UCONN FALTERS
Temple rallies in second half as UConn loses its AAC football finale.
PHILADELPHIA — In the first half Saturday, UConn football seemed to have found a new gear.
In the second half, it was back to a familiar speed.
After leading Temple for nearly the entire first 30 minutes at Lincoln Financial Field, UConn (2-10, 0-8 in conference play) was steamrolled in the third quarter en route to a season-ending 49-17 loss.
The statistics were stark: The Huskies gained 244 yards in the first half and only 82 in the second. They allowed Temple (8-4, 5-3) seven first downs in the first half, then eight more in the third quarter alone. They outscored the Owls by a field goal in the first half and were clobbered 35-0 in the second, with four of five scores coming in a disastrous third quarter.
“We went out in the first half and played a good first half, and then in the second half we got overwhelmed a little bit,” coach Randy Edsall said. “We couldn’t get anything going offensively, and kind of the Achilles heel of our situation all year on defense is the
big plays. We gave up too many big plays.”
The Huskies will exit the American Athletic Conference next summer having lost their final 19 games in the league.
As has been the case much of the season, UConn toggled quarterbacks Saturday, using freshman Jack Zergiotis for most of the game and redshirt freshman Steven Krajewski for spurts. Zergiotis completed 24 of 35 passes for 250 yards and a touchdown and did not turn the ball over, while Krajewski rushed for a touchdown but thew a pick-six on his only pass attempt.
Senior receiver Ardell Brown caught three passes for a seasonhigh 85 yards and a touchdown. Junior running back Kevin Mensah rushed six times for 20 yards, eking past 1,000 yards for the season.
UConn’s defense was undermanned due to injury, especially in the secondary, and it often showed. Temple led four drives of at least 73 yards and had scoring plays of 63, 41 and 55 yards. Two Owls quarterbacks combined to complete nearly two-thirds of their passes for 312 yards and three touchdowns, while running back Re’Mahn Davis rushed for more than100 yards on more than six yards a carry.
“We knew going in it was going to be hard because of all the guys we were down in the secondary,” Edsall said. “We had some guys who came in and had a chance to make a play on the ball [on a play in the first quarter], and we have two guys miss and they get a touchdown. At this level you can’t do that and expect to win.”
Before their second-half collapse, the Huskies submitted one of their best first quarters of the season. Zergiotis found Brown for a 51-yard touchdown pass on the team’s first drive, then Krajewski plunged into the end zone on the following possession to give UConn a 14-0 lead.
Though UConn allowed several big plays on defense resulting in a pair of first-half Temple touchdowns, the Huskies led the Owls 17-14 at the break.
It helped that UConn’s special teams units made a number of key plays, from Eddie Hahn and Omar Fortt saving a punt from bouncing into the end zone to Luke Magliozzi sending another punt 52 yards in the air with ample hang-time to kicker Clay Harris drilling a 40-yard field goal.
The second half, however, was entirely different, right from the start. Temple reached the end zone on its first three drives of the third quarter, gashing the Huskies through the air and on the ground. The Owls scored yet another touchdown when defensive back Sam Franklin picked off a pass from Krajewski and returned in 29 yards for a touchdown.
“We just didn’t come out and match their intensity in the second half,” tight end Donovan Williams said. “We definitely have to put more points on the board on offense. As players we’ve just got to execute better.”
UConn stopped Temple on two straight fourth-quarter drives, including once at the goal line, but allowed one more touchdown on the Owls’ final possession.
Having improved from one win in 2018 to two this year, while slightly shrinking their average margin of defeat, the Huskies will now look toward 2020, when they could return a strong majority of starters, barring transfers. Edsall said he would fly out of Philadelphia on Sunday morning to immediately begin a recruiting trip.
“Obviously this isn’t where we want to be, but we’ve shown flashes,” Williams said. “We’ll be there. We’ll definitely get there.”