Villanova 27, Temple 24. Hand those guys the inaugural Mayor's Cup. But don't necessarily call this an upset. Maybe we should know by now, even if that was the first time the 'Cats led.
"Obviously, our game plan was just about the way you saw it," said Villanova's longtime head coach, Andy Talley, whose team rallied from 10 down at the half and from seven back in the fourth quarter. "We were hoping to get into the fourth quarter, stay close. It was an uphill battle all day. We made some first-game mistakes that I wasn't sure we could overcome.
"We felt if we got into the fourth quarter, we had enough to figure out a way. It just came down to that."
Regardless of levels, you had one team that has shown it knows how to win. And another that's still learning.
"We all know this is a tough game for Temple to take," Talley went on. "When you're playing a level down, you're expected to win. They were playing a pretty good team. They let us hang in there. That was the key.
"From a Villanova standpoint, we always felt we had a chance. That was a critical factor for us. We were pretty fortunate.
"This one is equally exciting for us [as the previous win]. This is a better [Temple] team. They had a lot on the line. Now, they get to play Penn State [on Sept. 16] and Buffalo [in a Mid-America Conference opener]. I think they knew, from history, that we had the ability to do it. Whether they felt we could do it, I don't know."
For the longest while it looked like an opener, with nothing much going on. Fortunately for the 27,759 who showed up, that wouldn't last.
The Wildcats trailed 10-0 after 30 minutes, but that changed when Ross Ventrone returned a fumble 59 yards for a touchdown on the second play of the third quarter.
