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Stanford vs USC Football Odds & Picks

Written by Steve Janus

Saturday night in Pac-10 action, the Stanford Cardinal host the USC Trojans. If you can look past USC’s lone loss to Oregon State, they just might be the best team in college football. There’s little doubt they are the best in the conference and tonight they’ll get a chance to do some more damage to a fellow Pac-10 team in Stanford. The Cardinal are 5-5 on the season and would one more win to be eligible for a bowl this year. It won’t be easy for Stanford, though, they have USC Saturday, then finish out their season against a tough Cal team. USC is a 23.5 point favorite in Saturday’s game over Stanford, the total is set at 48.5 points.

The Trojans have been a little big inconsistent on offense, but they’ve totally destroyed the majority of their opponents. On average they are scoring 37.7 points and racking up 455 yards per game. The key to whether or not the Trojans are “on” or not is, not surprisingly, the play of starting quarterback, Mark Sanchez. Sanchez has completed just under 65 percent of his passes and has gone over 2,000 yards for the season and has passed for 24 touchdowns and just 7 interceptions. The numbers are good, but you only have to look at last week against Cal, when the Trojans posted just 17 points to see how inconsistent they can be. This week shouldn’t be much of a test, though, Sanchez and company should be able to move the ball at will.

Against some pretty strong offensive competition, USC’s defense has been nothing short of amazing. They are allowing only 206 yards per game from opponents, who are scoring just 6.7 points per game against the Trojans. Hardly anyone has been able to run on them this year, they are allowing a mere 77 rushing yards per game and holding opposing running backs to just 2.3 yards per carry. Nothing is going to come easy for Stanford this week. Bet on the Trojans as 23.5 point favorites.

Stanford’s offense is modest by Pac-10 standards. They are scoring 27 points per game and gaining around 342 yards per game. The strength of the offense has been the running game, but yards will be hard to come back against a USC defensive front that is among the best in the nation. The Cardinal will have to look for other options on offense, but they do not pose much of a threat through the air this year. Running back Toby Gerhart is going to be expected to carry the load this week, but the rest of the offense will need to do something so that the Trojans can’t simply key on him. If that is the case, there won’t be much offense at all from the Cardinal.

Stanford’s defense barely keeps teams under what the offense is capable of scoring, which is probably why they are just 5-5 on the season. So far they are giving up around 25 points per game and 380 yards of total offense. USC is one of the better offensive teams in the country, so don’t be surprised to see both of those numbers inflate after this week. You might want to take Stanford +23.5 this week.

Don’t expect any letdown from USC this week. They got their one loss out of their system early this year. The Trojans need to win this game, not only to stay in consideration for the BCS, but to keep up with Oregon State for the Pac-10 title.

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