Georgia Tech Football: Previewing the Temple Defense
By Lee Cagle
Georgia Tech Football travels to Temple this Saturday to face off with Geoff Collins old team. Temple is 2-1 on the season and reeling from the high of upsetting Maryland in week two and a suffocating loss to Buffalo in week three.
The Temple defense in 2019 so far has been about above average. The Owls have given up 22.3 points per game to opponents this season including 33 off of turnovers. Without those 33 points off turnovers, that points per game stat would look even better but as we discussed yesterday, the Owls are a turnover happy offense.
Additionally, the Owls have made it extremely hard for opposing offenses to move the ball down the field this season, only allowing 276.7 yards per game. That includes 143.7 yards through the air on average, and 133 yards per game on the ground. The Jackets offense has struggled through the air this season and facing a tough secondary in Temple on Saturday, won’t do any wonders for the Jackets offense.
The Jackets rushing attack in 2019 so far hasn’t been as lethal as it has in the past but has been their best opportunity to move the ball down the field. The Georgia Tech offensive line will need to have a big game on Saturday afternoon, if the Jackets hope to upset the Owls.
To win, the Jackets are always going to learn how to extend drives especially on third down. That will be hard against the Owls, as this season Temple has held its opponents to only a 28% conversion rate on third down. Temple has however allowed their opponents to convert on four of ten fourth down attempts.
With all that being said, Temple’s defense is beatable as Buffalo provided a template to doing so.
Last week Temple gave up four rushing touchdowns to Buffalo on 217 yards rushing exposing a potential weakness for the Yellow Jackets to exploit with Jordan Mason and Tobias Oliver. Buffalo only passed the ball nine times for 62 yards. Buffalo dominated the time of possession by almost a full quarter keeping the Owls defense on the field. Not entirely unlike what happened to Georgia Tech with The Citadel.
Temple is a tale of two teams on defense looking like they could conquer the world against Maryland but somehow not being able to stop anything that Buffalo ran at them. The Georgia Tech offense is sputtering at the moment which opens the door for the Owls to capitalize on the multiple quarterback system that the Jackets are currently trying.
If the Jackets are able to replicate any type of ground game like Buffalo put on them last week then this could be an interesting game as both offenses trade on the other’s strengths. My guess is that both teams are going to want to play out of particularly bad performances in their previous games and that should lead to an interesting game.