pass from Schilz to Shaun Joplin on a fourth-and-9 play with 7:41 left in the game.
“They had been blitzing a lot and playing a lot of man press,” Clawson said. “Shaun Joplin is one of those guys who has just been coming on, coming on, coming on.
“Usually in a situation like that, you would expect to go to Kamar (Jorden). He didn’t get a clean release and Shaun Joplin did and went up and made a heck of a play.”
“I thought Joplin had the best matchup and obviously he made a great play,” Schilz said.
After the Falcons scored, BG’s defense held Temple to minus-11 yards on nine plays spread over three possessions.
“We executed at the end and it was nice to see our defense step up and do that,” Clawson said. “In that last series with our defense, we weren’t passive, we weren’t sitting back. We got after them. We got great pressure. Guys were relentless.”
“We ran the ball well; that wasn’t our issue,” Temple head coach Steve Addazio said. “We need to throw the ball better.
“We took a couple of sacks and dropped a couple of balls,” he continued. “We couldn’t sustain drives.”
The Falcons led 3-0 at the half, the first time all season the Owls had not scored in the first half. A Temple field goal in the third quarter tied the game going into the final 15 minutes.
BG responded with Stephen Stein’s second field goal of the game with 13:32 left to play to take a 6-3 lead. Temple, however, came right back with a 71-yard drive on five plays, using 2:26 to score its only touchdown of the afternoon and take a 10-6 lead with 11:02 remaining.
Helped by a 31-yard pass from Schilz to Eugene Cooper, the Falcons got their only TD of the day on Joplin’s catch, which closed out the scoring. Schilz has now thrown a TD pass in 11 straight games.
“We didn’t do everything perfect in the fourth quarter, but at the end of the day we held their running game in check. That’s not a team that wants to throw the football. We played good coverage and got after them with our pass rush,” Clawson said.
BG finished with 318 yards in total offense, the most the Owls have allowed all season.
“We did not have any illusion that we were going to go up and down the field today,” Clawson said. “We stressed to the offense to make first downs, change field position, don’t turn the football over and keep us in the game.”
BG finished with 318 yards in total offense, the most the Owls have allowed all season.
“We did not have any illusion that we were going to go up and down the field today,” Clawson said. “We stressed to the offense to make first downs, change field position, don’t turn the football over and keep us in the game.”
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