Dowdy-Ficken Stadium - Greenville, NC
Kickoff: Thursday, 7:00 p.m. ET
Line: East Carolina -3, Total: 53.5

No. 22 Temple aims for the best start in school history when it visits a dangerous East Carolina team on Thursday night.

The Owls (4-2 ATS) are 6-0 SU for the first time since 1974 and are ranked in the Top 25 for the first time since 1979. After a close call at UMass on Sept. 19 (25-23 win as a 13.5-point favorite), Temple has crushed its past three opponents by a combined score of 116 to 29. The Pirates (4-3 ATS) have won three of their past four contests and barely missed securing a fourth straight ATS victory last week with a 30-17 win over 14-point underdog Tulsa. These American Athletic Conference schools have met just once since 1996, which was a 20-10 Temple home win last season, its first victory over a ranked opponent since 1998. Then-No. 21 East Carolina compiled 30 first downs, but was done in by five lost fumbles and 12 penalties for 120 yards. Nearly all of the betting trends in this rematch point to the Owls, including college football home teams with a winning record being 14-44 ATS in the past five seasons where the line is +3 to -3 after the first month of the season and Ruffin McNeil's awful 5-17 ATS mark versus winning teams as the Pirates head coach. For those bettors not convinced the Owls will remain unbeaten, the wager could be for the Over, as East Carolina is 10-0 Over when the line is +3 to -3, and 23-8 Over in the second half of the year under McNeil. Both teams have players with questionable designations as RB Jager Gardner (shoulder) and S Will Hayes (hamstring) may not play for the Owls, and WR DaQuan Barnes (hip), OL Dontae Levingston (shoulder), DE Mike Myers (hip) and DB Corey Seargent (undisclsosed) may be sidelined for the Pirates.

Can Temple achieve its best start in school history with a seventh straight victory? For the answer, connect to College Football Best Bets for all the StatFox Experts picks throughout the 2015 regular season and bowl season. The experts are coming off a huge week in Best Bets where they were a collective 63% ATS (19-11). StatFox Gary was 5-1 ATS to improve to 54% ATS (21-18-1) for the season, and StatFox Brian was also 5-1 ATS on Best Bets for the week.

Temple is known for a suffocating defense, but the offense has also thrived this season with 33.7 PPG on 350 total YPG. The team has held the ball for an average of 34:07 per game thanks to a balanced attack that has 188 passing YPG (7.1 YPA) and 162 rushing YPG (162 YPG). Junior RB Jahad Thomas has 756 rushing yards (5.2 YPC) and 10 touchdowns this season, and is coming off a season-high 199 yards and 3 TD versus Central Florida. He also has 15 catches for 181 yards and a touchdown, and is looking to redeem himself after a poor performance versus East Carolina last season when he carried the ball 14 times for 28 yards. Junior QB P.J. Walker also played poorly in the 2014 meeting when he completed 7-of-19 passes for 70 yards (3.7 YPA) while running for only eight yards on 11 carries. Walker has had a quality 2015 season though with 1,063 passing yards (7.0 YPA) on 61% completions, 8 TD and 3 INT. He has taken only eight sacks total in six games and will continue to frequently target top WR Robby Anderson (23 rec, 262 yds, 4 TD) who has three touchdown grabs in three October games. The big reason Temple remains unbeaten is its defense that is limiting opponents to a mere 14.7 PPG and 296 total YPG. The run-stop unit has given up only 92 YPG on 3.0 YPC while the passing defense is allowing 204 YPG (5.6 YPA) on 50% completions. Even though the yardage total has ballooned to 450 YPG in three road games, eight forced turnovers in those three contests has kept teams to 17.3 PPG. With the Pirates coughing up multi-turnovers in five of the past six games, turnovers could once again be the determining factor in this matchup, just like last season.

East Carolina started the year slowly on offense, but has ripped off four straight 30-point games where it has averaged 38.0 PPG and 466 total YPG. For the season, the team is gaining a pedestrian 149 rushing YPG on 4.2 YPC and a hefty 286 passing YPG on 7.7 YPA and 71% completions. Junior QB Blake Kemp has completed at least 63% of his throws in all seven games this season, totaling 1,556 yards (7.2 YPA), 10 TD and 6 INT. But even though he has 325+ passing yards on three different occasions, he also has less than 125 passing yards in three other contests. Five Pirates have multiple touchdown catches this season and four have more than 250 receiving yards, led by junior WR Isaiah Jones (51 rec, 595 yds, 3 TD). Jones has double-digit receptions in three games this season, but has yet to reach 80 receiving yards in any of his three home tilts. Senior RB Chris Hairston has done a nice job of keeping the ground game relevant over the past three games with 250 yards on 51 carries (4.9 YPC) and 2 TD. Hairston was also the best offensive player on the rainy field in Philadelphia last year when he ran for 153 yards (7.3 YPC) against Temple, but he did have one of his team's five lost fumbles. The ECU defense hasn't been great this season in allowing 29.9 PPG and 426 total YPG. Neither the rushing defense (186 YPG, 4.1 YPC) nor the passing defense (240 YPG, 7.8 YPA) has offered much resistance. But the defense has done a decent job of forcing turnovers with four games of two takeaways this season.