Turnovers, Miscues Cost Villanova in Loss

Well, I guess Temple is no longer an also-ran, because they proved last night that the 2011 matchup against Villanova was not a fluke by winning the final installment of the Mayor's Cup 41-10 despite being outgained by the 'Cats. Despite the scoreline being reasonably similar as the game last year, Villanova played far better than they did last year, as two of Temple's touchdowns came off of turnovers at a time when Villanova was moving the ball quite well, and a third came on an end of half running play, about as fluky as things can get. So despite the perceived ass-whipping, Villanova didn't look like they'll be a two win team this season. How good will they be? :shrugs shoulders:

One the good/bad front for Villanova (depending on how you look at it,) John Robertson came in for a struggling Chris Polony and impressed, basically affirming my observations of him from last summer when I said that he impressed me more than Polony. Why is this bad, you say? Well it's not a good thing because if he starts the next game, Robertson would be the fourth quarterback to start a game in a calendar year after having Chris Whitney start just about every game for two and a half seasons. I'm not a believer in the whole "if you have two quarterbacks, you have no quarterbacks" nonsense, but I do think it's nice when one superior player can get all the rep, and I don't know if Polony is superior to Robertson and vice/versa.

Some additional thoughts:

• The tackling was pretty atrocious. If there weren't 30 missed tackles by Villanova in that game, I'd be shocked.
• Other teams are going to game plan for Norman White, so forcing the ball to him isn't going to work. Chris Polony threw one of the ugliest interceptions I've ever seen by doing exactly that.
• Austin Medley is the most explosive running back Villanova has had in a long time. He's a threat to take it to the house whenever he gets past the first level of the defense. He's clearly the best tailback on this team, and should probably be treated as such.
• At least Temple didn't pass the ball well. Then again, they didn't really need to.
• Turnovers are bad, mmkay.
• Temple has some really classy fans.

That's it for this game. Hopefully nobody really got hurt.