Trojans vs Golden Bears NCAA Football Odds
The biggest problem facing the Cal Bears (3-2, -02) when they host the USC Trojans (4-1, 2-1) at AT&T Park on Saturday is that their offense is not particularly productive when faced with a challenging opponent.
Trojans v Golden Bears
Venue/Stadium: AT&T Park, San Francisco, California
Time/Date: 9:00 PM ET, Thursday, October 13, 2011
NFL Odds From: Betonline.com
Spread (ATS): USC -3.5
Over/Under: OFF
Over the course of this season the Golden Bears have scored an average of 34.6 ppg, but that number is a bit misleading. Take out their 64-12 pummeling of the hapless Presbyterian College Bluestockings and that number falls to 24 ppg. And in their two losses, against Washington (4-1, 2-0) and #9 Oregon (4-1, 2-0), they only put up 19 points per game.
Numbers like that are not going to help them against a Trojan offense that’s averaging 28 ppg, without the benefit of outings against the Bluestockings.
Junior USC quarterback Matt Barkley is currently completed 133 of 188 passes for 1,587 yards, 14 touchdowns to only 4 interceptions. Two weeks ago he set a school passing record against the Arizona Wildcats, completing 32 of 39 passes for 468 yards. USC won that game 48-41.
Barkley is also connecting regularly with sophomore running back Robert Woods. Woods already has 55 catches for 747 yards and six touchdowns this season, including an 82 yard scoring run against Arizona. For comparison, Woods had 65 catches for 792 yards and six touchdowns in the 2010 season. Clearly he’s a force to be reckoned with in the coming years.
Offensively, the Trojan offense seems to be coming together and putting up more points every week, while the Bears are headed the other direction.
Cal’s offensive struggles are reflected quarterback Zach Maynard’s less than stellar numbers. So far this season he’s only completed 92-179 passes for 1291 yards and 11 touchdowns. [soliloquy id=”82219″]
To his credit, he’s been playing injured but it’s tough to explain away Cal’s tepid performance on Saturday. The Bears looked good in the first half against the Ducks, but the wheels fell off the cart in the second half when Oregon scored 29 unanswered points.
But Cal wasn’t having a great night on the defensive side of the ball either. They gave up 239 running yards to Duck running sensation LaMicheal James in that game and likely would have given up a lot more had he not been injured.
Cal is going to have to make a lot of adjustments on both sides of the ball if they hope to knock off the Trojans. Their defense delivered the goods early in the season and they’ll need a stellar performance to keep the Golden Bears in the game.
The Trojans are coming off of a bye week and should be well rested for this affair.
When these two teams met up last year, USC worked over the Golden Bears 48-14 without breaking much of sweat. And there’s no reason to think that the same thing won’t happen again this year.
Both teams are currently 2-3 ATS. These two teams are definitely capable of putting up a lot points, so if the over is anything more than 50, that’s probably a safe play.
Matt’s Prediction: USC 40-21
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