Stanford
vs.
Washington State
College Football
Pick – Analysis
10/31/15
since losing its opener, Stanford has completely rolled over everyone in its path. However, the Cardinal haven’t really been respected by the bookmakers until now. against a surprising Washington State team, the Cardinal are a -10.5 point road favorite at mybookie.ag
Stanford’s opening loss to Northwestern now looks like a mistake. since that Game, the Cardinal have dominated every opponent, and most of them have been solid teams. They won at USC by 10, took down Arizona by 38 and then UCLA by 21. This may be their first road contest in three weeks, but how much will that matter?
Washington State has played similar this year after losing at home to Portland State in the opener. The Cougars have basically come out of nowhere and won their last three Games, including impressive road Games at Oregon and Arizona. Their defense is obviously a problem, but quarterback LUke Falk has been great.
Stanford will run its usual offense behind running back Christian McCaffrey who has really come on. McCaffrey has now hit 100 yards in five straight Games and two of those have been 200-yard performances. He could easily have another one of those 200-yard Games against this leaky defense. McCaffrey even leads the team in receiving yards with 284 on 21 receptions. Because of the ground Game, Kevin Hogan hasn’t been asked to do much and that’s exactly how David Shaw wants it. Hogan has 14 TDs to only 4 INTs on the year, but he’s been helped a lot by a dominant run Game and offensive line.
Defensively, Stanford has been solid as well, but can be had for a backdoor cover, especially against pass-heavy Washington State. If the Cougars can pull this win out, they would actually be right there with Stanford in the Pac-12 North.
No matter what, Wazzu is going to pass a ton and in recent years Stanford has been able to deal with that. In fact, Stanford has won seven straight matchups between these teams, while covering the last two.
Falk has been destroying teams lately, but Stanford is a different breed. Falk is completing a ridiculous 72.9% of his passes for 26 TDs and 4 INTs on the year. It’s a wonder how this team actually lost to Portland State. In the last three Games Falk has 1,426 yards and 16 touchdowns. Playing in a major conference, those numbers look unreal.
In last year’s Game, Connor Halliday attempted 69 passes, but only finished with 292 yards and two touchdowns. That could easily be the case again, although one has to think Washington State will be pumped for a night Game that actually means something. It’s been a while since that has happened for the Cougars and what fans envisioned after hiring Mike Leach.
Stanford will score, it’ll just come down to what Falk can do for Washington State.
The Cardinal are 6-1 ATS in the last seven meetings between these teams played in Pullman, as well as 6-0 ATS vs. a team with a winning record. The Cougars have been solid for bettors as well with Four straight covers against teams with winning records.
Our Pick – This line still dropping from an opener of -13. Best to wait at this point and look for -10 or less as Our model likes Stanford to win by a comfortable double digit margin. Stanford -10 or less