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Washington State (2-4) at Oregon
(4-1)
3:30 EST
Why to watch: After
losing a heartbreaker to Cal two
weeks ago, Oregon is set to play
the first game of the rest of
its year. How well the Ducks
play this Saturday could set the
tone for a season that still has
plenty of promise and
potential. Now No. 8 in the
Coaches’ Poll after another
weekend shakeout around it,
Oregon has a very real
opportunity to parlay a sizzling
finish into a BCS bowl game.
Despite playing its most
complete game of the first half
against Arizona State last
Saturday, Washington State
couldn’t break through in a
hard-fought 23-20 loss. Head
man Bill Doba is banking on the
close call being a turning point
rather than just an
inconsequential blip on the
radar. If here’s wrong, it’ll
be a long final two months for
both the coach and his program.
Why Washington State might
win: The Oregon defense has
allowed at least 400 yards and
31 points in each of the last
two games. The Cougars have the
weapons on offense to extend
that streak to three games
in-a-row. All-time leading
passer and Eugene High School
graduate Alex Brink is flanked
by a solid set of receivers and
underrated RB Dwight Tardy, who
give the offense the balance
needed to dent the Duck D. On
defense, Wazzu is coming off its
best effort of the season,
getting four sacks from
strongside LB Andy Mattingly and
holding Arizona State to a
season-low 296 total yards.
Why Oregon might win:
It’s one thing to slow down Rudy
Carpenter, but it’s another
chore entirely to slow down
Dennis Dixon, who can hurt a
defense with his arm and legs.
This is essentially the same
Washington State defense that
ranks 92nd in the
country and is 116th
in pass efficiency defense. The
Cougars are too young and too
inexperienced in the secondary,
a big concern against imposing
Duck receivers Jaison Williams
and Cameron Colvin, along with
TE Ed Dickson. Oregon averages
43 points a game, and shouldn’t
have too many problems hitting
that if this gets into any sort
of a shootout.
Who to watch: DE Nick
Reed has been one of the
exceptions to an Oregon defense
that’s been inconsistent over
the last couple of weeks. A
hard worker with keen
fundamentals, he leads the
Pac-10 with eight tackles for
loss and has four sacks. The
pedestrian Wazzu tackles will
have to work overtime to keep
No. 49 out of the backfield and
off Brink’s jersey.
What will happen: It
might take two quarters for
Oregon to shake off the rust,
but it’ll get the offense
humming in the second half with
Dixon and RB Jonathan Stewart.
Although Washington State will
move the ball between the 20s,
it’ll bog down in the red zone,
a problem that’s plagued the
Cougars all season.
CFN Prediction
Oregon
42 … Washington State 20...
Line: Oregon -18
Must See Rating: (5
Hideki Matsui's "collection" - 1
The Heartbreak Kid)
... 2.5
Arizona (2-4) at USC (4-1)
3:30 EST ABC
Why to watch: Sure, USC
has been upset before during the
Pete Carroll era, but Saturday’s
hard-to-process home loss to
41-point underdog Stanford
reached an entirely new level of
disbelief. Could everyone have
been that wrong about
this year’s Trojan team?
Playing with all of the emotion
of the U.S. Olympic basketball
squad, USC waved buh-bye to its
35-game Coliseum winning streak
and likely its national title
hopes to a 1-4 Cardinal team
that had lost its starting
quarterback to a seizure six
days earlier. Now what? The
dirt is being heaped on the
program from every direction,
but there’s still a season to be
played and, potentially, another
league title to be won. If
nothing else, it’ll be
interesting to see if injured QB
John David Booty or understudy
Mark Sanchez takes snaps, and
downright fascinating to witness
how the mighty Trojans respond
the week following a disaster.
Arizona can’t be too thrilled as
getting USC’s full, angry
attention. The Wildcats can’t
seem to string together two good
games in-a-row, losing badly to
Oregon State a week after
lighting up Washington State.
Consistency and turnovers have
been problems all season for a
program that’s inching closer to
being out of the bowl picture
for the ninth straight year.
Why Arizona might win:
After losing to Stanford and
nearly getting knocked off by
Washington, USC hasn’t been this
vulnerable since the years
before Carroll arrived. The
Trojans continue to be careless
with the ball, listless on
offense, and weak on special
teams, ingredients for
unexpected outcomes. Led by
All-America candidate Antoine
Cason, the Wildcats have a
secondary that can further USC’s
aerial woes and an improving
pass rush that’ll challenge the
banged up Trojan offensive
line. Averaging more than 30
points over the last five games,
QB Willie Tuitama and the ‘Zona
offense won’t back down to the
USC D.
Why USC might win: Let’s
not carried away, folks. This
is still USC. Even with all of
their injuries and issues, the
Trojans have enough talent on
both sides of the ball to
quickly dispose of Arizona. The
Wildcats haven’t played well on
defense all year, which will
provide the opening for USC to
reestablish the run with
Chauncey Washington, and get the
passing game back on track
regardless of who gets the
ball. With DT Sedrick Ellis and
DE Lawrence Jackson supplying
the pressure up front, the
defense should toy with an
Arizona offensive line that’s
overmatched and allowing way too
many sacks this fall.
Who to watch: Last week’s
four-interception game wasn’t
all Booty’s fault. His
offensive line is beaten up and
struggling, and none of the
blue-chip receivers have turned
into stars. TE Fred Davis has
been a one-man gang, but it’s
high time that Patrick Turner,
Vidal Hazelton, and David
Ausberry begin evolving into
steady and reliable playmakers.
Can they make Booty, or Sanchez,
shine? They’re way overdue.
What will happen: The USC
defense will dominate, picking
off a couple of Tuitama passes
and scoring a touchdown of its
own. Offensively, this will be a
game for the line and the
running game. The front five
will come up with one of its
best games of the year.
CFN Prediction:
USC
40 … Arizona 17...
Line: USC -21
Must See Rating: (5
Hideki Matsui's "collection" - 1
The Heartbreak Kid)
... 2.5
TCU (3-3) at Stanford (2-3)
5:00 EST
Why to watch: Just how
big was Stanford’s upset of No.
2 USC last weekend? So big that
Appalachian State’s defeat of
Michigan in the opener suddenly
doesn’t seem so special. The
Cardinal rocked the sports world
and QB Tavita Pritchard will
forever be a footnote in college
football lore, but where does
the program go from here?
Although it’s evident Stanford
is moving in the right direction
under Jim Harbaugh, it still
needs to build on the victory in
order to avoid being a one-hit
wonder. Beating TCU and Arizona
in the next two weeks would be a
great start, and the type of
outcomes that would make
Harbaugh a front-runner for
Pac-10 Coach of the Year. The
Horned Frogs continue to be one
of this year’s milder
disappointments. Pegged as a
possible BCS buster before the
season began, they’re hovering
at .500 after a loss to Wyoming,
and in danger of falling
completely out of the Mountain
West race. DE Tommy Blake has
been missed, and ever since
halftime of the Texas game, TCU
has been an ordinary team,
especially on offense.
Why TCU might win: The
attitude and the number of media
requests may have changed since
last Saturday, but this is still
Stanford, a team that had lost
its first three Pac-10 games by
at least 24 points. The offense
is last in the conference is
scoring and next to last in
total yards, while starting QB
T.C. Ostrander may not be back
from the seizure that sidelined
him last week. The Cardinal
will have problems moving the
ball on an aggressive Horned
Frog D that’s allowing 16 points
a game and has more than twice
as many interceptions as
touchdowns allowed. This has
the potential to be the ultimate
hangover game for Stanford.
Why Stanford might win:
You think the Cardinal is
confident after becoming the
first team in six years to beat
USC in the Coliseum? Harbaugh
will prevent that emotion from
bleeding into overconfidence.
The game should slow down
considerably for Pritchard, who
was thrust into the impossible
situation of facing the Trojan
defense in his first career
start. Stanford has shown some
toughness on defense over the
last two weeks, collecting ten
sacks and five interceptions,
and will corral a 91st-ranked
TCU offense that’s been
misfiring all year.
Who to watch: Playing
through pain all season long, LB
Clinton Snyder has evolved into
the emotional and physical
leader of an improving Stanford
defense. The team leader in
sacks and tackles for loss from
the strong side, he’ll have in
his crosshairs RB Aaron Brown,
easily TCU’s best offensive
weapon. Slow down Brown, and
the Horned Frogs don’t score.
What will happen: All of
a sudden, it’s newsworthy what
happens to Stanford. TCU might
be having problems, but there’s
a reason why the Cardinal was
such a monster underdog to USC.
Stanford’s offense didn’t do
anything against the Trojans,
and it’ll struggle this week.
CFN Prediction:
TCU
23 … Stanford 16...
Line: TCU -5.5
Must See Rating: (5
Hideki Matsui's "collection" - 1
The Heartbreak Kid)
... 2
Washington (2-3) at Arizona
State (6-0)
10:15 EST
Why to watch: Arizona
State survived its tightest
squeeze of the year last week in
a 23-20 win at Washington State,
a real positive sign for a team
that had waltzed through most of
the early part of the schedule.
Now up to No. 13 in the latest
Coaches’ Poll, the Sun Devils
are one win away from setting up
a monster showdown next week
with second-ranked Cal. Try
hard not to look ahead, Sparky.
Washington is coming off its bye
week, and riding a three-game
losing that has it staring at a
fork in the 2007 road. With a
week to get their heads in the
right place, the Huskies
recognize there’s plenty to play
for in the second half,
including bowl eligibility if
the bleeding stops now. Young
QB Jake Locker figures to
improve as the season
progresses, which has Washington
fans excited well beyond just
October and November.
Why Washington might win:
If the Husky corners hold up in
man coverage, Washington is
going to bring it from every
angle this Saturday night.
Arizona State has already
allowed 22 sacks this year,
wilting in the face of the
Washington State blitz last
Saturday. Against a shaky Sun
Devil pass defense, Locker will
register the best numbers of his
brief career, connecting for big
plays with Marcel Reece and
Anthony Russo.
Why Arizona State might win:
The Sun Devils balance and
versatility on offense presents
problems for a Washington
defense that’s badly exploited
over the last three weeks. The
Huskies have given up more than
800 yards on the ground over
that time, a trend that’ll
continue against Ryan Torain,
Keegan Herring, and the ASU
ground game. While it bends,
the Sun Devil defense has not
been breaking, allowing a mere
14 points a game, tops in the
Pac-10. It’ll contain a U-Dub
offense that’s pulling up the
rear in the league at just 332
yards a game.
Who to watch: Torain’s
career-high while in Tempe was
191 yards rushing at Cal last
September. That number could be
in jeopardy with this week’s
visit from Washington. The
Huskies were simply shredded on
the ground by Ohio State, UCLA,
and USC, while Torain is back
close to 100% after missing some
time earlier in the year with
knee and ankle injuries.
What will happen: The
records may indicate a blowout,
but reality will sing a
different tune Saturday night.
Locker will help keep things
very tight before Arizona State
uses another strong second half
to avoid the devastating upset.
CFN Prediction: Arizona
State 34 …
Washington 23
...
Line: Arizona State -12
Must See Rating: (5
Hideki Matsui's "collection" - 1
The Heartbreak Kid)
... 2.5 |