Wow, I head out of town for 10 days on business and crap hits the fan! First Houston and now this UCF mess. I don’t want anyone thinking I was ducking out on Temple or disappearing now that they hit a tough patch.

I watched both games and I will admit that was tough to watch.

A couple quick observations

The defense has played better than the score would indicate and has come a long way since last season. The Temple turnovers early in games and complete lack of offence has had them on the field for most of the first half of both games. Against UCF Temples first half total time of possession was 7:40 and against Houston it was only slightly better at 9 minutes. You can’t leave these good offenses on the field to pound the D for extended periods of time like they have.

It’s just my feeling and opinion, but PJ Walker has been coached into a player who has lost all his instincts and is now playing very mechanically and almost a play by numbers scenario instead of reacting like an athlete like he did last season.

The youth and lack of depth of the offensive line is starting to show with the inability to run the ball with any consistency at all.

I’m not surprised that Temple lost to Houston and UCF, I knew those would be tall orders even if the team was playing well. What is very surprising to me, and pretty troubling is that with the exception of the 4th quarter of the Tulsa game and a couple of drives in the Navy game the offense and specifically PJ has played poorly and showed no real rhythm at all for any extended period of time.

I’m not giving up on the season and I’m staying with what I have been saying all along, 6-6 with a bowl game would be a great year coming off the 2-10 season last year and a solid step forward given the youth of this team. 5-7 would show nice progress, especially if they can turn the offense around and keep the defense off the field for a while. 4-8 would be considered treading water off last season, and if that’s the case the way they came out 4-1 many would say it’s a step backwards.