The dark clouds that began to gather over South Florida's football team last week at Bowling Green erupted Saturday night when the Bulls faced Temple.
They couldn't stop the Owls when it mattered most, and the offense wasn't able to pick up the slack.
The result was a 17-13 loss at Raymond James Stadium that knocked the Bulls from the unbeaten ranks, evoked grumbling from the home crowd, and cast legitimate doubt on just how much USF is capable of accomplishing the rest of the way.
The Bulls, now 4-1 overall and 1-1 in the American Conference, need answers quickly. There is no time for a pity party because they have to travel to UTSA on Thursday for a nationally televised joust with the Roadrunners.
UTSA has a 33-5 record at the Alamodome under head coach Jeff Traylor. The Roadrunners are 25-1 at home in the conference under his leadership.
Right now, though, the Bulls are more focused on another statistic. In their last two games, they have a combined 27 points. And against Temple, the offense was a no-show after opening with a touchdown drive.
"It's been kind of like this for three or five games so far," Bulls coach Brian Hartline said. "What needs to happen? Well, I can't say we have to practice better because it was a pretty good week of practice.
"I think we're doing a poor job of taking practice to the game. It feels like alignment issues, like just not on the ball at all. Or covering guys up. I feel like we are dropping a lot of footballs. I like like the protection was pretty darn good today.. The O-line stepped up in a good way."
The passing game was not in sync for most of the night.
"Maybe we're getting out of the pocket a little too quick sometimes, but I'll take a look at the film right now," Hartline said. "I don't have a good feel for that. I would say the execution hasn't been great. Runs were not as explosive."
Running back D.J. Crowther carried 23 times for 68 yards. That's only 3 yards per carry and that's not enough. Quarterback Michael Van Buren, Jr. ran seven times for just 16 yards.
Van Buren bemoaned what he called "self-inflicted wounds."
But even with that, the Bulls had a chance to walk away with the win -- that is, until the whole thing collapsed.
USF led 13-10 midway through the fourth quarter when the bend-but-don't-break defense finally broke.
Temple was backed up to its own 4-yard line but drove 96 yards for the go-ahead score. USF committed two penalties in the drive -- pass interference and offsides -- before quarterback Ajani Sheppard broke free for a 34-yard touchdown to put the Owls ahead.
The Bulls' attempt at a comeback collapsed when receiver Mudia Reuben fumbled near midfield after completing a 22-yard catch.
Temple recovered with 30 seconds left, and that was that.
"What needs to happen? I think the routine plays need to be routine," Hartline said. "Like when we throw and catch and we have an opportunity, a couple of really good catches on mistargeted throws. But then you have those drops, when you have negative plays.
"You take a hard look at what plays we're selecting at the right times and see if we're putting guys in the right spots for those."
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