Football Drops 30-7 Decision to #7/7 Louisville

Saturday, October 5

Lincoln Financial Field

Noon

Temple University

0-5 , 0-2

LOUISVILLE

5-0 , 1-0

1st

2nd

3rd

4th

#7 LOUISVILLE

TEMPLE

Photo by: Joseph V. Labolito/Temple University

Football Drops 30-7 Decision to #7/7 Louisville

10.5.13 | Football

Box Score

Boxscore | Gallery | Rhule Interview | Quotes

PHILADELPHIA – Junior QB Teddy Bridgewater threw for 348 yards and two touchdowns to lead #7/7 Louisville to a 30-7 win over Temple in front of 21,709 fans at Lincoln Financial Field Saturday afternoon.

Bridgewater continued to make a strong case for the Heisman Trophy, completing 25-of-35 passes on the day while directing the Cardinal offense to 532 yards of total offense. He did a great job of sharing the ball, connecting with nine different receivers.

The Cardinal signal-caller set the tone from the opening kickoff, moving the visitors on an 11-play, 79-yard opening drive which culminated in a one-yard touchdown pass to junior TE Gerald Christian. Bridgewater faked a handoff on a third-down play and then rolled right to hit the wide open Christian for the score.

It would be the first of four straight scoring drives for the Cardinals, who built a 24-0 halftime lead.

Temple head coach Matt Rhule challenged his team in the second half and the Owls responded.

"If there is one thing I take away from this game it is I was pleased with the fact that our guys fought until the end…and I knew we were going to get their best in the second half and our kids were able to come out in the second half, 7-6," said Rhule.

A bright spot for Temple was the play of true freshman QB P.J. Walker. The Elizabeth, NJ native took over for starter Connor Reilly midway early in the second quarter and immediately drove the Owls down the field.

Following a John Wallace 22-yard field goal that made it 17-0 Louisville, Walker drove the Owls to the Louisville six yard-line. The big play was a 58-yard pass to sophomore WR Robby Anderson that gave Temple a first down on the Louisville 12. Kenneth Harper (9 carries, 28 yards) then rushed six yards to the Cardinal six.

Two plays later the Owls were forced to settle on a Nick Visco 23-yard field goal, but the freshman kicker's attempt was blocked at the line of scrimmage.

Bridgewater then moved the ball efficiently down the field on seven plays, the last to Eli Rogers for a 15-yard touchdown. The drive took only 2:37 with the Cardinal QB completing all six of his pass attempts for 77 yards.

As Rhule alluded to, the Owls did not hang their heads, but rather held their own against the seventh-ranked visitors over the final 30 minutes.

Temple's defense surrendered just two Wallace field goals in the second half, while forcing the only two Louisville punts on the game.

Offensively, Walker showed promise for the future, completing 7-of-14 passes after intermission for 97 yards and one touchdown while rushing eight times for 30 yards. Overall he was 10-of-19 for 182 yards while rushing 12 times for 33 yards.

The freshman signal-caller did make two turnovers. First he was intercepted, a costly turnover as he had led the Owls to the Louisville 31 before Terell Floyd's pick in the end zone halted the drive. Then, on the Owls next to last drive of the game, Walker fumbled while being sacked on a driving in Cardinal territory. This time he fumbled while being sacked on fourth-and-eight from the UL 25.

The Owls defense stuffed the Cardinals on the next possession on three plays, and then blocked Ryan Johnson's punt with Michael Felton recovering on the Louisville 26.

Walker quickly made them pay, hitting Ryan Alderman on a 17-yard pass play to the nine yard-line and then connecting with Jalen Fitzpatrick for the touchdown. Visco converted the extra point to make it 30-7.

Louisville then ran out the clock to move to 5-0 on the season.

Following the game, Rhule brought his team back out to personally thank the students who stayed the entire game in sweltering heat despite the lop-sided score.

Sophomore LB Tyler Matakvich, who entered the game as the nation's leader in solo tackles (11.8 per game), made a game-high seven stops, all solo.

Temple (0-5, 0-2 American Athletic Conference) next travels to Cincinnati for a Friday night (Oct. 11, 8:30 p.m.) nationally televised game against the Bearcats.