The Norfolk State Spartans lost to the Temple University Owls today in Lincoln Financial Field 41-9. This loss puts Norfolk State at 1-2 on the season. “We played a very tough opponent today in a very good stadium,” NSU head football coach Dawson Odums said. “We are improving from week to week and continuing to see the growth in our team. That’s all we can ask for.”
Temple established their dominance on their opening drive, taking the ball 80 yards down the field and scoring in only 9 plays. Temples Quarterback EJ Warner son of former NFL star Quarterback Kurt Warner led the way in the first driving firing a 32-yard floater to Zae Barnes after taking a vicious hit in the pocket. He finished the game 14 of 22 with 238 passing yards and 1 Touchdown.
In addition to a successful passing game, the Owls had a good run game. Joquez Smith led the way for Temple with 15 rushing attempts for 142 yards and 1 rushing touchdown. The Spartans gave up 290 rushing yards against Temple which has been a major problem for the Spartans all season, giving up 316 rushing yards to Virginia State, and 224 against Hampton.
At the beginning of the second quarter, the Spartans had their best drive of the game, 13 plays for 82 yards capped off by a 2-yard touchdown pass to Aaron Moore. This drive was the only scoring drive the Spartans had all game.
The struggles on the offensive side for the Spartans came from not putting themselves in better situations leading into third down. The majority of the Spartan’s 3rd down attempts were 3rd and long, and the Spartans went 4 for 14 on third down conversions, not a recipe for success.
The struggles on the defensive side of the ball came from the rushing attack. The Spartan’s base coverage defensively is man-on-man coverage. When you run man coverage defensively it can hinder your run defense, and as Coach Odums mentioned in week 1 against Virginia State “It’s a problem when the running back can get to the second level until they get touched by a defender”. Also, the passing game gave NSU some trouble against Temple. A lot of the trouble came from defensive players not being in the right position to make plays.
The Spartans travel to Towson Maryland to take on Towson University on Saturday, September 23rd at 4 p.m. who just beat the Spartans MEAC conference member Morgan State 20-10.
Spartan Echo 