Pac-12
Washington at No.17 USC – The Pac-12 moves to Thursday night at the L.A. Coliseum with the Trojans hosting the Huskies. Washington leads the league in rushing defense, allowing only 104 yards per game on the ground. The Trojans have 41 points off eight turnovers this season and garnered 28 off of four Sun Devils miscues two weeks ago in a 42-14 win over Arizona State. Tre Madden and Justin Davis will test the Huskies front. Overall, this is the league’s top statistical offense in USC and the top statistical defense in Washington.
TROJANS 34, HUSKIES 17
No. 22 Cal @ No. 5 Utah – This battle of unbeatens is the epitome of a contrast in style. The Bears’ gun-slinging offense behind quarterback Jared Goff against a physical Utes defense. Bears wide out Kenny Lawler leads the league with eight touchdown catches. The Utes are seventh nationally and first in the Pac-12 with a plus-7 turnover margin. That is an eye-popping stat considering how many times Goff puts the ball in the air. The 5-0 start for the Bears is the best since 2007. Cal’s defense is underrated with the notoriety of its offense. The defense is first in the Pac-12 in sacks at 18 and sacks per game (3.60), which ranks sixth and seventh nationally.
UTES 30, BEARS 27
Oregon State at Arizona – The Wildcats have given up 55 and 56 points to Stanford and UCLA in back-to-back weeks as the rushing defense plummeted to 11th in the Pac-12, yielding 192.9 yards per game and 12 touchdowns. Oregon State has had trouble scoring, but it hopes the tandem of freshman quarterback Seth Collins and running back Storm Woods can get the team back on track. Starting quarterback Anu Solomon’s absence due to a concussion has affected the entire Wildcats squad.
WILDCATS 38, BEAVERS 24
Washington State at Oregon – Vernon Adams has a broken index finger on his throwing hand and as it continues to mend, Ducks fans are going to have to get used to the sketchiness of the Jeff Lockie-led squad on offense. The best thing for Mark Helfrich is to get the ball into the hands of his speedsters in open space and let them operate. Lockie cannot successfully hit the deep ball, which is taking away a huge part of the Oregon scheme. Washington State is staggering even worse as the youthful Cougars have had 21 freshmen debut this year. Luke Falk, a product of the Mike Leach scheme, leads the Pac-12 with 364.8 yards passing per game with 10 touchdown passes and only two interceptions.
DUCKS 34, COUGARS 27
Colorado at Arizona State – Mike Bercovici engineered the Sun Devils’ biggest win of the season, a 38-23 win over then-undefeated UCLA in the Rose Bowl last Saturday. He has been efficient for Todd Graham, even in losses, with 1,344 yards and nine touchdowns against three interceptions. Demario Richard and D.J. Foster are two major playmakers as Foster has a 45-game reception streak and Richards, who has 748 yards from scrimmage, has 329 after contact. Colorado quarterback Sefu Liufau had a tough game in last week’s 41-24 loss to Oregon last week. Liufau scored on a seven-yard run early in the fourth quarter as CU was actually within striking distance, trailing only 31-24 before Oregon scored 10 unanswered points.
SUN DEVILS 33, BUFFALOES 20
Big 12
Kansas State at No. 2 TCU – Trevone Boykin and Josh Doctson are rewriting the Horned Frogs record books. Boykin ranks second nationally in total offense at 408.8 yards, and Doctson is second in the nation with 722 yards receiving and eight touchdowns. Kansas State’s defense has only one interception on the season and allows 288 yards per game. The Frogs will likely go up top early and then try to establish Aaron Green, who averages 100 yards rushing per game. He will go up a Kansas State run defense that leads the Big 12 at 71 yards per outing. The Wildcats have had lots of offensive problems and have had to rely on their defense, but against a TCU offense that averages 630 yards per game, the numbers the Wildcats have put up on defense will be inflated.
HORNED FROGS 44, WILDCATS 26
Texas at No. 9 Oklahoma – Charlie Strong continues to try to revamp the Longhorns, who were annihilated by TCU, 50-7, and the fans and boosters are calling for his job already after just a year-and-a-half go the job. Texas’ recruiting fell upon hard times at the end of the Mack Brown era and now Strong must be supported to clean things up, which could take as many as five years. Oklahoma has so many weapons that this one could be settled early. The Sooners’ defense has vastly improved. They held West Virginia’s high-powered attack 4.3 yards per play last week. Quarterback Baker Mayfield has thrown for more yards (1,382) than any quarterback in Sooners history after the first four games.
SOONERS 45, LONGHORNS 13
No. 19 Oklahoma State at West Virginia – The Mountaineers need to run the table at home now to have a shot in the Big 12 although their defensive team speed is still not there to be able to hold down the top teams in this league. The key matchup in this game will be the Big 12’s second-leading rusher in Wendell Smallwood against an Oklahoma State defense that allows only 132.2 yards rushing per game. WVU had five turnovers last week and that destroyed any hopes of knocking off the Sooners in Norman while OSU, the only team in the Top 25 nationally in offense and defense, has allowed opponents only eight third downs in 27 attempts over the last two weeks. A 6-0 start with a win Saturday would be the fourth of the Mike Gundy Era for the Cowboys.
MOUNTAINEERS 41, COWBOYS 34
No. 3 Baylor at Kansas – This may be the biggest mismatch inside of any conference this season. The Bears average 745.3 yards and 63.8 points per game, albeit vs. inferior competition. Baylor is the only school in the country to have a top-five rusher in Shock Linwood (146 yards per game) and a top-five wide receiver in Corey Coleman (142.5 receiving yards per game) in the nation. The Bears rushed for 368 yards last week in a 63-35 win against Texas Tech. This is a situation where Kansas could be like the Red Raiders last week, blown out after the first 15 minutes.
BEARS 70, JAYHAWKS 14
Iowa State at Texas Tech – In any other league, the Red Raiders’ firepower would be higher on the food chain. They have 23 plays that have gone for 30 yards or longer as 14 of those are touchdowns. They have 34 touchdown drives with 16 of them under two minutes. The problem is being in a conference where the playmakers and offensive firepower are so deep that Tech gets overlooked while putting up impressive numbers. Quarterback Pat Mahomes averages 408 yards total offense per game. Iowa State comes in at 2-2 and 1-0 after winning over Kansas last week. The Cyclones do not have the speed nor depth to match up vs. a reeling Texas Tech squad that has two losses in a row to TCU and Baylor.
RED RAIDERS 49, CYCLONES 20
Last week: 7-1
Overall: 39-10