Rhule wants more from his Owls

STATE COLLEGE - Throughout the two seasons Matt Rhule has been at the helm of the Temple football program, he has taken most of the 15 losses on the chin, blaming himself and taking responsibility for the results on the field. He has insisted that things would get better. And just a year removed from a 2-10 season, he has been mostly right. After Saturday's loss to Penn State, the Owls (5-5) are a win away from becoming bowl-eligible.

But Rhule looked the most perturbed following Saturday's 30-13 defeat. He stayed consistent in placing some blame on himself and the coaching staff, but when referring to quarterback P.J. Walker and the Temple offense, the message took a different tone.

Would a loss like that help Walker and Temple moving forward?

"It better help it," said Rhule, visibly dejected. "At some point we've got to say enough is enough."

Rhule was happy with the effort in the first half, which ended with Temple trailing 6-3. The Owls were in the game, but a terrible third quarter from Walker and the offense - save for a 75-yard touchdown strike from Walker to senior receiver Jalen Fitzpatrick to make it 20-13 Penn State - allowed the Nittany Lions to blow the game wide open and dash any hopes of Temple securing its first win over its in-state opponent since 1941.

Walker threw four interceptions in the second half and fumbled a snap for another turnover, the latest in a string of bad games from the sophomore QB. Over the last five games, Walker has thrown 10 interceptions to just three touchdowns. He has completed only 44 percent of his passes during that stretch, which has led to the Owls' 1-4 slide after a 4-1 start.

On Saturday, Walker's decision-making hindered his offense. At times, he was able to scramble, occasionally finding a receiver downfield. In the second half, though, he repeatedly threw the ball up for grabs.

"You could see when he just tucks the ball and runs, he's tough to tackle," Rhule said. "He's such a dynamic threat but he's got to do that. And he just made a decision to throw the football. It's time for him to stop doing that now. I mean, I love him and he's going to be a heck of a player, but he's got to stop doing that."

For most of the year, Temple has been paced by the play of its defense. Again Saturday, the Owls' defense forced turnovers and put the offense in position to score, but there was no efficiency. Walker and the offense never got moving. Take out the 75-yard TD, which came on the first play of the Owls' drive after PSU took a 20-6 lead, and Temple totaled just 173 yards of offense.

One of Walker's interceptions was returned to the Owls' 8-yard line, setting up an easy touchdown and that 20-6 Lions lead. Less than 10 minutes later, Walker spun a third-and-4 pass into the hands of a Penn State defender, who took it the distance and put the game away, 27-13 early in the fourth.

"I'm just trying to do too much, trying to make too many plays and just not being smart with the football," Walker said. "I just got to go out there and learn from the mistakes. It's pretty much getting old, I just got to go out there and be a lot smarter."

Walker didn't get a ton of help. Receivers ran wrong routes at times, Rhule said, and other times they simply dropped easy catches to halt drives.

Rhule said he never thought about taking Walker out of the game.

"I think you have to allow him to play through all of this," Rhule said. "It stinks, but there's a lot of us, coaches, players, everybody that aren't doing what we need to do at the level we want right now.

"These need to hurt, they need to learn from these. When I say they, it's really all of us. I need to learn from these, too. All of us as a team, we have to learn from it, we have to suffer through them."

Temple has two games left on its schedule after this week's bye, both against American Conference opponents. They'll need to either beat Cincinnati at home on Nov. 29 or beat Tulane in New Orleans on Dec. 6 to become bowl-eligible.