COLLEGE FOOTBALL
Oregon State at Utah (10-1 @ 2 PM EST)
Line: Utah -10
Total: 54.5
Last Week we told you Notre Dame would beat UNC and they did so easily. Now we are back with another College Football Underdog who we expect to easily cover against their PAC-12 foe. Oregon State gave a very good USC team all they could handle last week and damn near beat them outright. The key to this game for the Beavers will be if they can limit the turnovers because if they do that, they will have every chance to win this game outright.
Utah is a very good football team. They are a stupid interception away from being undefeated heading into this game, but they do tend to struggle with Oregon State. Last season, the Beavers won a high scoring game in Corvallis 42-34. Two years ago, Utah won at home 30-24.
Those meetings were close, back and forth games and extremely even regarding the stats put up. The thing that will help Oregon State is they will be able to run the ball on Utah. Last year they ran for 260 yards against the Utes in their victory. Even in their loss two years ago, they ran for 133 yards which was an average of 4.3 yards per carry. Running the ball will keep them in good situations in this game when it comes to down-and-distance and will also set up their play action game with QB Chance Nolan being very good with that. Nolan must limit the interceptions as he has 6 already on the season which is why we mentioned turnovers above.
Utah does have the better defense of the two teams, but Oregon State is nothing to sneeze at on the defensive side of the ball as they are only allowing 23.5 points per game and they have played some very good offensive minded teams, namely USC last week. The Trojans had scored 66 vs Rice, 41 vs Stanford and 45 vs Fresno State before only putting up 17 vs Oregon State.
We feel Oregon State will do enough defensively and be able to run the ball well enough to stay within what is an over-inflated point spread. 10 Points is simply too high, and it is not the right number.
Utah will most likely win this game, but it will be between 3 and 7 points if they do. Take the Beavers +10
TakingVegas.com 1* Free Pick: Oregon State +10
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