Friends, we’ve got a monster game this weekend against the astronomically improved Temple Owls. We definitely will not see the Temple team that Army demolished at their place last season. This team, under first year Head Coach K.C. Keeler, has gotten better on both sides of the ball. More to the point, Temple QB Evan Simon has quietly become one of the very best players in the entire conference.
The Black Knights will need to play their best ball of the season to get a win this weekend. But a win will get this Army team above .500 for the first time all year.
Can the Army Team play its best ball when it matters most?
Let’s get into it.
Your Need to Know for Saturday against Temple!
— Army Football (@ArmyWP_Football) November 5, 2025
The game is sold out and fans are encouraged to arrive early! pic.twitter.com/0OJYGbCvFt
Keys to Victory
Correct Blocking Assignments, Correct Reads
Temple has a good team, but they’ve struggled at times to stop the run. Army either makes that work this week, or they lose. It’s that simple.
Army’s O-Line mostly blocked very well last week. However, we saw a few mistakes in terms of backside blocking from slotbacks and fullbacks and in terms of runners just reading the blocks in front of them incorrectly. Army’s offense became legitimately explosive when they managed to pair good blocking with correct reads, especially on the edges. But the Black Knights also punted four times. This week, the team needs to leave fewer offensive opportunities on the field.
Army’s offense has improved this season as they’ve learned to control their mistakes. First they improved their blocking, then they cut down on turnovers, then they began reading defenses better, and finally, this allowed them to run a fuller version of their playbook. They need to continue this streak and meld the explosiveness we saw at Air Force with the kind of driving tenacity we’ve seen all season.
The Black Knights can win games by converting fourth downs and extending drives up to 18+ plays. But this becomes risky over time. Any mistakes at all become drive killers. This week, the team can all but guarantee victory if they can execute precisely, win first downs, and stay ahead of the chains. Temple has a good third down defense, so the Black Knights need to stay out of the third-and-long business and keep the chains moving.
Head down and up the gut from Hellums for the TD 👏
— Army Football (@ArmyWP_Football) November 1, 2025
📺 CBS pic.twitter.com/HrEpNiEhak
No Missed Tackles
We know what Army’s defense wants to achieve. They want to stop the run, contain explosive passing plays, and play opportunistic football, especially in the red zone. That’ll be tough this week against a Temple offense that rarely turns the ball over. But Army can still make it work by stopping the run. In order to stop the run, however, they have to make good tackles.
Really, tackling efficiency has been perhaps the biggest predictor of the Black Knights’ success this season. They’ve won the games in which they’ve tackled well. They’ve lost the games in which they’ve missed a bunch of tackles. The trend has become unmistakable this year.
If the Black Knights’ front seven can play good tackle football, they can stop the run, giving their secondary an excellent opportunity at forcing those rare turnovers that Temple has been so good at preventing.
Collin Matteson was all over the field on Saturday 👏 pic.twitter.com/5ROZWIvaz2
— Army Football (@ArmyWP_Football) November 5, 2025
Contain the Tight End
For a team that generally likes to run the ball, Temple sure as Hell throws to their tight ends a lot, especially down in the red zone. TE Peter Clarke has 24 catches this season for 383 yards and 4 touchdowns. He’s become the team’s third-leading receiver. TE Ryder Kusch sees the ball less but still has 11 catches for 50 yards and 2 touchdowns. Collectively, tight ends have caught almost 25% of Temple’s total receptions. This Temple team features the tight end much more than any team Army has faced all year.
This will come up when the Owls get down into the red zone. Most teams like to try to pound the rock down near the goal line. Temple prefers to throw it up to their big men and let those dudes make a play on the ball.
Friends, Army’s defense lives or dies in the red zone. With that, the Black Knights either contain these big tight ends, or they lose this game.
Break a Few Tendencies
Army’s offense has improved dramatically this season, but they’ve also become somewhat predictable. They almost always run towards the side to which SB Noah Short motions. They almost always run QB Power off-tackle in short yardage situations or out of the shotgun when they bring in FB Jake Rendina as a lead blocker. If Rendina comes in for a short yardage or goal line play, Army’s running the “tush push”. Short mostly gets the pitches. SB Samari Howard mostly blocks on the perimeter.
The Black Knights need to find a way to break a few of these tendencies. Howard, for example, has been an excellent receiver this season when they’ve thrown the ball his way. And FB Briggs Bartosh did very well last week on his only pass reception, which saw QB Cale Hellums look off his first and second reads, step up into the pocket, and then dump the ball to Bartosh as an outlet receiver.
More of this, please!
Army will never be a pass-happy offense, nor should they be. No one wants that. However, they’re also not going to become more explosive by staying as predictable as they can sometimes become. Sure, those midline running plays will always be the staples of their offense. However, a literal pair of quick outs to the sideline and/or an inside trap to Howard with Rendina as a lead blocker might actually loosen some things up for the rest of the offense. We could also stand to see a couple more counters. Army had great success against this defense last season with the QB Counter.
For better or worse, the Black Knights tend to save their surprises for Commander-in-Chief’s rivalry games. But this game against Temple has become a monster contest that the Black Knights definitely need to win. They don’t need to throw three halfback passes to win it, but they also cannot allow themselves to become offensively complacent in the face of talented on-field competition.
Our Play of the Week presented by @USAA comes from Saturday's @ArmyWP_Football victory at Air Force!
— ArmyWestPoint Sports (@GoArmyWestPoint) November 4, 2025
QB Cale Hellums hit Brady Anderson with the game on the line for a 42-yard gain setting up the game-winning FG 👏 pic.twitter.com/3alSp0Usre
Wear Your Lucky Jersey and Socks!
We’ve got a sold-out game this week. With that, Army fans need to GET LOUD.
We’ve joked before in this space about how teams need their fans to wear their lucky jerseys and socks. We said that if your team loses it’s your fault because you didn’t believe hard enough or have enough faith. Superstitious nonsense aside, this really is one of those games in which fan support might make a very real difference.
Temple usually plays at Lincoln Financial Field in front of a relatively modest crowd. Their fans have gotten more excited as this season has gone along, but they still rarely face any serious crowd noise. If Army fans can amp up the juice and make it hard to hear and harder still to stay calm, that could go a long way towards helping the Black Knights this weekend.
As they often say in my section, “You didn’t come to watch a football game. You came to PARTICIPATE!”
Friends, we need you to participate this weekend. Get loud and help your team win.
🏈 When the game’s on the line, only the best deliver. 💥
— Lou Groza Award (@LouGrozaAward) November 4, 2025
These Lou Groza Stars of the Week proved why college kickers are built different, clutch under pressure, cool in the chaos, and deadly accurate when it counts. 🎯@ArmyWP_Football @TexasTechFB @OU_Football pic.twitter.com/5EpcNIuq9v
Finally Thoughts
This is a big game for both teams. Neither team will be totally out of postseason contention with a loss, but whichever team loses will have a very tough road ahead of them. Temple sits 5-4 with Tulane and North Texas ahead. Army still has Tulsa and UTSA. The Black Knights will have to beat both if they can’t get it done tomorrow afternoon.
The weather report has improved dramatically as of this writing, so we’re looking at what should be a good one this weekend with mostly sunny skies and temperatures rising into the 60s. Thought out to give us an outstanding day for college football.
Here’s hoping we see the Army Team run the ball, stop the run, and force turnovers instead of allowing them. When they do that, they almost always win.
Go Army! Beat Temple!!!
