The conference death march begins for Washington tonight as they host 8th-ranked Stanford. They follow this tough game with contests at Oregon, home against USC, at Arizona and then home against Oregon State. Good luck.
With injuries on the line and matching up against a program that has administered 40+ point beat-downs on them the past two seasons, the Huskies have their work cut out for them. I normally stay away from road favorites like this but Stanford will run all over Washington and having to play home games at the Seahawks field (but without replacement refs) will further dampen upset chances for the home team. Take the Cardinal and give the points.
So with Stanford probably holding serve tonight, the pressure will then move onto the other North contenders Oregon and Oregon State. The Ducks should be able to handle Washington State, which leaves the toughest match-up to the Beavers, who need to travel to Arizona. It is all about defense for Oregon State, who has overcome their usual slow season start to wrack up impressive wins against Wisconsin and UCLA. The Cats offer a completely different look, of course, but the question will be if the home team can shake off their Saturday night beating at the hands of Oregon. Soph QB Sean Mannion has been wonderfully efficient for Oregon State, completing 65% of his passes en route to a 141 QB rating and will have to continue to move the ball against a suspect Arizona stop unit. Arizona QB Matt Scott is the key to their spread offense and he will have to score points in the red zone this week--after failing to score last week despite six trips to the red zone. The Beavers do bring an experienced defensive secondary to Tucson, led by star CB Jordan Poyer. All-in-all I look for the Beavers to win for the sixth straight time at Arizona. Take those points.
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