Washington
vs.
Oregon State
College Football
Free Pick
9/30/17
With Pac-12 play starting last week for Washington, it was time the Huskies went into attack mode and that’s exactly how the win over Colorado played out. With another road trip this weekend, the Huskies were -26.5 point favorites early in the week at 5Dimes Sportsbook.
This spread is interesting because it’s about the same ScoreWashington beat Colorado by last week in a 37-10 win. It’s interesting because Colorado is a better team than Oregon State. So far, there haven’t been any signs that the Beavers are improved from a year ago as they’ve already given up at least 48 points on three separate occasions. Any team that gives up 48 points to Minnesota can’t be considered good.
With that being the case, this result should look similar to last year’s 41-17 victory. Granted, if the same thing happens then the Beavers would get a late cover. It’s just a matter of how long Washington is going to try because they dropped 31 points in the first half of that win and then put their backups in and didn’t Scorein the Fourth quarter.
Jake Browning surprisingly only completed 14-of-28 passes in that win, but still threw for 291 yards and a few touchdowns. On the ground, Myles Gaskin did what he wanted en route to 128 yards on 7.1 yards per carry. Gaskin had his coming out party for the 2017 season last week as he rolled for 202 rushing yards and two touchdowns against the Buffs. It should be smooth sailing for the Huskies again in this one with 40-plus points expected and maybe even possible by halftime.
Covering this Game will depend on how long Washington has to try for and what its defense will do late in the Game. The Beavers used a couple touchdown runs (one a 75-yarder) to Scorein last year’s meeting, but if that doesn’t happen again, they’ll have trouble finding the end zone. Jake LUton looked able in the opener, but he’s run into some growing pains since then and hasn’t thrown for more than 180 yards in the last two Games to go with only one touchdown. Because of that, Oregon State will try and get a run Game going behind Ryan Nall, who managed 118 yards and two TDs in the recent loss to Wazzu. But even with that performance, the Beavers lost by 29 points.
Washington just dealt with a better rushing attack in Colorado and held the Buffs to just 2.8 yards per carry on 48 attempts. If Oregon State runs into similar problems, they could have the same issues as Colorado and might not top 10 points. If that happens, Washington should be in line for the cover because Oregon State’s defense isn’t going to hold the Huskies below 40 points unless something major changes with their defense. There are few reasons to back OSU in this Game unless you think their defense wasn’t trying in the first month. All signs point to another Husky blowout, even on the road. Washington -27