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Temple meets a suspect D for second week in a row

The Owls face a UConn team coming off a 70-31 loss to Memphis and is allowing 43.6 points per game.

Temple quarterback Logan Marchi scrambles with the football against Villanova on Saturday, September 9, 2017 in Philadelphia. YONG KIM / Staff Photographer
Temple quarterback Logan Marchi scrambles with the football against Villanova on Saturday, September 9, 2017 in Philadelphia. YONG KIM / Staff PhotographerRead moreYong Kim

For the second straight week, Temple's football team will face an opponent that can be dangerous on offense and sieve-like on defense.

Last week, Temple's dormant offense showed some life in a 34-10 win at East Carolina, with 523 total yards. Now the Owls will again look to take advantage of a deficient defense when they host Connecticut in Saturday's noon American Athletic Conference game.

Temple (3-3, 1-2 AAC) remains the lowest-scoring team in the AAC, averaging 19.2 points per game. UConn (1-4, 0-3) is allowing 43.6 points per game, which ranks 124th out of 129 teams.

In a strange way, one has to wonder if Temple will have to guard against overconfidence.

"You never overlook a team and you have to go in and study the game plan and you have to take them seriously," Temple quarterback Logan Marchi, who threw for 321 yards and two touchdowns against ECU.

Last season, Temple beat UConn, 21-0, in Connecticut. This is a UConn team that is the exact opposite of last year's, which was deficient on offense and respectable on defense.

UConn was last in the AAC in scoring offense, averaging 14.8 points per game, but was sixth in scoring defense, allowing 28.1 points per game.

In the first year of Randy Edsall's second stint as head coach, UConn is averaging 28.4 points per game, while its defensive deficiencies have been documented.

The Huskies are coming off a 70-31 home loss last Friday against Memphis. A key for the Huskies is to have longer drives on offense, keeping the defense off the field as much as possible.

"Offensively, we play fast and have scored some long touchdowns," Edsall said. "We are working to make our defense better, and when we go three-and-out it makes it tough," Edsall said.

The person who has benefited from new offensive coordinator Rhett Lashley's up-tempo offense is UConn redshirt senior quarterback Bryant Shirreffs. Last season he started the first nine games and threw for 2,010 yards and seven touchdowns.

This season the 6-foot-2, 210-pound Shirreffs has completed 94 of 141 passes for 1,475 yards, nine touchdowns and three interceptions.

Temple coach Geoff Collins has had his team preparing all week for the up-tempo offense.

"It is a very difficult offense," Collins said. "It is a ton of funky formations to get you out of leverage, and they do kinds of motions and shifts to mess with your eyes, so we have to be really clean with all of our fits and all of our keys."

So the key will be getting the UConn offense off the field. Last week against Memphis, UConn was just 2 of 11 on third down and 1 of 3 on fourth down.

Temple's defense limited ECU to 3 of 14 on third down and 1 of 2 on fourth.

If the Owls have similar success against UConn, then it would put a lot of pressure on the UConn defense and, as the Huskies have shown, that has led to disastrous results.

Connecticut at Temple

Saturday, noon, Lincoln Financial Field.

TV: ESPNews. Radio: WPEN-AM (97.5).

Records: UConn (1-4, 0-3 American Athletic Conference); Temple (3-3, 1-2).

Coaches: UConn, Randy Edsall (12th season at UConn, 71-67; overall, 93-101); Temple, Geoff Collins (1st season, 3-3).

Series: Temple leads 12-5.

Last meeting: Temple won 21-0 at UConn on Nov. 4, 2016.

Talking points

Against a UConn team that is last in the country in passing defense, allowing 399.8 yards per game, it is a time that Temple should attempt to get redshirt junior wide receiver Ventell Bryant going. Last year's leading receiver, Bryant has 14 receptions for 136 yards and no touchdowns in five games.  Last week against ECU, he had a season-low one catch for five yards.

Marshe' Terry, a redshirt sophomore defensive back from South Jersey's Northern Burlington High, is among the local products on UConn to watch. The 6-foot-4, 212-pound Terry is fourth on the team with 26 tackles.

Temple sophomore receiver Isaiah Wright is a former prep star in Connecticut for Kingswood-Oxford and he has been involved more and more into the offense the last few weeks. In the past two games, he has 11 receptions for 144 yards and a touchdown and has seven rushing attempts for 11 yards. For the season, Wright has 21 receptions for 338 yards to lead the Owls in both categories, and two touchdowns, which is tied for the team lead.

Temple used 11 defensive linemen and six linebackers in last week's win over ECU. Look for Temple to continue to substitute liberally at both positions, which keeps players fresh.

After having just one rushing touchdown in the first five games, Temple had two last week against ECU. Top running back Ryquell Armstead has been hobbling and was limited to four carries last week. Look for David Hood to again have a heavy load. Last week he rushed for 106 yards and a touchdown on 20 carries.

— Marc Narducci