Temple's offense has been much better the last two weeks after putting Evan Simon at QB, and the Owls have seen an option offense already. Finally, Army has never played on Thursday night before!

A belated rally to slip inside of a double-digit spread vs. Coastal Carolina and a 45-29 win over a worse-than-anyone-thinks Utah State are hardly buy signals for Temple. More worrying for the Owls was an earlier 38-11 loss to a Navy side that runs an option-based offense not too dissimilar from Army's, which is humming at the moment in this undefeated start. Dynamic West Point QB Bryson Daily, more often lining up directly behind center this season, as opposed to the predominant Pistol looks last season, is already responsible for 8 TDs in the Black Knights' first three games. Army's physical punishment of both FAU and Rice, teams that resemble the Owls, is more potential bad news for Stan Drayton tonight in Philly. Play Army

Army has been one of the better stories this season. While a lot of the attention is on their deadly option offense, it's the way they've played defense that makes them a threat the rest of the way. Combined with their ball control, expect them to create enough distance between them and Temple to cover.

Temple coach Stan Drayton has a dilemma this week, the choice between Forrest Brock at quarterback or Evan Simon who has quarterbacked the last 2 weeks and was effective in both starts. Brock is supposedly ready to go and Coach Drayton has been mum on the situation. But I have taken it from the approach of what most coaches would do and stay with the hot hand and that's Evan Simon. It would be a horrible coaching move to return to the old quarterback and give a terrible look to his entire team, which saw how awful Brock looked early on. Army has won their last seven games and covered their last five. Temple to cover.

Army has been dominant this season, and I feel better about backing service academy programs as road favorites than I do most programs. Outside of its win over Utah State, Temple has struggled mightily. I expect the Black Knights to pound Temple on Thursday night. I'm laying the points here.