Penn State at Temple Line
Written by Steve Janus - Google +
The Temple Owls are set to host the Penn State Nittany Lions in non-conference action this week. The Owls improved to 2-0 on the year with an impressive 41-3 win over Akron, just one week after opening the year with a 42-7 win over Villanova. The Nittany Lions fell to 1-1 after getting dominated at home by No. 3 Alabama 27-11. This will be the fourth straight year these two teams have faced off. Penn State has won each of the last three, but only managed a 22-13 win at home a year ago.
Looking at the week 3 college football odds, Penn State is listed as 9.5-point favorites over Temple on the road.
Penn State Nittany Lions:
While the Nittany Lions can’t feel happy about losing at home, I didn’t really think they had much of a shot against the Crimson Tide. Alabama is just so strong defensively that you have to play a near perfect game just to beat them. Penn State jumped out to an early 3-0 lead, but wouldn’t score a gain until their was 1:53 left in the fourth quarter.
Penn State once again used both Rob Bolden and Matt McGloin at quarterback. After going just 6 of 12 for 37 yards in the opener, Bolden completed 11 of 29 for 144 yards against Alabama. McGloin was a miserable 1 of 10 for no yards, and it looks as though Bolden will be the main guy at least in the next game against the Owls.
Sophomore running back Silas Redd had just 65 yards on 22 carries, but did score that late touchdown and 65 yards is pretty good against a defense like as talented as Alabama. Temple comes in allowing just 82 yards a game on the ground, but they haven’t played a team as physical as the Nittany Lions. Last year Penn State rushed it 46 times for 216 yards against the Owls, and this year the Temple defense is without defensive tackle Muhammad Wilkerson, who was a 1st round NFL draft pick.
Temple Owls:
It has been pretty easy going for the Owls in their first two games of the season. After a balanced offensive attack in their first game against Villanova, Temple did most of their damage on the ground last week. Starting running back Bernard Pierce rushed for 150 yards and three touchdowns on just 18 attempts. Temple also got 85 yards out of Matt Brown and 48 from Kenneth Harper.
Quarterback Mike Gerardi connected with Joe Jones for a 22 yard touchdown to open up the scoring for the Owls in the first quarter, but he would end up having a difficult day throwing the ball. Gerardi finished up just 7 of 17 for 93 yards.
Defensively the Owls held Akron to 269 yards of total offense, only 42 of those yards were allowed on the ground. They are going to face their toughest challenge of the season this week, and it will be interesting to see how they hold up. Last year Temple held Penn State to five field goals before finally surrendering a touchdown late in the game.
The other thing to watch in this matchup is Penn State’s defense against the Temple run. If the Owls can’t move the ball on the ground, they don’t figure to have much of a chance in this one. Last year Pierce had to leave the game with an injury after rushing for 42 yards and two scores on just 10 attempts.
Betting Trends:
Penn State is 10-1-1 ATS in their last 12 games as a road favorite, but are just 1-10 ATS in their last 11 games in September.
Temple is 10-2 ATS in their last 12 games as a home underdog, but are just 3-8 ATS in their last 11 vs. Big Ten.
Stop back and see what Steve Janus has going this week in college football.
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