NFL Tickets
TV Schedule: Saturday, November 14, 10:45 PM ET, ESPN
Location: Rose Bowl, Pasadena, CA
Line: UCLA (-9.5)
The race for the Pac-12 title is heating up as we enter the home stretch of the season and two contenders square off in Pasadena this week when the Washington State Cougars (6-3, 4-2 Pac-12) travel to Southern California to face off with the No. 18 UCLA Bruins (7-2, 4-2) in a game that both clubs need to keep their conference title hopes alive.
WSU is a surprise contender this season, sitting in second place in the Pac-12 North coming off a heartbreaking loss to the Stanford Cardinal last week in Pullman. The Cougars played well enough to win but now sit two games back and will need some help to reach the conference title game. They can help themselves this weekend by bouncing back and getting another huge road victory in Pasadena. To do that, they’ll need another strong outing from their Pac-12 leading passing attack behind Luke Falk. The sophomore signal caller has been a perfect fit in the Air Raid system, completing 70.3 percent of his passes on the year for a FBS-best 3,736 yards with 33 touchdowns and just seven interceptions.
This week he will face off with the No. 1 pass defense in the conference as the Bruins are allowing just 199.4 yards passing per game this season. Since holding the Cal Bears (the No. 2 passing offense in the Pac-12) to just 295 yards and three touchdowns through the air back on October 22, UCLA has held back-to-back opponents without a touchdown pass while recording five interceptions. They continue to play at a high level defensively despite their numerous injuries on that side of the ball and true freshman quarterback Josh Rosen looks more comfortable leading the offense each and every week, helping the offense post 35 points or more in each of their last four games and in six of nine games on the year.
Undoubtedly, this game will come down to strength vs strength with the WSU passing attack going up against the stout UCLA defense. Whichever group can gain the upper hand will give their teams a significant advantage in this contest. So who wins in this matchup of the unstoppable force against the immovable object?
Prediction: UCLA 38, Washington State 31
You can follow Tyler Brett on Twitter @ATylerBrett, on Facebook and on Google.
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