Oregon Ducks (7-2) +8, O/U 55 at USC Trojans (7-1), 10:15 p.m. Eastern Saturday, FSN
by Predictem.com Staff
The USC Trojans, still with hopes of a berth in a fourth consecutive college football national championship game, host the Oregon Ducks in an interesting PAC 10 match-up Saturday night in Los Angeles.
USC is among a handful of one-loss teams, including Texas, Auburn and Florida, vying for a spot in the BCS title game against, most likely, either Ohio State or Michigan. USC is ranked below all those teams in the polls, but has the advantage, if it can be called that, of playing several good teams from here on out, beginning Saturday with Oregon and continuing on with Cal, Notre Dame and UCLA.
The Trojans sit in second place in the PAC 10, a game back of the league-leading California Golden Bears.
Oregon occupies third place in the PAC 10, a game back of USC and two back of Cal.
The Ducks beat the Washington Huskies last week 34-14 as 14-point home favorites, while USC bounced back after its first loss of the season by beating the Stanford Cardinal 42-0 as 28-point road chalk.
The Trojans win last week gave USC a 17-0 record in November under head coach Pete Carroll.
Oregon is 5-3 against the spread this season, 2-2 ATS on the road. The Ducks only two defeats came at Washington State 34-23 and at Cal 45-24.
The Trojans are only 3-5 vs. the number this season, 1-2 ATS at home. USC’s only loss of this season came two weeks ago at Oregon State 33-31.
The Trojans beat Oregon last season 45-13 as 20-point chalk in Eugene.
Ducks QB Dennis Dixon is hitting on 62% of his passes this season and owns an 11/9 TD/INT ratio. And Oregon is out-rushing opponents by a 206-146 yards-per-game margin.
USC QB J.D. Booty has completed 63% of his passes this season and owns a 19/5 TD/INT ratio. And the Trojans are out-rushing foes by a 147-90 YPG average.
These two teams have played four common opponents this season. Oregon, as mentioned above, beat Washington 34-14 last week, while USC beat the Huskies 26-20 a month ago. It should be noted, however, that the Trojans played UW with talented QB Isaiah Stanback, while the Ducks got the Huskies after Stanback had gotten hurt as was out for the season. Moving on, Oregon beat Arizona State 48-13 and Stanford 48-10, while USC beat the Sun Devils 28-21 and the Cardinal 42-0. And while the Ducks got beat at Washington State 34-23, the Trojans beat the Cougars 28-22.
The Sagarin PREDICTOR ratings at USAToday.com rank USC 10th at 87.5, Oregon 12th at 85.8.
The O/U is 5-2-1 in Ducks games this season, 3-5 in Trojans games.
USC opened up at seven-point favorites for Saturday’s game, with a total of 56. The Trojans have been bet up about a point, as has the total.
