On Saturday, the Houston Cougars open their American Athletic Conference play on the road against the Temple Owls. The Cougars are looking to bounce back after a tough home loss last week. The Temple Owls are looking to get to .500 in the conference and hope to stay a contender in the AAC. Kickoff inside Lincoln Financial Field is at 12 P.M ET.
The Houston Cougars (2-1, 0-0 AAC) had their 16 game home streak snapped last week by Texas Tech 27-24. It was a hard fought contest where Houston had their chances to win. The Cougars will look to feast on the Owls this week as Temple has been shaky against stiffer competition. Additionally, Houston is 3-0 against Temple over the last 4 years.
Temple (2-2, 0-1 AAC) is coming off a blowout loss on the road to USF. The Owls are hoping that a return home can help to alleviate their problems on the field. Temple is 2-0 at home and look to stay undefeated in a tough conference game.
The spread opened at Temple getting 13.5 points and the Over/Under at 46.5 total points. Both lines have since moved with the spread at 14 points and the Over/Under at 46 total points.
In all honesty, I expected this spread to be higher. If you have seen Temple play this year, then you would agree. The Owls offense is just terrible. They’re averaging only 288 total yards per game, 17 points per game and less than 70 rushing yards per game. A high school team could average those numbers! It makes you wonder how they even won a game this season. But, if you look at their schedule so far, you will see that Temple played against 2 terrible football programs in UMass and Villanova where they racked up most of their points and yardage.
In the 2 games where Temple played a good team, they were routed by a combined score of 92-23. Last week, Temple was crushed by AAC rival USF 43-7. In the first week of the season, Temple was routed by Notre Dame 49-16.
I would consider Houston a “good team” as they’ve played solid football this year against above average competition. Despite losing at home last week to an undefeated Texas Tech team, the Cougars had chances to get the victory. They routed Rice in Week 2 by a score of 38-3 and they upset Pac-12’s Arizona 19-16 in Arizona during Week 1.
Houston has shown that they have a reliable defense this year. The Cougars defense is only allowing 15 points per game, which is 2 points less than what Temple averages on the season. Prior to their game last week, TTU was averaging 54 points per game and Houston held them to half their average.
Offensively, Houston loves to throw the ball as quarterback Kyle Allen already has 751 passing yards on the season. And, Temple can’t really stop anything through the air or on the ground. So, Houston has a great chance this week to bounce back and get an easy conference win.
Houston is 18-5-1 ATS in their last 24 road games, 8-2 ATS in their last 10 games during September, and 4-1 ATS in their last 5 games where they’ve been a favorite of 10.5 to 21 points. Additionally, the Cougars are 3-0 ATS in their last 3 games against Temple. The Owls are 0-5 ATS in their last 5 games.
I expect Houston to hold Temple to below their season average. In their 3 previous meetings, Temple has scored: 13, 10, and 13 points. I see Temple scoring 10-13 points in this one. Last week versus USF, Temple had 6 turnovers and only 85 total yards for the game. I expect the Cougars defense to force turnovers this week and capitalize on them with points. Look for a score in the ballpark of 30-13 with the Cougars easily cruising to a 2+ touchdown victory.