UCLA vs Oregon NCAA Football Odds
Eugene, Ore. will be the site of ESPN’s College Gameday for Week 9, and for good reason. The UCLA Bruins may be coming off of a loss to the Stanford Cardinal, but the once-No. 9 team in the country is 5-1 on the year, and they’ve been getting it done on both sides of the ball.
No. 12 UCLA (5-1, 2-1 Pac-12) @ No. 3 Oregon (7-0, 4-0 Pac-12)
Saturday, Oct. 26 7:00 PM ET @ Autzen Stadium
Moneyline: N/A
Spread: Oregon -23
O/U: N/A
[dfads params=’groups=63740&limit=1&return_javascript=0′]
ATS Matchup Stats | Betting Insight!
Check out our in-house Handicapper!!! Buy Razor Ray’s COLLEGE FOOTBALL Picks!
Their opponents, the No. 3 Oregon Ducks, have stuck with that same theme of succeeding on both offense and defense.
*CLICK HERE* GRAB OUR BEST Expert College FOOTBALL Picks for 2013 GAMBLING season!
They’re 7-0, and they’re looking to prove that they belong ahead of Florida State for the No. 2 spot in the BCS rankings.
UCLA
The UCLA Bruins are coming off of a disappointing showing against the Stanford Cardinal. Stanford took down UCLA 24-14, and the key was forcing Brett Hundley—the team’s heart and soul on offense—out of his comfort zone. As a result, the Bruins were outgained in yards 419 to 266.
Simply put, that can’t happen against the Oregon Ducks. Oregon is averaging 310.7 yards per game through the air and 332.4 yards per game on the ground. Forcing Marcus Mariota to slow down the pace is going to be important, but a more-likely key to victory is to merely keep up on offense.
Hundley will be a key focus of Oregon’s defense, which means the rushing game must perform more valiantly than it did against Stanford.
The truth is that the Cardinal are a fantastic defensive team against the run, but 74 yards for the Bruins won’t get it done.
The Bruins must put together a better game against Oregon, and if the running backs find success, it will open up the playbook for Hundley to thrive. [soliloquy id=”82219″]
Oregon
Unlike UCLA, the Ducks must use their passing game to open up the rushing attack. We still don’t know exactly what the status of De’Anthony Thomas will be, but we do know that he’s been inching back slowly, ideally with this game circled as his return date.
Quarterback Marcus Mariota has been a Heisman candidate all season, and the truth is that he’s the most important player on the field in this contest. When he’s succeeding, so is Oregon. Oppositely, when he fumbled the ball on consecutive possessions last week against Washington State, both the offense and defense lost their mojos.
If Mariota can eliminate the mistakes and play his typical dominant game, he’ll not only set up his receivers, but his tailbacks as well. Oregon has deep-threat abilities with Mariota throwing the ball, and those threats are what have allowed backups Thomas Tyner and Byron Marshall to succeed with Thomas out.
Oregon enters this game as the favorites, and rightfully so. Many believe they deserve to be the No. 2 team in the country behind the Alabama Crimson Tide, and their ability to score quickly and stop opposing offenses makes them one of the most dangerous teams in the nation.
The problem is that their 23-point spread coming in seems a bit high.
It’s true that UCLA put up a measly 10 points against Stanford, but we’ll consider that an anomaly until proven otherwise.
Oregon is winning its games by an average margin of better than 40 points per contest. As a result, the team is 7-0 ATS through eight weeks. But while the team from Eugene has looked like a national championship contender, its biggest contest thus far has been a now-unranked Washington Huskies team.
We keep hearing about how the Ducks are going to face their first real opponent any game now, and with UCLA around the corner, expect the contest to be much closer than some we’ve seen thus far.
Score Prediction: Oregon 38 – UCLA 27
