Houston vs. Army

ARMED FORCES BOWL - Houston wilted down the stretch because of injuries and a bad defense. The Cougars have lost three of four allowing 45, 59 and 52 points in the defeats. For the season, Houston ranks #125 in the nation in yards allowed (489 yards per game), #107 in points surrendered (34.4 pg). Houston will be without four defensive line starters for this game in All-American Ed Oliver, Jerard Carter, Payton Turner and Isaiah Chambers. The Cougars faced two of the country's top rushing teams in Navy and Memphis, allowing 344 and 401 rushing yards. On offense, freshman quarterback Clayton Tune (44.7% completions) will make his second start in place of injured Cougars quarterback D'Eriq King. Houston is on a 1-4 spread run against winning teams, plus 2-7 ATS after allowing 200+ yards rushing in their previous game. They face a talented and balanced Army squad that is #13 in the country defensively in points allowed (18 pg), top 10 in yards allowed, while on offense the Black Knights triple-option attack ranked second with 296.3 rushing yards per contest. Senior linebacker James Nachtigal leads a defense that has held five opponents to fewer than 100 yards rushing and has forced 16 turnovers. They held FBS scoring-leader Oklahoma to 28 points. Army is 6-0-1 ATS against winning teams and rolls in this matchup. Play Army.