The Temple Owls and the UCF Knights meet in a week 7 AAC college football matchup from the Bounce House on Thursday night.

The Temple Owls will be out to bounce back and find some consistency after alternating wins and losses in each of their first 5 games after a 24-3 loss to Memphis last time out, falling to 2-3 on the year as a result.  E.J. Warner has thrown for 806 yards, 5 touchdowns and 6 interceptions on 56.4% passing while Darvon Hubbard and Edward Saydee have combined for 244 rushing yards this season. Jose Barbon has a team-high 317 receiving yards with 21 receptions while Adonicas Sanders also has 21 grabs for 293 receiving yards as well this season. On defense, Kobe Wilson has a team-high 34 total tackles while Layton Jordan has a team-high 4.5 sacks and Temple’s defense as a whole has 20 sacks this season.

The UCF Knights will try to build on their three-game win streak after a 41-19 win over SMU last time out, climbing to 4-1 on the year as a result. John Rhys Plumlee has thrown for 1,143 yards, 7 touchdowns and 3 interceptions on 61% passing while also leading UCF in rushing with 432 yards along with 4 touchdowns. Isaiah Bowser has 290 rushing yards with a team-high 8 touchdowns and Johnny Richardson also has 230 rushing yards as well this season. Javon Baker leads UCF’s receivers with 24 grabs for 395 yards along with a pair of touchdowns while Ryan O’Keefe has 21 catches for 253 yards. On defense, Jason Johnson has a team-high 41 total tackles while Tre’Mon Morris-Brash has a team-high 3 sacks.

Temple is 0-6 ATS in their last 6 road games and 3-13 ATS in their last 16 conference games while the under is 4-1 in their last 5 games overall. UCF is 7-18 ATS in their last 25 conference games and 1-4 ATS in their last 5 games against a team with a losing record while the under is 5-0 in their last 5 games following a win.

This is a massive number to be laying here, so I’m looking at the under in this one. I just feel more comfortable backing UCF’s defense to keep a terrible Temple offense in check, rather than trust UCF to rally the troops offensively and to run it up on Temple when we’ve seen the Owls defense step up in spots and we’ve also seen UCF falter against Louisville. Am I likening Temple and Louisville? No, but I think we see a low-scoring battle here and for this game to stay well under the number.