Golden 'distraught' over loss at Northern Illinois

Two days after a 31-17 loss to Northern Illinois, Temple coach Al Golden remained an unhappy man.

"We obviously played a passionless game at NIU, and they executed at a much higher level than we did," Golden said Monday in a conference call with reporters. "We're not a very good team right now. We don't have a foundation right now, and the buck stops with me. I failed to get the team tough enough for the road trip. If you don't have a tough team, you can't win. I'm distraught."

His Owls had just finished practice. Golden also put the Owls through a workout on Sunday.

After their third straight road game, the Owls dropped to 4-2 overall and 1-1 in the Mid-American Conference.

Before practice on Monday, "I put everybody on notice, including the coaches, that this has got stop," said Golden, whose team will host Bowling Green (1-5, 0-2) on Saturday. "You will see some new faces. It's open season. We have a hungry team coming in, and we're going to get ourselves turned around."

Golden declined to specify what changes he has in mind, but the only aspect of the Northern Illinois game that he was pleased with was Temple's special-teams play.

Sophomore running back Matt Brown had a 55-yard kickoff return that led to a 31-yard touchdown pass from Chester Stewart to Evan Rodriguez for a 17-10 Temple lead in the second period.

Later, defensive end Adrian Robinson blocked a punt with the Owls trailing by 24-17, but they did not take advantage of that opportunity during a scoreless second half for Temple.

With the score tied at 17 midway through the third period, the usually reliable Brandon McManus was wide left on a 42-yard field-goal attempt. McManus is 8 for 12 on three-pointers this season.

After McManus' miss, Northern Illinois took the lead for good when quarterback Chandler Harnish found wide receiver Nathan Palmer for a 4-yard score.

"When you start out not doing little things well, then you don't do anything well," Golden said. "We didn't execute, and we didn't deserve to win."

Golden said the status of running back Bernard Pierce (ankle) for this week's game is uncertain. Pierce, who led the MAC in rushing last season with 1,361 yards, left Saturday's game in the first quarter after apparently aggravating the injury.

The 5-foot-5, 170-pound Brown ran for 93 yards and a touchdown on 13 carries against Northern Illinois. He is third in the MAC with 477 yards on the ground, and Pierce is fourth with 394.

"He's out right now, and when he gets healthy, we'll get him back on the field," Golden said of Pierce. "Matt is worthy of carrying the ball."