Temple Looks To Bounce Back From Army Loss Vs. Stony Brook

PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- The Temple Owls will look to put a disappointing season opening loss to Army behind them on Saturday when they host FCS squad Stony Brook at the Linc.

The Owls fell to the Black Knights 28-13 in South Philadelphia this past Friday. Temple led 10-7 at the break, but Army gradually took control of the game over the second half, utilizing their triple-option attack.

"I think in a lot of ways we played really hard, we watched the film, we were physical," Temple head coach Matt Rhule tells KYW Newsradio. "I think the biggest takeaway for our team is that I don't know if we were as passionate and I don't know if we enjoyed the game as much as we would've wanted to. I think you saw a lot of kids that were pressing, that were tight, a lot of them playing for the first time and didn't go out and really enjoy the moment and play the way we normally play at Temple. So we will use this as a learning experience and the big takeaway for us is whether we're down by eight going into the fourth quarter or we're up by eight, we're going to play Temple football, we're going to play with passion, with energy, we're going to play for each other, we're going to celebrate, we're going to have fun and hopefully this game will get us to do that."

Listen to the entire interview with Temple head coach Matt Rhule:

The Owls played without starting running back Jahad Thomas against Army. He was out with a hand injury.

"I think he's probably another couple of weeks away," Rhule says. "So we'll continue with Ryquell (Armstead), David Hood and some of our other young guys to fill that void."

Armstead led the Owls with 77 yards rushing on 16 carries against Army. He also scored Temple's only touchdown in the second quarter on a six-yard run.

Rhule breaks down the Stony Brook team that will come to town on Saturday.

"I think they had a great win last week," Rhule says. "Played the #19 team in the country (in FCS), North Dakota, and they were able to beat them (13-9). They played tremendous defense, they are 8th in the country in total defense right now. Really held North Dakota to one offensive touchdown, they blocked a punt. And there's a lot of kids on there that we recruited that either went to other schools and transferred back to Stony Brook or who stayed at Stony Brook. So we recognize the challenge that it's going to be, the way we're going to have to compete. All the things that we learned from the Army game are going to have to show up to have a chance in this game."

Temple and Stony Brook will kickoff at 1:00pm on Saturday.