PLAYERS OF THE WEEKEND
National
Case Keenum threw for a career-best 559 yards and five touchdowns, the last a 28-yarder to Patrick Edwards with 21 seconds remaining, to lead Houston past Southern Mississippi, 50-43.
Local
Bernard Pierce rushed for 267 yards (55 more than he had last week) on 29 carries (11 fewer than he had last week), including a 41-yard TD with 2:41 to go, as Temple won at Navy, 27-24.
AROUND TOWN
Temple 27, Navy 24
The Owls (6-2) are already bowl-eligible for the first time since 1990.
They've won six straight for the first time since 1974. The last time they went through October unbeaten was 1979, which was the last time they went bowling.
The Owls had lost in overtime at Navy a year ago, after blowing a 20-point, fourth-quarter lead. They had beaten their share of bad teams this season, mostly playing from ahead. Navy (6-3) had won six in a row. And the Owls trailed by seven early in the fourth quarter.
Pierce gave Temple a 7-3 lead early in the first period on a 68-yard run.
James Nixon ran a kickoff back 100 yards late in the second quarter to make it 14-10.
The Owls passed for 37 yards. Didn't matter.
The last Temple player to rush for more than 200 yards in consecutive games was Paul Palmer in 1986, the year he finished runner-up in the Heisman Trophy voting.
Pierce, a true freshman, has 1,033 yards. That's third in the nation both in total and per-game average.
Temple was the first team to hold the Middies without an offensive first-half TD. And the Owls' 274 rushing yards were the most against Navy since 2003 (280, Notre Dame).
On Thursday night the Owls host Miami (Ohio), which just won its first game by beating Toledo at home.
Penn 14, Brown 7 (OT)
