Oregon State at Arizona Odds

Written by Matthew Martz

The Oregon State Beavers and the No. 9 Arizona Wildcats face off on Saturday October 9^,2010 at 6 PM ET. The Wildcats have won 15 of their last 18 on home turf, but one of those losses was against Oregon State, 19-17, back in 2008.

The current college football odds show Arizona -8 ½ over the Beavers with a total of 50 points.

Oregon State is coming off a 31-28 nail biter against Arizona State last week in their conference home opener. QB Ryan Katz threw for 260 yards in his 4^th career start. He struggled a bit, but finished completing 19 of 29 passes and showed good command by moving the ball around to nine different receivers.

Junior RB Jacquizz Rodgers scored twice and ran for 145 yards, cracking triple digits for the 16^th time in his career.

The Beavs are off to a 2-2 start, including 1-0 in conference. A little consistency would go a long way, as the offense and defense seem to be on at different times.

Katz has completed a total 55 of 106 passes for only 720 yards, but does have six scores to show for it. The youngest Rodgers brother has six touchdowns on 84 carries with 398 yards, for an average of 4.7 per carry. Those are two key pieces to build an offense on, but Oregon State is a little thin after that.

No. 1 receiver James Rodgers was out last week after sustaining a concussion in the loss at Boise State the week before. Rodgers is expected back for Saturday’s game and that could just be the edge Oregon State needs.

Overall, the offense ranks 87^th in passing yards and 92^nd in rushing. The defense has failed to keep it close and ranks 96^th overall by allowing nearly 31 points a game.

The Arizona Wildcats are coming off a 10-9 squeaker against Cal, which they won. It was looking as if an upset was imminent, then QB Nick Foles and Juron Criner made a push; Foles made a 51 yard pass to Criner, followed by a short three-yard TD pass over the middle with just over a minute left. The win preserved a perfect record, and gave them a 4-0 record for the first time in over a decade.

However, the team needs to breathe after fighting to the wire two straight weeks. The 34-27 win against Iowa definitely took some wind out of their sails.

While OSU isn’t the pushover they would hope for, it shouldn’t be quite as tough.

The Wildcats rank 11^th overall in passing yards with just over 300 a game. Foles has completed over a 100 passes already for 1089 yards and six touchdowns.

The team has combined for over 120 rushing yards per game to rank 93^rd; Grigsby has five TD’s on 45 receptions while Nmoko has two TD’s on 20 carries.

David Douglass has combined with Criner to amass 41 receptions and 553 yards for four touchdowns.

Defensively they are also tough, and capable of keeping most any offense in check. Ranked 2^nd in the nation overall while only allowing 11 points against, including a lowly two points in its season opener against Toledo.

That 11-point average would actually be lower if not for the robust 27 points Iowa totaled – that was more than all other games combined.

Matt’s Free Prediction: Oregon State +8.5 – The Beavers have their work cut out for them and should be looking at another loss, but the time to strike is now since Arizona is a bit mentally drained. At no other time but now would Oregon State be able to pose a serious threat to the Arizona defense, and I think they will keep pace long enough to lose in the final quarter.

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