Pac-12 Football: Week 2 Predictions

It is always hard to take anything concrete from the first week of college football. All too often some bad teams over-perform and come away with a win, while some deep and talented teams fall flat on their face (or play a very difficult opponent). Week two helps provide a measuring stick as to what the teams are really made of, and the direction in which they are headed.

Arizona @ Oklahoma State

This game will get a wide national audience as the Thursday night game on ESPN.

Arizona is a talented team. But they are rebuilding and plagued with injuries, while the Cowboys are ready to roll.

This will not be a close game. Arizona will score some points through the air thanks to Nick Foles. But the Wildcats will not be able to keep up with the onslaught of points put up by OSU.

Expect to see another showboating Blackmon touchdown run, just for good measure.

Wildcats: 17

Cowboys: 41

Arizona State vs. Missouri

Here is another game that will get national attention as the Friday night game.

The Sun Devils defense will keep this one tight. Expect linebacker Vontaze Burfict to give the Missouri offense headaches all game long (literally and figuratively). But the Tigers are no slouches themselves.

Both teams are very talented, but I see the home field advantage as being enough to separate these two. Arizona State will surprise some people with a win on Friday.

On Monday morning they should find themselves in the top 25.

Sun Devils: 27

Tigers: 21

Oregon State @ Wisconsin

The Beavers were not too happy with their performance on opening weekend. And things aren’t about to improve any time soon as they have to visit a surging Badgers team at Camp Randall. 

Wisconsin should be able to run the ball all day long without much opposition. The Beavers will have to lick their wounds and hope for some better luck against UCLA in week three.

Beavers: 10

Badgers: 52

California @ Colorado

This wont be the 52-7 drubbing that happened a year ago, but it wont be a Buffs win either.

I see this as being a close game at first, but Cal will pull it out of reach in the second half. The Bears have one of the best defenses in the country, and the Buffs just got shut down by Hawaii. Once Cal gets into an offensive rhythm, they will take this game by double digits.  

Bears: 28 

Buffs: 13

Stanford @ Duke

It's too bad that Stanford doesn't have a marquee non-conference game to rocket them up in the standings. San Jose State was no match for the cruising Cardinal, and this week will not pose much more of a challenge.

They should have 30 points by halftime, and pretty much mirror the outcome of last week. Fans will have to wait until they travel to Tucson to see if this team is the Real McCoy.  

Cardinal: 49 

Duke: 3

Washington vs. Hawaii

As a Husky fan, I am really hoping that last week was an anomaly and that the team is capable of performing much better than that.

Washington has always struggled against good passing attacks, and Hawaii brings one of the best in the nation captained by QB Bryant Moniz. Hawaii will put points on the board, so the Husky offense is going to have to start producing to keep it tight.

I am thinking that they will get things moving, and home field advantage will be enough to make the difference. But it will be a heartburn inducing win. 

Huskies: 31 

Warriors: 28

Oregon vs. Nevada

The Ducks had a very rough start to their season in Dallas. But luckily for them they don't have to play LSU every week.

This is still an extremely talented football team with a lot of depth. Look for them to score early and often as they will be looking to take out some aggression on the Wolfpack.

Nevada is a good team, but will struggle offensively as they replace some key starters from last year (including their QB). They will not be able to keep up with the Ducks on either side of the ball.

Look for Oregon to win in a game that will never be close.  

Ducks: 63 

Nevada: 9

Washington State vs. UNLV

The Cougars will have to rally behind back-up Marshall Lobbestael after starter Jeff Tuel broke his clavicle in Week 1. He probably wont put up record numbers, but he has enough experience to manage the game.

The Rebels will have more weapons than Idaho State, but I still see WSU coming away with a win. WSU does have a defense that can limit a team like UNLV, so they will only need to score over 20 points to put this thing out of reach.

They will get a better test the following week when they have to visit San Diego State.  

Cougs: 34 

Rebels: 16

Utah @ USC

This will be the first official Pac-12 game (Cal vs. Colorado is technically a non-conference game). It will be the official welcome to one of the new kids on the block. And not a very great place to have to debut, in the lion's den. 

The Trojans are not the intimidating powerhouse they were a few years back, but they are still the Trojans. With a good running game and the Barkley-to-Woods connection, they will have no problem putting some points on the board. And USC should at least be able to limit the Utes on offense. Sorry Utah, welcome to the big time.  

USC: 28 

Utah: 17

UCLA vs. San Jose State

The Bruins should be fired up after a loss to Houston in Week 1. They will come ready to play and score some points early on offense.

The Bruins defense should be more than capable of limiting the Spartans offense throughout the game. This one will go down as a win for UCLA, and give them something to build on before Texas comes to town in Week 3.

And with a game against Stanford in Week 5, a loss here could be detrimental for UCLA's season and their coach's job. 

Bruins: 31 

Spartans: 10