Temple running back Ryquell Armstead had a career night against USF.

“There’s a way to win every game,” said Temple head coach Matt Rhule after his team beat USF 46-30 on Friday night at Lincoln Financial Field to move into first place in the American Athletic Conference East Division. “Bill Parcells said that and I believe it.”

The way had to be try to slow the Bulls “Gulf Coast” offense down. They came in averaging 44.1 points per game which was eight best in the nation and they had scored 35 or more points in 11 games in a row.

If you don’t want the other team to score, don’t let their offense have the ball. Chip Kelly never figured that out – at least while he was coaching the Eagles. College basketball coaching legend Dean Smith did thus he popularized the Four Corners offense until the shot clock rendered it useless. The Owls figured it out as well because they held the ball for almost 40 minutes and ran for 319 yards as a team. In the second half, the Owls ran 33 offensive plays just five of them were passes.

“They kept running the power and we didn’t stop them,” said Bulls head coach Willie Taggart whose team saw a seven game conference winning streak broken. “They held the ball and we didn’t get off the field defensively. Their plan worked.”

Sophomore running Ryquell Armstead had the biggest game of his college career running for 210 yards and two touchdowns (76 and 42 yards). It’s the 17th time in school history that an Owls running back has rushed for more 200 yards in a game.

“I believe I played well tonight,” said Armstead, who has run for 613 yards and nine touchdowns this season, “but that speaks to the performance offensive line. Everything I achieved tonight should be credited to them.”

The blocking of tight end Colin Thompson, who scored the Owls first touchdown on a 1-yard pass, and fullback Nick Sharga, who flatted cornerback Johnny Ward to spring Armstead on his 42-yard touchdown run was also mention as key to the Owls ground game.

Of course, it wasn’t just the offense that allowed the Owls to win, they needed – and got – contributions in the other phases of the game. Perhaps the biggest play of the game was a blocked punt by the Owls Avery Ellis in the third quarter, it was their second blocked kick of the game (Praise Martin-Oguike got an extra point in the second quarter).

The blocked punt set up a 9-yard touchdown run by Jahad Thomas that extended the Owls lead to 34-23 and put them firmly in control entering the fourth quarter. The Bulls had scored with their first two drives of the second half to take a 23-20 lead but the Owls reestablished the lead on Armstead’s 42-yard run. The Temple defense forced a three-and-out and Ellis got the Owls second blocked punt of the season and 17th blocked kick in Rhule’s tenure as head coach.

Early in the fourth quarter, the Owls extended the lead to 14 on a field goal by Aaron Boumahri, the walk-on freshman has yet to miss a kick since he took over for the injured Austin Jones.

The lightning fast Bulls offense got them back to within seven points on a 30-yard run by Marlon Mack. The scoring drive took just 1 minute and 27 seconds to go 75 yards, the longest of the four USF touchdown drives took just 2:03.

When the Bulls got the ball back with exactly five minutes to go in the game, the Owls defense stopped them cold. USF was facing a third-and-13 from their own 11-yard and were flagged for three straight penalties. Along the way, they lost their dynamic quarterback Quinton Flower and backup Brett Kean was intercepted by Delvon Randell. That set up a three-yard touchdown run by Thomas. After a penalty on the ensuing kick return gave the Bulls the ball at their own five, Kean was sacked – by the Owls two-way player Romond Deloatch – and fumbled, the Bulls recovered but the play resulted in a safety.

“Sometimes you play these guys and rush a little timidly,” Rhule said when asked about the play of the defensive line. “I thought they settled down, rushed aggressively and it shows up in the plays that they made.”

The Owls ended the Bulls 12-game streak of rushing for more than 200 yards by holding them to 165 yards and with 352 yards total offense, the Bulls were held under 440 yards in that category for the first time in 11 games.

“[P]eople are going to keep coming after us,” said defensive end Haason Reddick, who had 1.5 of the Owls 11 tackles for loss, “and we cant relax. The big thing is that we must continue to play good football, win every game and get to that conference championship game.”

Next for the Owls (5-3, 3-1 AAC) is a home game with Cincinnati.

Email Rock Hoffman at Rock@footballstories.com