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In the battle of one-win teams, the East Carolina Pirates will travel to the City of Brotherly Love to take on the Temple Owls Saturday at 12:00 p.m. ET in Philadelphia.
The Pirates (1-6) are coming into this weekend’s contest on a four-game losing streak, which includes a horrendous 55-17 loss to the seventh-ranked Cincinnati Bearcats last week. East Carolina’s defense, which is giving up almost 500 total yards per game, could not stop Bearcats dual-threat quarterback Desmond Ridder. Ridder was 24-of-31 for 327 yards, three touchdowns, along with 75 rushing yards and a touchdown.
As a team, Cincinnati ran for 299 yards, which is line to how the Pirates’ defense is playing this season. Offensively, ECU quarterback Holton Ahlers struggled, completing 45 percent of his passes for 87 yards and three interceptions. The lone bright spot for ECU was their running game as Keaton Mitchell ran for 124 yards on 17 carries and a touchdown, while Rahaj Harris added 84 yards on 23 carries and a score on the ground.
Temple (1-5) is also trying to snap its own four-game losing streak on Saturday. Last week, they got crushed by UCF 38-13 in Orlando, Florida. The Owls’ offense was a mixed bag of results as quarterback Re-al Mitchell threw for 107 yards and two interceptions.
Mitchell nor Trad Beatty will play against ECU, meaning that Matt Duncan will make his first collegiate start. Duncan threw two passes in last week’s game against the Golden Knights. Outside of quarterback play, the Owls’ running game did show some signs of life last week as Tayvon Ruley ran for a game-high 90 yards on 23 carries. The Owls will be looking to run the ball on Saturday against a bad Pirates’ run defense that is allowing 228.9 yards per game on the ground this season.
Game Time/TV Channel/Streaming
You can watch East Carolina vs. Temple on Saturday, November 21st at 12:00 p.m. ET on ESPN+, or you can stream it via the ESPN app with a cable or streaming service login.
Point Spread, Totals, Odds, Trends
Point spread: East Carolina (-3.5) vs. Temple
Point Total: 57
Money line: ECU (-165) vs. Temple (+135)
- ECU are 3-6 ATS in their last nine, but Temple is 2-5 ATS in their last seven
- ECU is 1-7 straight up in their last eight, and Temple is 1-6 SU in their last seven
Betting splits
East Carolina: (78% of handle, 44% percent of bets)
Temple: (22% of handle, 56% percent of bets)
The Best Bet
Both these teams are bad, but Temple just makes too many mistakes with awful quarterback play. And it should only get worse now that the sub-mediocre Anthony Russo is gone. And if Duncan was backing up that guy, he’s gotta be pretty bad.
Pick: ECU -3.5
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