-USC is coming off a bye week, and from the players I've spoken with they are extremely confident going in. -This is the only game that means anything for USC, as they can't go to a bowl and have fallen out of the spotlight completely. -It's homecoming week for the trojans/College Gameday will be there(Pretty sure USC is undefeated in regular season games in which gameday is present.) -Confidence is up after Cal game -USC and OU have nearly identical defensive rankings. -The game will be a shootout. -OU will be forced to pass if the game is high scoring and close. -The game is in the Coliseum, and OU hasn't won in LA since joey harrignton was quarterback.
let me just get out of the way that im an oregon fan but im also terrified of this game and left vegas on monday without having bet it but your reasons are really, really bunk two of them are about confidence. usc is confident, but so would 7-0 oregon, right? if anything, both teams are even there. bye week for usc helps, certainly, but oregon had an extra two days off from last week's thursday game and a bye week the previous saturday. they didnt have 14 days to prepare for USC, but by the time the game is played they'd have one game in 21 days... quite healthy. - "OU will be forced to pass if the game is high scoring and close" ***what the fuck*** first, why would oregon be forced to do anything if its a close game? in theory, a close game means both teams could do whatever they want because the game is in fact close. second, how does this help usc at all? their pass defense is atrocious and thomas has been improving as the season has progressed and is maybe a top 3 qb in the league at this point. oregon has certainly struggled in LA, but past seasons dont really matter (especially prior USC teams to this one) and they've only played down in LA since harrington was there
Hilton's Ed Salmons: "Matchup: Oregon at USC Line moves: Oregon opened as 6.5-point favorites, it bumped up to seven, now back down to 6.5. Salmons says that means: "If you just look at what's going on the past couple weeks it looks like the game for the top-ranked team to blow it. USC is in a great spot -- it has been off for a couple weeks after destroying Cal and Oregon is coming off a game in which it looked the greatest offense in history. The Ducks just come at you in waves, they play like the Colts only on steroids. You don't have time to sub or to stop it, which isn't good when USC has no depth. But I do think the Trojans will hang tough for a while and have a chance because they've been off. This is a public against sharp game, and I think pubic money will play this and get it back to seven."