Breaking Down Temple

Bumped. GO BRUINS. -N

Temple isn't on TV a lot around here...the only game I could find was the Buffalo-Temple game back in September, on ESPN 360. I skimmed through the first half to get a feel for Temple and imported play-by-play data from ESPN into Excel to crank out some graphs.

Basic Info:

The first I heard of Coach Al Golden was when his name was mentioned in the UCLA coaching search a few years back. He is a defensive guy; has experience coaching linebackers. Temple looks pretty solid defensively; as you would expect. Offensively, they are pretty run-heavy. In the game I watched, they ran the ball 10 straight times to open the game, and didn't pass until a 3rd-and-long. They didn't open up the playbook a bit until the 3rd drive, when they threw twice and then a busted play on 3rd down that looked like an attempted screen but led to an awful throw and interception. Their special teams are better than ours - they have some great effort guys on coverage and get downfield in a hurry. They block well; their returners had some space to work with - against Buffalo they ran back a kickoff for a score.

Tendencies and Statistics:

Temple likes to run the ball, for the year they have run about twice as many times as they have passed the ball. They rotate a few backs in but they do have a 1,000 yard rusher (more on that below). Their QB looks a little shaky and has thrown a few bad picks. I took data off ESPN.com from the first two games that I was able to get (Penn St. Buffalo) and their last three leading up to the bowl (Kent St. Akron, Ohio).

More below the jump.

This is their play selection based on field position. They run (especially in the red zone) and they do well running the ball all over the field.

They averaged over 5 yards a pop with the run (thanks to runs of 73, 50, 45). For the pass they also had a few big plays and averaged just shy of 5 yards a pop for those 5 games. While their reputation is on defense their offense is definitely not a joke. Keep in mind these games included Penn St. and Ohio University as well as middle of the pack MAC teams.

Above is the number of runs/passes that ended up in each range...all the "no gains" for passes were incomplete passes. What stands out is the high number of "over 4" plays as a result of the run - these are runs that go for between 4 and 10 yards, which is outstanding.

This is the average gain per run/pass sorted by down and distance. You have negatives for the pass as a result of interceptions (I record picks as a negative gain). You can see they do well passing in short yardage - they throw a lot of playaction and they will throw down the field on the fade (see below). 

Finally, this graph shows their "success rate" of converting for any given distance. I take the difference between the yards needed and the actual gain of the play, and display it based on down and distance. Anything above zero means that they gained enough yards for a first. This graph shows the average "success" values. For example, on 1st down, they average coming up about 4.5 yards short - which is pretty good. On 2nd down they average about 2 yards short of the first down, which sets up something in the 3rd-and-2 range. And as you can see they are very good in 3rd-and-short - they usually clear it by 2 yards. If they run every down (which they do, at times), on the average they will gain enough to reset the chains.

Offense:

Against Buffalo they started out with something like runs in a row before they dropped back on a 3rd-and-long. As I said their QB does not look that great, but they run well and have a stable of backs they rotate. They have #30, a true freshman, who is their 1,000 yard rusher. He's a little tall, something like 6'0", and runs a little high, but he is a banger and is a good straight line runner, pretty physical for a freshman. I believe the announcers said that he spent a year at a prep academy so physically he is more in-line with a RS freshman. They have #20, who is a little bit of a dancer, he likes to cut back on their zone, from what I saw it usually paid off for him. Good at finding the holes when they run zone (which is most of the time) and pretty instinctual. They like to run him inside as he will often find the crease and cut back. And they have #22, a short guy, who is pretty quick that they like on their toss play and in the passing game. There are a few others but those are the big 3. They rotate each back for a few plays, but #30 gets the bulk of the work although they almost always have fresh legs since they run A LOT.

This is generally how they line up, they run a 1-back offense but like to move their H-backs around a bit. From the half I saw, it was almost exclusively inside and outside zone. They like to line up in trips-bunch, as above, and run zone to both sides. They also run a variant of the outside zone, the pin-and-pull, where they have the TE on the line or one of the wings block down (the pin) and then have the tackle and the H-backs cut behind that and look to pick up the backers (the pull). Everyone else zone blocks as normal. Backside they will cut on the backside DT and go after the backers. Below is a photo of their pin-and-pull/toss sweep, 73 is the tackle and 89 is the TE/H-back (BTW, they have a pretty big body at TE...don't remember his number but he is basically a lineman). They like #30 on this play as he will step laterally outside and then square upfield and get a head of steam. Their tackles and TEs work well in space and can pick up blocks downfield.

They have a complement to this, the inside zone. Almost the same except the line does not take the lateral step and the back is looking to break from hole to backside, and they have to block the backside DE. Sometimes they will have an H-back run across the formation to pick up this DE as just about every team we've played this season does on their IZ (and they also run PA off that look and throw to him in the flat). Nothing we haven't seen before. Below is a shot of their IZ, I think it's #20, and he cut back and picked up 8-9.

They also have one more running play in their series, out of the trips bunch. They will line up one of their short quick guys, I think #23 or #22 as the outside wing, and then run a little end-around and pull a guard and the other H-back to lead through. Buffalo played it well but you have to be disciplined to stay home backside when they've been running outside zone all day.

As far as passing game goes, I saw very little...Temple started off with the run, passed a little, but then went up thanks to a KR TD (more on that below) and did not pass much the rest of the way. I saw a 3-step fade which they never completed (including one badly mis-timed jump by the Temple WR), some playaction to the flat, etc.

Defense:

Their LBs fly to the ball and play the run well. Al Golden is a former LB coach so that doesn't surprise me. However Buffalo was able to float a few passes over the heads of LBs, especially on play action. I think that their outside backers are weaker, especially when they are asked to bump outside to cover slots. I feel like they work better when they are up on the line or blitzing rather than when they are asked to back off a bit and get off blocks.

Their defense is similar to ours. They like the Eagle front and will line up with a 5, 1, 3, and 5, drop a LB down on the line, and shift the LBs frontside. They will also drop #6, who plays safety, down into the box to create an 8-man front. He is pretty good at timing his stem to drop down into "sky" coverage - they line up with a 2/4 deep shell and then rotate the safety down at the last minute. 

Sorry, no video, just screen grabs off ESPN360 but in the top frame he is up at the 37 yard line, after the snap he immediately drops down to the curl and almost picks off a pass to the WR. The defender center-frame at the top shifts outside and the QB throws to #3 thinking he will be open, but the safety #6 drops down and the LB #4 slides out. #6 also blitzes quite a bit, he stems down to the line before the snap and rushes off the edge, they like to move him around the field a bit. He is a senior and seems to know what he is going. He will also drop backside as they play their eagle front, same look we get from a few other teams in the Pac-10.

Hopefully whoever we have playing QB is able to mix up the snap count to screw up the timing of his stems and is also able to keep an eye on him as well as the coverage downfield as it shifts from MOFO to MOFC, but it should be stuff our guys have seen before.

Special Teams:

Their teams are very good, very well-coached. Just as I was thinking to myself that their guys played with great hustle and effort, they run a kick back for a TD against Buffalo. 

For the year they have run back 4 for scores (2 punts, 2 kickoffs). Vs Buffalo they just ran a simple wall return, got the Buffalo unit pinned inside, and the returner didn't get touched until he shook off the kicker near midfield. More so just good execution and blocking rather than talent from the returner, as I said, just great effort on teams. As far as punt returns go, I only saw one or two, but they had good blocking downfield as well, guys staying with their defenders and working to get downfield.

I was impressed by kick coverage...great hustle to get downfield. 

Here's the kick coverage immediately after the kick return score for Temple - keep in mind that a lot of the same guys play on both ST units, and just helped to spring a return score. The ball went just inside the endzone, so the returner's only gone about 10 yards and there are already 6 Temple defenders inside the 20 yard line. That is outstanding work on special teams and great effort to shed blocks and get downfield in a hurry. And as you can figure, below is the result.

I didn't get a good look at their kicker/punter, and I don't know much about kicking anyways, but he was able to make the FGs and XPs they asked of him, so I assume he is good enough.

All in all, Temple seems like a very well-coached team. Their special teams alone are enough for me, as it's not dependent on talent - just effort. I'm sure they are preparing hard for a game they will be very excited to play. In the games they lost, they had to air the ball out a lot more than they would have liked. Their 2 QBs tossed 3 picks against Ohio, including 2 back-to-back to end the game in a loss to Ohio. If our defense can shut down the run and force the pass I think that we will do okay. The QB I saw against Buffalo did not look comfortable passing at all.

Finally, they play this really annoying owl whistle sound every time they pick up a first down - don't know if this will be at RFK, but hopefully we will not hear it much or at all next week either way.