Cardinal vs Huskies Football Spread/Handicapping
The questions of whether or not the Stanford Cardinal will struggle without Andrew Luck are an afterthought following their week three defeat of the USC Trojans. Coming off a bye, the No. 8 team in the nation heads up to Washington to take on another tough Pac-12 opponent.
No. 8 Stanford Cardinal (3-0) vs Washington Huskies (2-1)
Thursday September 27, 2012
Century Link Field, Seattle, WA
9:00 PM ET
Moneyline: OFF
Spread: Stanford -7 from GTBets.eu
O/U: 49.5
The Washington Huskies love to play spoiler, so throw the rankings out the window for this one.
Stanford Cardinal
The Stanford Cardinal didn’t play last week, which may prove to help them in their matchup against the Huskies.
Letting their emotions settle following the USC game could allow them get back down to reality, and it could help them realize that Washington isn’t a team to scoff at.
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Stanford is a good team on offense, but where they found their success up to this point is on the defensive side of the ball. Heisman hopeful Matt Barkley may have thrown for 254 yards in their week three matchup, but he also threw two picks and no touchdowns for the first time all year.
The Trojans had trouble moving the ball through the air, but they were completely stuffed on the ground, being held to just 26 yards for the entire game.
The Cardinal has been outstanding on defense this season, which is exactly what the team needed after losing their leader and best player in Andrew Luck to the NFL draft.
Josh Nunes has been solid, throwing for 615 yards and six touchdowns, but without the defense doing its job, the new quarterback would be under immense pressure to score at a much higher rate.
Not many projected this team to be worthy of a top-10 rating following the loss of their quarterback and their head coach, but they’re showing in 2012 that they are back on track to compete for a Pac-12 championship. [soliloquy id=”82219″]
Washington Huskies
The Washington Huskies are approaching one of the toughest five-game stretches in all of college football this season, and it begins this week at home against Stanford.
The Huskies have been very good at home, but they’ve yet to face a quality opponent at Century Link Field this season.
They’ve averaged 36.5 points per game while allowing just 12.5 at home, but the one ranked team they’ve played thus far (No. 3 LSU on the road) destroyed them 41-3.
The Cardinal is going to come into town and show why they’re one of the best defensive teams in the country, which means Huskies quarterback Keith Price must step up his game to the level most expected before the season began.
Price has completed 62.2 percent of his passes, thrown for 560 yards and has four touchdowns to one interception through the first four weeks of the season.
The Huskies are also coming off of a bye, which means they should have had time to study the defense that rattled Matt Barkley so drastically two weeks ago.
Expect both the crowd and the team to be ready for this matchup, but when it’s all said and done, don’t be surprised to see the No. 8 team in the country show that beating USC wasn’t a fluke.
Trends
Cardinal are 5-0-1 ATS in their last 6 road games vs. a team with a winning home record.
Cardinal are 4-0 ATS in their last 4 games on fieldturf.
Cardinal are 12-3-1 ATS in their last 16 conference games.
Cardinal are 12-3-1 ATS in their last 16 road games.
Over is 4-0 in Cardinal last 4 games following a bye week
Over is 5-1-1 in Huskies last 7 games after allowing less than 100 yards rushing in their previous game.
O/U Pick: Over 49.5
Score Prediction: Stanford 34 – Washington 20
