#14 Utah at Washington State (+7, o/u 55)
Kickoff: Thursday 10/27 10:00 PM EST, Fox Sports 1
This is the only college game I recommend playing tonight after we skip over the earlier top-25 game featuring NC State/Virginia Tech on this evening.Â
Mostly we skip that game because we cannot ever decide on how truly bad VT is, so we’ve given up on trying.Â
Anyways, on to the late night game on the West Coast.Â
Are the Utes for Real?
Utah is coming off a big win against USC that is being called an upset even though the Utes were favored by 3.5 points in that game. This is most attributable to the AP being a very unreliable indicator of a team’s strength relative to other top-25 teams, and also a reminder that Vegas always knows. So even though Utah was rated 13 places lower in the AP standings going into that game, Vegas knew what was going on.Â
Wazzu, on the other hand, is having some problems. After playing a close game with Oregon and beating Cal, they’ve now lost two straight to USC and Oregon State. Neither of those losses are terrible, however, since USC and Oregon State are both solid teams.Â
I think Washington State puts a defense on the field that can hang with this balanced and, admittedly dangerous Utah offense.Â
The Cougs
The Cougs aren’t setting the world on fire with many statistics, but this just feels like a flat spot for the Utes coming off a shootout win. I know they had a bye to rest up afterwards, but I’m not buying that they are touchdown favorites on the road here, especially since that bye week didn’t provide them with a full week of rest on this Thursday night game.
I’ll take the points and hope for an ugly one in Pullman where Washington State hangs around just long enough to cover this number.
