The 2020 Lockheed Martin Armed Forces Bowl will feature a team from Conference USA as well as the American Athletic Conference. The Southern Miss Golden Eagles will take on the Tulane Green Wave. Both teams have a shot to end their season with a win. Here is a preview of the 2020 Armed Forces Bowl.
Southern Miss Golden Eagles (7-5)
Southern Miss will finish the season with a winning record regardless of the outcome of this game. However, that doesn’t mean that the Golden Eagles won’t try to get an eighth win to finish the season. They went 2-2 through their first four games, with understandable losses to Mississippi State and Alabama. After that, they went 5-1 before dropping their last two games of the season to Western Kentucky and Florida Atlantic.
Southern Miss ranks highly in the FBS in passing offense as they are in the top 25. Quarterback Jack Abraham finished the regular season with over 3,300 passing yards, the 20th most in the FBS. He had a big game against North Texas in a 45-27 win. He went 29-for-36 passing with 421 yards, three touchdowns and no picks. The team has four players with at least 300 receiving yards. This includes Quez Watkins who finished the regular season with 1,024 receiving yards.
Two guys on the team finished with over 500 rushing yards. They are Kevin Perkins and De’Michael Harris. Harris also plays receiver. He had a big game against North Texas that included 79 receiving yards and 103 rushing yards. Both Perkins and Harris had a little over 100 attempts rushing. Having two backs that split carries can be helpful throughout a season and even in a bowl game.
The Golden Eagles rank 36th in the FBS in total defense. One of their most impressive feats was holding the C-USA runner-ups to two points in UAB. That means the defense gave up zero points since the points came from a safety. That was one of three teams they held to 10 points or less, the other two being Alcorn State and Rice.
Tulane Green Wave (6-6)
Tulane finished the regular season at 6-6. They had a great start, going 5-1 with the only loss coming from Auburn. The Green Wave flipped that record in the second half of the season to go 1-5. They lost their last three games, with two of them being by eight points or less. Ending their season with a win will put them over .500 on the year.
Tulane runs the ball quite a bit, so them being ranked 89th in the FBS in passing offense is understandable. Quarterback Justin McMillian had less than 300 passing attempts this season for 2,229 passing yards. His season high in passing yards came in a close 41-38 loss against Navy. He threw for 290 yards and three touchdowns, although he had two picks.
McMillian leads the team in rushing yards with 704. He is one of six players on the team that have at least 200 rushing yards this season. Runningback Corey Dauphine had 569 rushing yards in the regular season as he averaged over about 8.1 yards per carry. These stats can show why Tulane ranks 11th in the FBS in rushing offense.
The Green Wave defense has shown some talent this season. The team held FIU to 14 points to start the season. They also limited UCONN to just seven points when they played. However, they also had some rough games such as when they allowed 47 points to Memphis and 41 to Navy in back-to-back weeks. They have three players who have surpassed 60 tackles on the season prior to this game. This includes safeties Chase Kuerschen and P.J. Hall, as well as linebacker Lawrence Graham.
Prediction
If Southern Miss can limit big plays from Tulane, they can set themselves up nicely for the win. However, Tulane has multiple different styles of offense they can run. which can throw off the Southern Miss defense. Southern Miss also has multiple different targets on offense, which can lead to a lot of points from the Golden Eagles.
Final Score Prediction: Southern Miss Golden Eagles 38 Tulane Green Wave 24
Feature Image Courtesy of complex.com.
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