Oregon USC Betting – Current Pac-10 Champs Travel To Lair Of Old Champs For West Coast clash
The two best and most prominent teams in the Pac-10 over the last four years have been the Oregon Ducks and the USC Trojans. They meet this Saturday in Los Angeles.
NCAA football betting: Oregon Ducks @ USC Trojans
Online Betting Odds: Oregon -7
Why To Bet On Oregon
The Ducks’ offense has simply been unstoppable in 2010. Coach Chip Kelly has turned his spread-option attack into a world-class juggernaut, giving Oregon a combination of on-field speed and strategically-rooted tempo that is throwing other defenses way off balance. The Ducks hung 60 points on a bewildered UCLA Bruins squad on Oct. 21, and they’ve scored at least 42 points in every game this season. Quarterback Darron Thomas performed very well against UCLA, and that’s important not because of anything the Bruins did, but only because Thomas got injured in his previous outing on Oct. 9 at the Washington State Cougars. Backup quarterback Nate Costa is okay, but Thomas is the man who really makes Oregon’s offense hum. Thomas went 22-of-31 for 308 yards and three touchdowns without an interception against UCLA, proving to himself and his coaching staff that he’s going to be just fine for this tilt against USC. If Oregon’s offense is appreciably healthy, there’s no reason to think that the Ducks won’t light up USC’s thin and uncertain defense. Last year, Oregon rang up 47 points on a USC defense that was coached by Pete Carroll. This year, USC’s defense is even worse than it was last year. The Trojans gave up nearly 600 yards to Hawaii in their season opener and surrendered 478 yards to the Stanford Cardinal on Oct. 9. Just imagine, then, what Oregon’s offense can do against the Trojans this season. This game shapes up to be a track meet, and Oregon will win every single track meet in which it is involved.
Why To Bet On USC
The Trojans have a puncher’s chance in this game because it’s at home, and also because this bowl-ineligible team will treat this game as its Rose Bowl, its game of the season. USC has endured a miserable offseason which produced a number of sanctions, including scholarship reductions, relaxed transfer rules that have allowed many recruits to flee to other programs, and a two-year bowl ban. Now that the Trojans have managed to get to their bye week with a very reasonable 5-2 record, they will be fresher than they have been throughout the first half of the season. The bye week will enable coach Lane Kiffin and his dad, defensive coordinator Monte Kiffin, to game plan for the best team in the Pac-10 and the team that ended USC’s streak of conference titles last season. Outside of cross-town L.A. rival UCLA, there’s no team USC would rather beat than Oregon, and that’s going to fuel the Trojans throughout this week of practice. USC is not a better team than Oregon, but as is always the case in college football’s one-shot world, all it takes is for the Trojans to be better on one night, and that’s entirely possible. Oregon’s defense is weak, and USC quarterback Matt Barkley could definitely take advantage of the UO secondary. If USC gets a few timely turnovers, it can certainly win this game.
How The Game Will Play Out
USC won’t get the turnovers it needs. The Trojans will ring up 35 points. The problem is that Oregon will score 56 and not get stopped all evening long. Take Oregon minus the points on the road against a USC team that doesn’t look ready to make a stand.
Oregon USC Betting Pick: Oregon
