Houston-Temple
Sept 7, 2013 at Noon EST
Line: HOU -3
O/U: 67
Odds courtesy of 5dimes
Last week in Week one, the Houston Cougars handily disposed of Southern 62-13, and the offense looked well oiled and efficient. The team will receive a much tougher task this week against a major conference school in Temple, but David Pilland was very efficient throwing the ball and his backup John O’Korn looked good too. The Cougars had 627 yards of total offense.
The Cougars will have no trouble scoring points this year, but they are hoping Dave Gibbs can save the defense. Gibbs is switching the defense to a 3-4 scheme and has only four returning starters. It’s going to be difficult to make a complete overhaul, and that should give Temple a chance at this game, as college football oddsmakers set the line very close, favoring the Cougars by just a field goal.
Temple faced an insurmountable task last week in taking on No. 14 overall Notre Dame. The Owls lost the game 28-6. Despite the bad loss, some positives could be withdrawn for the Owls: they had 25 first downs and 362 total yards. The issue was that the team gave up 543 yards, including 188 on the ground.
Connor Reilly is now a junior and needs to make big strides for this Owls team to be competitive. He had just a 91.6 QB rating in week one, but he did avoid interceptions and was sacked just once. Reilly threw 23-of-46 (50 percent). Reilly was a walk-on in baseball and gave up baseball to takeover the quarterback duties at Temple. He’s a naturally gifted athlete, and to immediately step in and hold his ground against Notre Dame is impressive.
Expect a close contest between two teams very evenly matched; both are gifted offensively and lacking defensively. The 67 point total is a good indictor of how college football oddsmakers feel about the scoring prowess of these squads, as both are capable of amassing a lot of yardage.
HOU Betting Trends
6-0 ATS in last 6 after accumulating 200+ yards rushing, 5-1 ATS in last 6 on road vs teams with losing home records, 9-2 ATS in last 11 following SU win of 20+
TEM Betting Trends
0-5 ATS vs teams with winning home records, OVER 6-1-1 in last 8 home games, OVER 6-1 in last 7 after scoring less than 20 previous game
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