"Just the Facts" Machine

11.30.14 | Football

Cincinnati Edition

News & Notes Following Temple's 14-6 loss vs. Cincinnati

With a 30-yard Austin Jones field goal late in the first quarter, Temple held a 3-0 lead. As such, Temple held a lead in every home game this season.

For the sixth straight week, Temple started a different offensive line combination. While LG Shabaz Ahmed returned to the lineup, Brendan McGowan missed his first game of the season. Before injuries beset the O-line, the unit helped Temple to a 4-1 start. Since that time, the team has gone 1-5. Here are the combinations over the past six weeks:

	LT	LG	C	RG	RT
Houston	Dawkins	Ahmed	Friend	McGowan	Lofton
UCF	Ahmed	Reed	Friend	McGowan	Lofton
East Carolina	Dawkins	Johnson	Friend	McGowan	Lofton
Memphis	Dawkins	McGowan	Friend	Carter	Lofton
Penn State	Dawkins	McGowan	Friend	Quinn	Lofton
Cincinnati	Dawkins	Ahmed	Friend	Quinn	Lofton

The defense played outstanding against one of the nation's most high-powered offenses. Cincinnati entered the game averaging 37.3 points, 473.8 offensive yards, and 308.0 passing yards per game. Temple's defense held them to a season low 14 points; just 255 yards of offense which was nearly 100 yards off its previous low of 352 and over 200 yards off its average; and just 174 passing yards.

The performance of the defense was especially impressive considering that it was done without any contribution from three defenders who started the previous game – DE Haason Reddick (knee), MLB Nate D. Smith (hamstring), and SS Jihaad Pretlow (hamstring).

True freshman Sean Chandler and SLB Avery Williams (making his first start since a week 6 injury) led the defense with 7 tackles each.

Senior WR Jalen Fitzpatrick had a career-high 9 catches in his final game at Lincoln Financial Field. He now has career-highs in receptions (50), yards (702), and TDs (6). Thirty of his 50 catches have been for first downs.

Seniors RB Hassan Dixon, WR Jalen Fitzpatrick, RB Kenneth Harper, TE Wanemi Omuso, QB Connor Reilly, DB Anthony Robey, FB Marc Tyson played in their final home game at Lincoln Financial Field. Temple honored all of its seniors including: DB Ikeem Boyd, DL Obi Onejeme, K/P Colby Perry, WR/DB Brett Pierce.

DB Boye Aromire has become a special teams demon. For the third time this season he separated a kick returner from the ball (Vanderbilt, East Carolina, Cincinnati) and for the second time (ECU, Cincinnati) he recovered it himself.

Temple outsacks Temple – In an interesting note, Cincinnati's LB Nick Temple notched two sacks while Temple's defense managed just one. Nick Temple is the only player to collect multiple sacks against Temple all season.