Washington vs. USC point spread: Picking Huskies vs. Trojans
Washington heads to LA for a massive Pac-12 battle this weekend between the reigning Heisman Trophy winner in USC‘s Caleb Williams, and the current favorite to win this year’s trophy in Michael Penix Jr.
The undefeated Huskies are 3.5-point betting favorites at home, and the two high-scoring offenses have set the over/under total at 75.5. On3’s Andy Staples called on the services of college football analyst Dan Rubenstein to help decide what he might bet on this Washington-USC game this weekend.
“Washington is a fascinating team. I think this might be kind of a semi-clash of overrated versus underrated,” Rubenstein told Staples. “I think Washington might be a little bit overrated and I think USC might be a little bit underrated. The very real questions and accusations and finger-pointing at the kind of jokey elements of USC is defense — very well founded. All true, all correct. They’re terrible against the run. They’re terrible at tackling, they’re terrible at filling lanes. They’re not built to build a wall and be stout up front.
“They’re they’re just not in a position to beat physical teams at all. Washington is not that [physical of a] team. Washington doesn’t go straight at you. Washington doesn’t have an offensive line that pushes teams around on the ground. This is kind of like a four-verts, Air-Raid offense that has beat up on some good teams and some not-so-good teams, and has completely no-shown against a team like [Arizona State].”
While USC has relied on the services of Caleb Williams — and rightfully so for his unrivaled abilities on the field — Rubenstein also believes the Trojans may benefit from a tighter focus on the run game.
“USC, interestingly enough, they can run the hell out of the ball. They probably don’t often enough — but Marshawn Lloyd is having an awesome year. He is excellent and the USC offensive line hasn’t always been good. He’s just been great. Caleb Williams has been great. … I like USC as a home dog.
“I don’t think you can sneak past teams three weeks in a row. And that to me is the issue — Washington again on the road — and Washington was never to go 12-0. They just have a tough November either way. I like USC here, but I think it’s going to be late. I think it’s going to come down to the end of the fourth quarter or something like that, but I like USC to win this game by a touchdown.”
Kickoff is scheduled for 7:30 p.m ET live on ABC.