Arizona State at Arizona Odds
Written by Steve Janus - Google +
This Thursday Arizona State will try and keep their slim bowl hopes alive when they go on the road to face their in-state rivals Arizona in Pac-10 action. The Sun Devils come in off an impressive 55-34 win against UCLA last week, but have won just three of their last nine games, and are just 1-4 away from home this season. The Wildcats just didn’t have enough fire power to keep up with Oregon last week, as they fell 48-29 for their third straight loss. The Wildcats came away with a 20-16 win at Arizona State last year, and will look to keep hold of the Territorial Cup for a third straight season. Even though Arizona comes into the game struggling, the current odds have the Wildcats favored by 6-points over the Sun Devils at home.
Arizona State (5-6, 3-5 Pac-10): Even with a win this week against Arizona, the Sun Devils will not be invited to a bowl game unless their are not enough teams bowl eligible. Arizona State played two FCS schools, meaning they had to win seven games this season to guarantee a spot.
It didn’t even look like the Sun Devils were going to get their fifth win last week, as they trailed 17-0 and lost starting quarterback Steven Threet to a head injury, but backup Brock Osweiler put together an outstanding performance to lead the Sun Devils to a victory. Osweiler completed 27 of 36 attempts for 380 yards with four touchdowns to no interceptions, and also added another 35 yards and a touchdown on the ground. With the Sun Devils playing on a short week, its hard to imagine Threet will be able to come back, and even if he can, I think Osweiler deserves the opportunity to show what he can do against a good team like Arizona.
Cameron Marshall finished with 147 yards and a score on just 17 carries, and Aaron Pflugrad caught two touchdown passes, as the Sun Devils finished with 595 yards of total offense against the Bruins. Unless Osweiler is the real deal, it’s hard to imagine the Sun Devils offense having anywhere near that kind of success against the Wildcats, as they come into the game ranked 32nd in the country, allowing just 339 yards of total offense a game.
Arizona (7-4, 4-4 Pac-10): The Wildcats can’t be happy with the way their season has ended, as they went from being 7-1 and highly ranked, to a team that is now just 4-4 in conference play and not even ranked in the top 25. Still I believe you will see some fight out of Arizona in their final regular season game, especially since it’s against rival Arizona State.
The Wildcats actually had a 19-14 lead going into the second half last week, but were outscored 34-10 in the final two periods of play. Quarterback Nick Foles went 29 of 54 for 448 yards with three touchdowns to just one interception, but the Wildcats managed just 58 yards on the ground. We could see similar numbers this week, as the Sun Devils come in 17th against the run, but are 94th against the pass, allowing 243 yards a game.
Defensively the Wildcats had no answer for Oregon’s ground game, as the Ducks ran for 389 yards and four touchdowns. The Sun Devils don’t pose near the threat on the ground this week, and the defense should play better in front of the home crowd.
Looking at the Odds: This is a difficult game to predict, as you really don’t know if Osweiler’s play was a product of UCLA’s defense. Neither team is really playing all that well this season, and three of the last five meetings between these two teams have been decided by three points, so I think the right play is on Arizona State at +6. My final score prediction is Arizona 24, Arizona State 20.
Got something to say?
