Army finds themselves 3-0 this week with a chance to sweep the trio of American Conference Owls in consecutive games this Thursday night. The Black Knights will travel to Philadelphia to take on Temple at the Linc. Interestingly, this will be just the second game Army has played in the traditional home of Army-Navy since the 2019 rivalry game.
Temple Owls
Third-year Head Coach Stan Drayton has led Temple to a 1-3 mark so far. The Owls started off with back-to-back road losses at Oklahoma and Navy before losing at home to Coastal Carolina in Week 3. However, the Owls then managed to pull off a home win against Utah State last week, 45-29.
Offense
Temple presents a fairly balanced attack in terms of number of plays, however the Owls gain nearly twice as many yards through the air as they do on the ground.
QB Forrest Brock started the first two games before suffering an injury against Navy. Despite backup QB Evan Simon’s success since then, Temple hasn’t named a starter for Thursday night. With that said, Simon has completed a higher percentage of his passes (65.4%) for more yards per attempt (8.8) with fewer interceptions. Both quarterbacks are willing to tuck the ball and run, but neither has yet established themselves as a legitimate threat with their legs. Both average fewer than 3 yards/carry.
On the ground, Temple is most likely to feature junior RB Antwain Littleton, though he’s picking up just 4 yards/play. Littleton was an effective receiver out of the backfield last week catching 3 passes for 33 yards and a touchdown. WR Dante Wright has become the favorite target for Owl quarterbacks down the field. He accounts for more than 40% of all Temple passing yards and a third of their total completions. We should note, too, that Temple threw to their tight ends in the Red Zone several times last week against Utah State.
Army’s defense will have to key in on Littleton and Wright to prevent explosive plays this week. Temple has had the most success this year scoring on chunk plays just inside or just outside the redzone. Army’s bend-but-don’t-break defense will need to generate stops somewhere around the 20 yard line.
Defense
Despite having already played Navy, only one Owls defensive lineman has recorded double-digit tackles this year. Also of note: despite not playing against Navy, LB D.J. Woodbury Sr. leads the team in tackles and is poised to continue racking them up with Army’s triple-option coming to town. Lastly, despite getting quite a few tackles from the secondary, the Owls have recorded just 1 interception through four games. They haven’t recovered a fumble yet, either, so that gives us a total of just 1 turnover all the season.
Friends, this defense gives up more than 5 yards/carry on the ground, so Army should be able to move the ball against them. Add that to the lack of tackling from the defensive line, and we ought to expect Army’s offensive line to dominate in the trenches.
Special Teams
PK Maddux Trujillo has college football’s longest made field goal of the year at 64 yards. He’s 5/6 on field goals overall and a perfect 8/8 on points-after.
P Dante Atton has had a lot of practice this season with 19 punts overall, going nearly 40 yards per punt. That’s comparable to Army’s punting this year so don’t expect too much of a field position advantage either way.
Final Thoughts
Army is a 13.5 point favorite as of this writing. Combine that with 45.5 Over/Under point total, and Vegas expects a final score of 29.5-16. That shows more respect for Army’s offense than the 25 points expected last week, but Temple’s run defense allows considerably more yards per carry than Rice’s did.
As a matter of reality, it seems like Vegas hasn’t fully priced in the effects of Army’s switch back to the under-center flexbone offense.
Army’s coaching staff has made the short turnaround between last Saturday’s game and this Thursday’s a point of emphasis this week, but we should all remember that it’s harder to prepare for the triple-option on short rest than it is to work a few wrinkles into the option for a particular opponent.
With that in mind, this should be a fairly stress free week. Crazy things happen in college football every day. However, if things get truly crazy this week, there will probably be some questions to answer on both sides of the ball.
Attendees this week can expect overcast conditions in the upper-60s to lower-70s with a chance of rain. Wet conditions on natural grass might favor the ground game, but we’ll have to wait until later in the week for a more accurate forecast.
Effort & execution was on display early in our first home @American_Conf victory. pic.twitter.com/2W1pQN5Iz7
— Army Football (@ArmyWP_Football) September 24, 2024
Follow the Game
Coverage starts at 7:30 pm Eastern on ESPN. You can also download the Varsity Network app to hear Rich DeMarco make the radio call. Given the typical quality of ESPN coverage of the triple option, this might be the week to make that happen.
As always, follow the usual suspects on twitter for pre-game updates and in-game analysis — @asforfootball, @BrigadeReview, @DannoECabeza.
Go Army! Beat Temple!!!
This week’s glorious cover photo comes via @DrinkallCoach.
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