Wednesday, November 17, 2021

#17 Houston 37, Temple 8

The Cougars easily dispatched the Temple Owls last weekend and, in the process, earned a berth in the American Athletic Conference championship game. Who would have expected that at the beginning of the season?!

The Good: Alton McCaskill rushed for 129 yards and two TDs on 21 carries; he now has 15 touchdowns on the season, tied for sixth-most in program history. Clayton Tune completed 21 of 34 passes for 224 yards, two touchdowns and no interceptions (Tune has not thrown an interception in five games). The defense notched three interceptions and held the Owls to just 10 first downs for the entire game.

The Bad: As good as Tune's numbers were, they would have been better had receivers not dropped several easily catchable passes. He was also sacked three times. Dalton Witherspoon's struggles continue, as he missed one of his two field goal attempts.

The Ugly: Temple football. The Owls are on a five-game losing streak and have scored an average of seven points per game over those five games. They have won only four games going back to the beginning of the 2020 season.

What It Means: Aside from winning eight in a row and punching their ticket to the conference championship game, the Cougars also earned a spot in this week's CFP Playoff rankings (albeit at #24).

Next up for the Coogs is a Friday night game at TDECU against Memphis. The Cougars have not beaten the Tigers since 2015.

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