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We will find out a lot about our team this week. Temple is big, athletic, strong and on a roll. Maybe the biggest game ever at Ford Stadium.

Ponies 27, Owls 14. Look closely at Temple’s schedule. Yes, the Memphis win was impressive. But their big Maryland win in week 2 has aged badly, given that the Twerps are bad and their win over ranked Syracuse turns out to be because Syracuse is terrible. Bucknell is a bad FCS team. Georgia Tech is a terrible P5 team. Buffalo is a bad G5 team. ECU is a bad team, and they were in a one-possession game at Temple going into the 4Q.

I guess you could devalue our results the same way too. Both teams are good and it will take our best effort to beat them this Saturday.

The Temple - Buffalo game was a fluke. Temple turned the ball over 4 times in their own territory that directly led to Buffalo touchdowns. Buffalo had under 300 yards of total offense. Don't let that blip impede your perspective of Temple...

We have shown our blueprint on offense. We are going to score, eventually. We are going to try and pound the ball in the run game straight off the top. If it works, we will score early. If it doesn't, we need SB to convert on third down and long. If he doesn't, we will struggle until the second half. But eventually, we will score.

On the SMU side, it is really interesting to note how good our offensive and defensive third down rates are, while our red zone stats on both sides of the ball are very meh. Offensively, it is an indication that we have great athletes and QB, but our OL is just OK. Defensively, when we get teams behind the chains and can put in the pass rush specialists and/or blitz Nelson, we are very effective. But in straight up play, our DL performance, while the DL is very deep, has just been okay.

Temple is very good statistically. They have a better offense than you might think. Their pass efficiency defense is outstanding. Their red zone offense has struggled. They have playmakers and a good QB, but they do struggle to run the ball when they have to.

Keys to the game:
1) Which team can establish the run first? Both teams get after you defensively when you get behind the chains. Temple will slow SMU's offense down early. Can SMU do the same to Temple?
2) Turnovers. Temple really struggles to hold on to the ball. When they keep it, they are a very good team.
3) Which team creates negative plays? Both teams are in the NCAA leaders in sacks + TFLs. And both teams are NCAA leaders in preventing the same.

If one team gets behind the chains early, it could be a long day for them. At the end of the day, I think the pressure on Temple to keep up with our offense causes them to make that one key turnover...

SMU 35 - Temple 31

+1 on the prediction JasonB

mustangxc wrote:I guess you could devalue our results the same way too. Both teams are good and it will take our best effort to beat them this Saturday.

Agreed. And there are plenty of people doing just that in various threads, so I thought I’d point out that Temple’s schedule is also suspect, and SMU isn’t the one who lost by 16 to a 2-4 MAC team.

SMU 42 Temple 38

SMU 42
Temple 34


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Mustangs will get win number 7 Saturday if we start, and stay strong.

JasonB wrote:... On the SMU side, it is really interesting to note how good our offensive and defensive third down rates are, while our red zone stats on both sides of the ball are very meh. ...

Not to mention 4th down rates. Last week I perused some stats and I couldn’t find another team that had 6 4th down conversions in one game the entire season. I think going 6 for 7 is one of the most incredible stats I have EVER seen. Which is worth mentioning because I think this game will be close from start to finish and it may come into play at the end. I predict we win with a late field goal. The over-under on ponyfan deaths by cardiac arrest is 3, and the final score will be 37-35 because Hedwig dies at the end.

Mustangs 41
Feathered Foe 28

SMU 41
Eastern Spotted Owls 24

Southern Methodists 45
Do you not know that your bodies are a a 6 point dog? (not that close) 17

I think SMU comes out really confident (not overly confident), energized, rested, fixed some things during the bye, and ready to go 1-0 each week for the rest of the year.

SMU by 14. Sonny slaps a ref for a bad call though.

Temple 28 and SMU 31. We lose against the spread again and we survive another heart attack. Its funny people who think we will beat Temple handily were the same who thought we beat Tulsa easily.