The Oregon State Beavers set to battle USC Trojans in Los Angeles on Sept 27
By Ian Palmer
The Oregon State Beavers will be battling it out with the USC Trojans in a highly-anticipated NCAA football matchup this Saturday, September 27 at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum in California. Oregon heads into the contest with a perfect 3-0 record while USC is looking to make amends for their defeat by Boston College in their last outing.
The college football odds on this game posted at bet365 has Oregon State +9.5 at 20/23 and USC -9.5 at 20/21. The over/under is 56.0 points at 10/11 with Oregon State 11/4 to win and USC at 2/7 to win.
Oregon’s offense is led by quarterback Sean Mannion, who recently became the school’s all-time passing leader. He set the new mark against the San Diego State Aztecs last week with a 27-yard toss to Hunter Jarmon in a 28-7 win. The pass broke the old record of 11,249 yards which was set 10 years ago by Derek Anderson. Mannion finished the game by going 24 for 31 along with 275 yards, which now give him a career mark of 11,339 passing yards. Last year Mannion set a single-season record in Pac-12 with 4,662 passing yards to accompany 37 touchdowns.
The Beavers have a tough opponent in front of them this weekend though when they visit USC, who are ranked number 17. The Trojans loss to against Boston College a couple of weeks ago was a shock to their system, but they may have benefited from their bye week last weekend. However, Oregon has the momentum and are scoring 31.7 points per game on average so far this campaign and have outscored their opponents by an average of about 15 points an outing.
Oregon’s defense has also done its job by limiting their opposition to just 17 points a game. Against San Diego State, they managed to limit quarterback Quinn Kahler and his offensive line to just 106 yards. Kahler didn’t toss a touchdown pass and went just 14 for 26. He was also intercepted twice. The Beavers will need this type of defense on the road if they hope to keep USC quarterback Cody Kessler in check. Oregon has gone 6-2 on the road in their last eight away games since last September.
The Trojans were riding high after their 13-10 victory over the Stanford Cardinal the other week and were dreaming of another Pac-12 championship. Boston College turned the dream into a nightmare though with their 37-31 upset at home. To make matters worse USC blew a 17-6 lead in the game and became the first top-10 team to lose to Boston College since 2002. That loss saw USC drop in the rankings from number nine to 17.
Still, head coach Steve Sarkisian believes his squad has what it takes to top the Pac-12 this year, but realizes they need to bounce back with a crucial win against Oregon. Quarterback Cody Kessler will need to be at his best to pull it off. He went 31 for 41 in passing against Boston College with four touchdowns and 317 yards. However, he didn’t get much in the way of protection since he was sacked five times. There’s also room for improvement with USC’s rushing defense. They managed just 20 yards against Boston College’s 452 which was their worst disadvantage since back in 1977.
On the bright side, USC has never lost at home to Oregon and they’re 8-0 at the Memorial Coliseum since September of 1996.