A common theme has emerged this AAC season for both Memphis and Temple: finishing.
Coming into the contest, Temple had lost two out of three games against Notre Dame and South Florida, with a win over SMU sandwiched in. The Owls were in need of a momentum-generating win.
Enter Memphis.
In key moments from Saturday’s contest in Philadelphia, the Temple defense set the tone, limiting one of the strongest offenses in the nation to very meager levels of production. Temple dominated the line of scrimmage and held the explosive Memphis offense to just 230 yards, keeping the Tigers out of the end zone.
Early on, it appeared that Temple would be the team that could not finish, as the first three offensive trips for the Owls went inside the Memphis 30-yard-line but scored no points. The first two drives resulted in turnovers and the third ended with a turnover on downs, when the Tiger defensive line made a stand.
After those first three failures, Temple began to finish: The Owls scored touchdowns on back-to-back drives in the first half to create a 14-6 lead.
Temple also finished the game strongly. The Owls put together a long drive in which Memphis was not able to get the off the field and — thanks in part to untimely penalties — allowed the Owls to burn valuable time. The drive resulted in a field goal and took off eight minutes of clock in the fourth quarter.
On the next drive, Temple — leading 24-12 — added a dagger touchdown. Even when they were not completely looking to score, Temple finished authoritatively.
Memphis’s hopes of a 10-win regular season? They’re finished.
The Tigers have been allergic to finishing games these past three weeks. Nov. 14’s collapse against Houston was a prime example, as the Tigers burned through a large 20-point lead early in the fourth quarter and went down. Memphis has lost its past three games, and has shown a complete inability to finish. This team has been destroyed in fourth quarters, which is only good in November if you’re leading by 40 at halftime. The Tigers have been in dogfights midway through games; hence, they’re now 8-3 after entering November with an 8-0 record.
Against Temple, the Tigers were continuously unable to take advantage of good field position and promising drives. In five trips into enemy territory in the first three quarters, Memphis was able to generate just 12 points. Scoring had come easily for Memphis in September and October, and the team still has the sixth-best scoring offense in the nation. It does not take an elite mathematician to figure out that playing field goals against touchdowns is going to have about a zero-percent success rate.
This is not commonplace for the Tigers, who brought the nation’s second-highest red zone scoring rate into Saturday’s game (behind Navy, which runs the ball with power). Temple was able to dominate on defense, and Memphis just was not able to finish when it needed to, and now the hopes that it had for a bigger bowl are finished.
While Paxton Lynch appeared to injure his ankle early in the game, and was gimpy at times, he was not able to surpass 160 yards passing. He lost a touchdown pass with an early drop, and lost his 15-game touchdown streak. The quarterback’s third straight so-so appearance against a strong AAC defense has also finished off any Heisman hopes he might have carried into Philadelphia.
Temple now must defeat UConn next week in order to play in the first AAC Championship Game and still hold out hope for a New Year’s Six bowl game. In order to do any of this, the finishing ability the Owls showed on Saturday against Memphis must carry over.
