#5 Oregon vs. #20 Utah
Saturday, 10:00 PM on ESPN
Rice-Eccles Stadium, Salt Lake City, Utah
The Line: Oregon -8.5, Total: 60
The Oregon Ducks, aka Nike U, better have their upset hats (puke green helmets? poop brown? whatever works) on this Saturday when they travel to Salt Lake City to clash with the Utah Utes. The Utes have showed some grittiness, some dazzle, and the ability to play with anyone this season. Utah, with just two, close losses, is also still very much alive to win the South division of the Pac-12. Oregon, on the other hand, is eye-ing the College Football Playoff and their first ever national championship.
And while a national championship might be a little lofty at this point for a Duck team that has never won one and would likely be mediocre without extraordinaire Heisman front runner, quarterback Marcus Mariota, the Ducks would be out of the discussion for good with a loss on the road to a very tough Utah team. So sleep with one eye open Sandy!
Utah had its hearts crushed last week in overtime against Arizona State, while the Ducks took care of business at home against a struggling Stanford team. The classy Duck fans (known to actually be the trashiest in football) lived up to their esteemed ways by booing injured Stanford players. Not much else to say about that…
The Utes are giving up 385 yards per game, which ranks 60th in the nation, and that’s a concern given Oregon’s offense. With the 12th-rated offense in the Pac-12, it’s hard to see Utah keeping up in a shoot-out. Thus, Utah will have to hold Oregon to field goals and create a few turnover to duplicate what Arizona did to Oregon earlier in the season.
Utah is one of the best squads to bet on this season, sitting at 7-1 against the spread on the season.
Since losing to Arizona, Oregon is 4-0 straight-up and against the spread and the OVER is 3-0-1 in that span.
Oregon is 15-4 ATS in its last 19 road games and 4-0 ATS in its last four games overall. Utah is 4-0 ATS in its last four games overall and 7-0 ATS in its last seven games against teams with a winning record.
The UNDER is 5-1-1 in Oregon’s last seven road games and 5-0-1 in Utah’s last six games overall.
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