East Carolina Picks Off Temple Three Times, Grinds Out 17-9 Win to End Overtime Hangover

Two weeks in a row, East Carolina had played four quarters of football, walked into overtime and walked out with a loss. On Halloween in Greenville, the Pirates decided they had seen enough extra periods for one season.

East Carolina beat Temple 17-9 at Dowdy-Ficklen Stadium on Saturday afternoon, a game with all the glamour of a tax audit and about the same margin for error. The Pirates ran for more than 200 yards, picked off Ajani Sheppard three times, and kept a Temple offense that never found the end zone stuck in field goal range all day. ECU moved to 4-4 and 2-2 in the American. Temple fell to 2-6 and 1-3.

A long first drive sets the terms

JoJo Bermudez, back in the lineup after missing the Charlotte game with a shoulder injury, ripped off a 33-yard punt return to the ECU 38 on the Pirates' first punt of the day. Carl Hardin's 41-yard field goal try drifted wide with 7:24 left in the first, a miss that would loom large.

East Carolina answered with a statement drive. Thirteen plays, 77 yards, 6:05 off the clock. TJ Engleman Jr. broke runs of 14 and 11 yards, Mitch Griffis hit Tyler Johnson for a first down, and Ashton Gray picked up a fourth-and-1 at the 3:52 mark to keep it alive. Gray finished the march with a 1-yard plunge at 1:19 that held up on review. 7-0.

In the second quarter, ECU marched 60 yards on 13 plays but came up empty on fourth-and-5 at the Temple 15 when a Griffis throw for Brock Spalding fell incomplete. Temple then put together its best sustained drive of the half, 12 plays and 62 yards, built on a 17-yard Ajani Sheppard run and completions to Bermudez and Samuel Brown V. An 8-yard sack of Sheppard pushed the Owls back, and Hardin settled for a 41-yarder with 2:52 left. 7-3.

Ray Ray Joseph Jr. flips the field

Then the half turned on a kickoff. Ray Ray Joseph Jr. took Hardin's boot and returned it 56 yards, handing Griffis a short field before the break. Griffis found Landon Sides twice, for 16 and 10 yards, and the Pirates got to the Temple 2. Temple's defense held on the goal line, but Noah Perez knocked through a 20-yard field goal with 12 seconds left. 10-3 at the half, and the field position battle had swung hard toward Greenville.

In a game this tight, every free yard felt like a first down. Joseph finished with two kick returns for 76 yards.

The turning point: 14 plays, 75 yards

East Carolina came out of the locker room and delivered the drive that decided the game. Fourteen plays, 75 yards, 4:54. The capper was a 19-yard touchdown run with 10:06 left in the third quarter, the only play of the drive that went for more than 15 yards. Perez added the point. 17-3.

Temple answered with three more Hardin points. Keveun Mason ripped off an 18-yard run and Sheppard hit Bermudez for 17, but a delay of game penalty on fourth down backed the Owls up, and Hardin drilled a 46-yarder with 5:08 left in the third. 17-6.

What happened next summed up the afternoon. ECU drove to the Temple 40, then went for it on fourth-and-3 with 2:13 left in the third. Curly Ordonez and the Temple front stuffed Gray short, and Temple had the ball with momentum and a chance to make it a one-score game. On the very next snap, Sheppard threw it to Angelo Ross. The ECU defensive back picked it off at the Pirates' 35 and brought it back 12 yards. Temple's best opening of the day lasted exactly one play.

Three picks and a closing drive

Temple kept hanging around. The Owls opened the fourth quarter with their best drive of the day, 10 plays and 68 yards, as Keveun Mason ripped off runs of 15 and 9 yards and Sheppard found Colin Chase for 19 and Samuel Brown V for 10. Then it stalled at the ECU 23. A third-down trick play with Chase throwing fell incomplete, and Hardin hit a 41-yarder with 10:12 left. 17-9, one score.

ECU's next possession stalled after 16 yards and ended in a punt, and Temple got the ball back at its own 27 with 6:43 to play. Sheppard ran for 14 yards to the 41. Two plays later, Sheppard took a shot downfield and Zyeir Gamble intercepted it at the ECU 3.

The Pirates gave it right back. After a Temple personal foul moved the chains, Saboor Karriem picked off Griffis at the Temple 21 with 4:19 left. Temple's possession lasted two plays. Sheppard was intercepted again, this time by Ashton Levells-Mitchell at the Temple 35 with 3:49 remaining, and ECU had the ball in field goal range with the clock now its best friend.

ECU did not need the kick. Engleman carried three straight times to set up fourth-and-1 at the Temple 26, and instead of trying a field goal Harrell's offense stayed on the field. Gray ran for 5 yards and the first down with 1:55 left. Griffis took two snaps from there, the last a kneel-down, and the Pirates walked off with the win.

Engleman and the ECU ground game

Engleman came in as ECU's leading rusher with 582 yards and played like it, finishing with 107 yards on 16 carries and a touchdown. Gray added 58 yards on 15 carries, the first-quarter score and two fourth-and-1 conversions, and Griffis chipped in around 30 yards on the ground.

Griffis, a transfer from Texas Tech, was efficient rather than explosive, going 17-of-30 for 130 yards. No touchdown passes and one interception, but the game plan never required more. Landon Sides was the security blanket with seven catches for 58 yards.

Defensively, the Pirates were opportunistic in a way they had not been in the overtime losses. Gamble had six tackles to go with the goal-line interception, Kamaurri McKinley had six tackles and a sack, and Ross and Levells-Mitchell added the other two picks. ECU sacked Sheppard twice.

The numbers that tell the story

The turnover battle was the game. Temple threw three interceptions; ECU threw one. The Pirates ran for well over 200 yards and averaged roughly five yards a carry, while holding Temple to 121 on the ground. Temple's passing game produced 128 yards and nothing longer than 19. ECU won despite a modest 130 passing yards and only one field goal attempt. Every snap is in the official box score (opens in a new tab).

Temple's defense showed up. The offense did not.

The Owls spent their bye week overhauling the defense after the Charlotte loss. K.C. Keeler fired defensive line coach Cedric Calhoun, moved defensive coordinator Brian L. Smith out of the play-calling role and handed the defensive calls to assistant head coach Henry Baker, according to The Philadelphia Inquirer. A year ago, ECU hung 45 on Temple. This time, Ordonez finished with a game-high 14 tackles, Jayvant Brown and Saboor Karriem were everywhere, and the Pirates needed every one of their 17 points.

The problem was the other side of the ball. Sheppard completed 11 of 20 passes for 118 yards with three interceptions and also led the team in rushing with 69 yards on 15 carries, but the Owls never crossed the goal line. Hardin's leg accounted for all nine points, and the early miss from 41 loomed large in a game decided by eight. Bermudez's return was a bright spot, and so was Samuel Brown V's first action since the Sept. 25 loss to Army.

What it means

For ECU, this was about stopping the bleeding. After overtime losses at UAB (opens in a new tab) and at Memphis, Blake Harrell's team needed a win that looked like the identity it wants: run the ball, protect it, and let the defense breathe. The Pirates are back to .500 with four games left. Next up is South Florida on a Friday night in Greenville on Nov. 6, followed by a trip to Charlotte, a road game at Army and the finale against Florida Atlantic.

For Temple, this was a third straight loss after UConn and Charlotte, and at 2-6 the Owls would need to win out to reach six wins. The Owls visit Navy on Nov. 7, then host UAB and Rice before closing at Memphis.

The last word

Nobody will put this one in a highlight package. After two weeks of watching games slip away in overtime, the Pirates closed one out in regulation by doing the unglamorous stuff better than the team across the field. On Halloween, that was trick enough.

Sources: ESPN box score and play-by-play, theScore, East Carolina Athletics and The Philadelphia Inquirer. More college football coverage on Undrafted.

Photos: ECU Athletics.