Oregon -1.5 4.4% PLAY
The only reason this was not my top play is Washington State comes off a bye which I guess should not matter since Mike Leach is 1-4 off a bye in the regular season at Washington State the last 3 years. Either way this is a revenge spot for Oregon who lost at home despite rushing for 8.2 yards per carry. I donât see Washington State being able to stop Oregon at all with Royce Freeman returning and Dakota Prukop throwing as well as he has completing 67% of his passes. This is much more of a balanced offense that should be able to run the ball against the Cougars. Hereâs the deal people forget that Veron Adams missed that game last year which was huge. Oregon was clearly not the same without him.
Oregon may give up a ton of yards here with Brady Hoke, but heâs going to get some stops and enough stops to win this game in my opinion. Hoke always has an aggressive defense which will hurt sometimes, but Washington State has an offense that will just dink and dunk down the field and getting a team like that into third and longs is key. Oregon held this team to 32% on third down in last yearâs game, but were 5-16 themselves without any balance from their passing game. This year Oregon certainly has balance.
This line adjustment is huge in my opinion. Washington State is on the up and up, but they are 1-2 this year they lost to a Boise State team, but havenât played anyone else. Meanwhile Oregon lost 2 games against Colorado and Nebraska. I get Colorado is what people are focusing on here, but the Buffaloes are much improved. Probably the most improved team in the country and I know they did it with a backup QB last week, but Colorado was right in that game 2 weeks ago on the road against Michigan, a team everyone is already talking college football playoff about.
This should be a tight game or a double digit victory for Oregon. If itâs a tight game then Oregon has the advantage as Washington Stateâs field goal kicker Erik Powell is 0-3 in attempts this year. Oregon also the stronger strength of schedule and ranks 6th in YPP on offense 67th on defense while Washington State ranks 42nd on offense and 50th on defense.
