The No. 22 Temple Owls, who are 10-2 (7-1 in the American Athletic Conference), are looking to put a bow on the regular season as they will take on the No. 19 Houston Cougars in the AAC championship tomorrow at noon on ABC.
For the Owls, a win will send them to a New Year’s Six bowl game. Before the season, you couldn’t put Temple and New Year’s Six bowl in the same sentence because you did not know if this team, who returned majority of the starters on both sides of the ball, was ready to take that next step.
Right out the gate, Temple proved they were ready to take that next step, defeating Penn State in the regular season opener 27-10. That game set a tone for the rest of the season as the Owls’ defense proved they were a force to be reckoned with. This season, Temple’s defense has only given up 18.8 points per game, which is ranked 16th best in the country. Not to mention, they are tied for 18th in the country in sacks with 33 and tied for 11th in interceptions with 16.
With those kind of statistics, the Owls’ defense kept the team in games. Looking back at the Penn State game, the Owls picked off Nittany Lions quarterback Christian Hackenberg once, and sacked him nine times. Then, against another big time quarterback in Memphis’ Paxton Lynch, the Owls’ defense sacked him twice in the 31-12 victory.
While those quarterbacks are your prototypical pocket passers, Temple’s defense will go against a dual-threat quarterback in Houston’s Greg Ward Jr. Temple’s defense should be well prepared for Ward Jr. as they faced a similar test in Notre Dame’s DeShone Kizer. Kizer, who is a dual-threat quarterback, was one of the biggest reasons why the Fighting Irish defeated the Owls 20-14 on Halloween night.
Kizer had 299 passing yards but 143 yards on the ground and two touchdowns, including a breakaway 79-yard touchdown run. Despite Temple forcing Kizer to throw two interceptions, they still had a chance to win.
Going into tomorrow’s game, middle linebacker Tyler Matakevich’s job will be to keep an eye on Ward Jr. The junior quarterback is having a great season, throwing for 2,501 yards, 16 touchdowns, five interceptions and completing 68.9 percent of his passes. Not to mention, he has rushed for 899 yards, and a ridiculous 17 touchdowns. Just like Kizer, Ward Jr. is one of the main reasons why the Cougars are 11-1.
When the two teams met last season, the Cougars blew out the Owls 31-10. In that game, Ward Jr. torched Temple’s defense completing 87.9 percent of his passes, throwing for 268 yards and two touchdowns. He wasn’t much of a factor on the ground, only having 44 rushing yards on 13 carries.
If the Owls do not want to have a repeat performance of last season’s game, the defense must step up and force Ward Jr. to be one-dimensional. It is easier said than done, but if Temple’s defense contains the dual-threat quarterback, they can say hello to a New Year’s Six bowl game.
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