Temple vs. East Carolina: Score, Highlights and Twitter Reaction

The Temple Owls secured their best start in history Thursday with a 24-14 road victory against the East Carolina Pirates at Dowdy-Ficklen Stadium in Greenville, North Carolina.   

The 10-point victory didn't come easy, as Temple trailed most of the game. They led 3-0 in the first quarter, but quarterback P.J. Walker and the offense were quiet most of the night. Trailing 14-10 heading into the fourth quarter, the junior came up big when it mattered most.   

Walker, facing a 2nd-and-24 from his own 15-yard line with 5:22 to go in the game, found wide receiver Robby Anderson streaking across the field. He hit him in stride around the Temple 33, and Anderson took it down to the ECU 34-yard line.

Even though it wasn't a score, it was probably the most important of the game. If they didn't complete that pass, the Owls were looking at 3rd-and-24 inside their own red zone and possibly punting down four.

Four plays after the big gain, Walker found Anderson again, this time for a 23-yard touchdown that proved to be the game-winner.

The Owls scored 10 points fewer than their season average of 34 points per game, but Walker finished 19-of-35 for 250 yards and the one touchdown. Running back Jahad Thomas rushed for 66 yards and two scores, his second coming with 2:18 left in the game following the Owls' second punt of the night.

ECU took a 14-10 lead with 18 seconds remaining in the first half, when junior quarterback Blake Kemp found Quay Walls in the end zone from seven yards out. The Pirates held that same lead until Anderson's score then fell apart in the final six minutes.

The victory should keep the Owls, who were ranked No. 22 coming into the game, in the Associated Press Top 25 poll next week. It has been 36 years since Temple was ranked, and in case you aren't sure exactly how long ago that is, ESPN CollegeFootball reminded everyone.

This was certainly a game to celebrate, and Temple did just that:

The Owls move to 4-0 in the and are the only in the conference's East Division. The Pirates could have moved into a first-place tie with a victory but instead are now 2-2 in the conference and in second place in the East.

Now, as Philadelphia-based AP reporter Dan Gelston described, the Owls have a pretty big game next week.

However, just because you play in a big game, doesn't mean you are going to win it. Sports Illustrated's Brian Hamilton doesn't seem to have much faith in the underdog Owls.

If the Owls can get past the Notre Dame Fighting Irish, Temple has winnable games at 1-5 SMU and 3-3 South Florida before the No. 18 undefeated . Then they would need to finish off 3-4 UConn at home the next week and then win the AAC on Dec. 5 to finish undefeated.

That is a ton of work still ahead of them, but if they can finish unscathed, the Owls will have made a great case to play in a January bowl game.

Postgame Reaction

Temple head coach Matt Rhule wasn't exactly thrilled with the way his team played, but he was glad to leave Greenville with a win, per Joseph Santoliquito of CBS Philly.

“We overcame shooting ourselves in the foot, but I couldn’t be prouder of our team,” Rhule said. “We didn’t look like a very good football team at times tonight, but I couldn’t be prouder."

It didn't look good for a while, but during crunch time, the Owls showed they were the better team.

"For us to fight, hang in and come back, they showed a lot of heart and character," Rhule said. "We just have to get better at some things.”

It wasn't just the coach talking about the Owls after the game, as plenty of people on Twitter were as well.

Someone who probably didn't enjoy talking about the game was ECU's quarterback Kemp, who threw for 272 yards, but was not happy to see this one slip away, per ECU's official athletics' site.

"We expected to win the game," Kemp said. "It's frustrating to see the game end like that."

It was certainly not pretty for the Pirates, who, in the final six minutes had two punts blocked, and gave up 14 points. 

Head coach Ruffin McNeil told ECU's official athletic's site he felt like the Priates gave the game away.

"

We stopped ourselves with the penalties. We can't have (nine) penalties, turnovers and the blocked punt. Temple did a lot of good things tonight, and we didn't. We didn't do the things we know we've got to do to win the game.

"

It certainly felt like it was one that got away for some, but The New Bern Sun Journals' Jordan Honeycutt thinks the Pirates can finish the season strong.

If Temple finishes strong, it could mean big things for the Owls this season, but could it mean Rhule might move on to greener pastures?

For now the Owls can bask in the glory of their best start in season history, but they better not get too comfortable, because in four weeks the undefeated Memphis Tigers, who knocked off Ole Miss last weekend, come to town for what could be one of the biggest regular season games in Temple history.