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Unfortunately, We Now Have to Fade the Owls After Temple Made us Look Like Chumps in Week 3
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I’d like to apologize for telling everyone that the Temple Owls would cover the 24.5 points at home against the Oklahoma Sooners. Not only did they fail to cover, but they got their asses totally kicked in a 42-3 loss on Saturday afternoon. We thought they’d come out fired up as a 2-0 team with a new coach, maybe riding the enthusiasm of the crowd, but not only did nobody show up, they barely mustered 100 yards while running the ball 27 times for 26 yards, which is an efficient 0.96 yards per carry. We put our necks out there for the Owls and they burned us completely. They made us look like IDIOTS.
I don’t take any pleasure in this, but we’re now fading the Owls in Week 4 as they travel to Atlanta to face the 3-0 Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets. The spread is right around 24 points to open, so get in on the action while it’s hot:
For real though, this Tech team beat Colorado on the road, hammered the Gardner-Webb Runnin’ Bulldogs at home, then took out Clemson 24 to 21 on a walk-off field goal. They held the Buffs to 20 points in Boulder and limited Cade Klubnik to 15-26 passing for 207 yards, one TD, and a pick. Colorado’s QB, Kaidon Salter, went 17-28 for 159 and a score. They did give up about 4.85 YPC on the ground against the two D1 teams, but Temple is going to do what, realistically, down there? If Clemson put up 21 in the ATL, the Owls are gonna muster, maybe 10 points? 13?
And defensively, this is the second time in two weeks they’re playing a legitimate dual-threat QB. John Mateer put up almost 350 yards of offense by himself while finding the end zone with his arm and his legs, and now you’ve got Haynes King to prepare for. Pretty rough. King is a total maniac and a guy that Philly fans would appreciate. He’s the real deal.
The only plausible path for Temple this week is that GT falls asleep between ACC games and doesn’t take the Owls seriously. The classic “letdown” narrative. We thought Oklahoma might show us that on Saturday, but alas, they did not. So we unfortunately hammer the GT line while feeling sad for the Owls. It’s nothing personal.
Kevin has been writing about Philadelphia sports since 2009. He spent seven years in the CBS 3 sports department and started with the Union during the team's 2010 inaugural season. He went to the academic powerhouses of Boyertown High School and West Virginia University. email - k.kinkead@sportradar.com