The No. 13 Utah Utes had their eight-game winning streak snapped on Saturday with a humiliating 18-point defeat to the USC Trojans. Turnovers doomed the once-unbeaten Utes, who dropped a whopping 10 spots in the Associated Press College Football rankings as a result of that loss.
The Utes will look to keep their title dreams afloat when they face the struggling Oregon State Beavers this coming Saturday. Who will emerge victorious in this Pac-12 contest? Read on below for an in-depth breakdown of this college football matchup and while you’re at it, you can check out our previews of Notre Dame vs. Temple and West Virginia vs. TCU.
Betting on the Oregon State Beavers (2-5, 0-4 Pac-12)
Oregon State’s losing woes show no sign of abating as the Beavers crashed to their fourth-consecutive defeat with a gut-wrenching 17-13 loss to Colorado on Saturday. The Beavers had difficulty stopping Colorado quarterback Sefo Liufau, who threw for 140 yards and a touchdown, and also ran for another score. With that victory, the Buffaloes finally snapped their 14-game losing streak in the Pac-12.
[sc:NCAA240banner ]It’s back to the drawing board again for the struggling Beavers, who are the last team in the Pac-12 without a conference win this season. For Oregon State to snap its losing skid against Utah this coming weekend, it needs a much-improved showing from quarterback Nick Mitchell. The redshirt freshman completed just 9 of 24 passes for 122 yards with one interception in the loss to Colorado. He finished the game with a woeful QB rating of 16.1.
Gary Andersen experimented with a two-QB offensive set-up in the game against Colorado with Mitchell sharing quarterbacking duties with Seth Collins. Collins was 4 of 7 for 77 yards, and ran for 50 more yards in the game against the Buffaloes. They will need to get their act together against a Utah defense that’s allowing just 22.7 points per game this season, 42nd in the FBS.
The Beavers are 0-5 SU and ATS in their last five road games.
Utah’s playoff hopes were dealt a major blow on Saturday when it suffered a humiliating 42-24 defeat to the USC Trojans at Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum. The Utes had no answer for USC quarterback Cody Kessler, who passed for 264 yards and a touchdown and rushed for another score.
It was a disappointing result for Utah, who came into the game as the lone unbeaten team in the Pac-12. Utah entered the contest as the nation’s second-best team in turnover margin, forcing 19 turnovers and committing just seven. That didn’t hold up against the Trojans and Cameron Smith, who became the first USC player with three interceptions in a game since Jason Oliver in 1991 against Penn State.
The Utes will look to get their season back on track when they take on the slumping Oregon State Beavers this coming weekend. For Utah to return to winning ways, it needs a much better performance from quarterback Travis Wilson. He completed just 24-of-36 passes for 254 yards, two touchdowns and four costly interceptions in Saturday’s loss to the Trojans. 100 of those yards and a score came in the last five minutes, though, with the Utes already trailing by a whopping 25 points.
Apart from Wilson, the Utes also need Devontae Booker to produce a huge bounce-back game this coming Saturday. He was a non-factor in that embarrassing loss to USC, rushing for just 62 yards on 14 carries. He will fancy his chances, however, of regaining his form against the Beavers, whom he torched for 229 yards and three touchdowns in Utah’s 29-23 win last year.
The Utes are 4-0 SU and 2-2 ATS in their last four home games.
