Written by Darrell Wilkinson
Boca Raton, FL - After a quarter of slow moving, defensive football the Marmot Boca Bowl exploded at the start of the second quarter and offense started to rear its head. The Toledo Rockets defeated the Temple Owls 32 - 17 in a wet and wild fourth quarter.
Toledo’s offense began the game with 28 total yards in the first quarter but rallied behind senior quarterback Phillip Ely to finish with 435 yards in the game. Ely was masterful from the second quarter on, going 20 for 28 passing for 285 yards and two touchdowns including an 80 yard catch and run by Cody Thompson. The sophomore wide out caught the ball on a slant, raced across field before turning on the jets upfield and finding his way to the end zone with blazing speed.
Temple was expected to come into this game, play physical and pound the rock. That game plan though quickly turned astray once star running back Jahad Thomas, backed up near Temple’s own end zone lost the ball out of bounds causing a safety. This flipped the script for the whole game, as Temple was dominant in terms of possession and Toledo capitalized by scoring the game's first touchdown after retaining possession on the safety. Thomas was injured later in the quarter (knee) and did not return to the game.
With an attendance of 25,908 FAU stadium was jam packed despite the heavy rain that continued to soak the field by the bucketload. While most thought we’d see a resurgence by Temple because of their physical nature it was lacking. Toledo only allowed 99 yards on 33 rushes for Temple as a team, and the nation's number three red zone defense held Temple to three points instead of six at least three times in the game. Temple’s defense led by All-American Tyler Matakevich couldn’t stop Toledo’s passing attack which had 285 yards but also gave up 150 yards on the ground with an equal 33 carries. Matakevich himself had 12 tackles and did all he could, including a near miss interception.
Toledo now improves to 11-4 all time in Bowl games and winners of back to back Bowl games after last years thrilling 63 - 44 GoDaddy Bowl victory. The Matt Campbell era for Toledo ended before the Bowl started as Coach now faces a new challenge at Iowa State, while Jason Candle looks to lead this Rockets team for years to come and secured his first victory as Head Coach. Toledo also won every road game on its schedule this year, which shows a certain grind to the team that they can handle hostile environments. Temple will look to build back up and take another shot at a bowl victory next season with what should be a pretty strong team.
Toledo’s offense began the game with 28 total yards in the first quarter but rallied behind senior quarterback Phillip Ely to finish with 435 yards in the game. Ely was masterful from the second quarter on, going 20 for 28 passing for 285 yards and two touchdowns including an 80 yard catch and run by Cody Thompson. The sophomore wide out caught the ball on a slant, raced across field before turning on the jets upfield and finding his way to the end zone with blazing speed.
Temple was expected to come into this game, play physical and pound the rock. That game plan though quickly turned astray once star running back Jahad Thomas, backed up near Temple’s own end zone lost the ball out of bounds causing a safety. This flipped the script for the whole game, as Temple was dominant in terms of possession and Toledo capitalized by scoring the game's first touchdown after retaining possession on the safety. Thomas was injured later in the quarter (knee) and did not return to the game.
With an attendance of 25,908 FAU stadium was jam packed despite the heavy rain that continued to soak the field by the bucketload. While most thought we’d see a resurgence by Temple because of their physical nature it was lacking. Toledo only allowed 99 yards on 33 rushes for Temple as a team, and the nation's number three red zone defense held Temple to three points instead of six at least three times in the game. Temple’s defense led by All-American Tyler Matakevich couldn’t stop Toledo’s passing attack which had 285 yards but also gave up 150 yards on the ground with an equal 33 carries. Matakevich himself had 12 tackles and did all he could, including a near miss interception.
Toledo now improves to 11-4 all time in Bowl games and winners of back to back Bowl games after last years thrilling 63 - 44 GoDaddy Bowl victory. The Matt Campbell era for Toledo ended before the Bowl started as Coach now faces a new challenge at Iowa State, while Jason Candle looks to lead this Rockets team for years to come and secured his first victory as Head Coach. Toledo also won every road game on its schedule this year, which shows a certain grind to the team that they can handle hostile environments. Temple will look to build back up and take another shot at a bowl victory next season with what should be a pretty strong team.
- Darrell Wilkinson TheSkyBoat.com
- Twitter @DarrellW_Sports