Stanford Cardinal at Washington Huskies, Husky Stadium, Seattle, WA
Saturday, October 30, 2010, 7:00 pm Eastern, TV: Versus
Opening Line: Stanford -7
Current Line: Stanford -7
Opening Total: 63
Current Total: 63
Money Line: Stanford -300 / Washington +250
At the beginning of the season, people looked at this game as a potential battle between two of the nation’s top quarterbacks. Stanford’s Andrew Luck has lived up to his end of the hype and is a semifinalist for the Davey O’Brien award given to the nation’s top quarterback. Washington’s Jake Locker, however, has battled injury all season and hasn’t put up the numbers he is capable of doing. Stanford is 6-1 with their only loss coming at Oregon. If they run the table, they have a good shot of going to a BCS game. Washington is 3-4 and is trying to become bowl eligible. Washington has struggled against the spread in the last 3 years going 10-21 including 6-16 in conference games and 5-14 ATS after playing a conference game.
Stanford had a huge 31-7 lead going into the 4th quarter and took their foot off the gas. Washington St made it a 38-28 final. The Cardinal were playing without receiver Chris Owusu, who is questionable against Washington as well. The Cardinal put up 466 yards a game including 215 on the ground, led by Stepfan Taylor who has 624 yards on 126 carries and 5 touchdowns. Taylor also has 18 catches and a touchdown catch. Luck has thrown for 1,728 yards, 19 touchdowns, and 5 interceptions. he also is the team’s second leading rusher with 253 yards and two touchdown runs. Luck spreads the ball around as 7 players have at least 12 catches and a touchdown. The Cardinal have a turnover margin of plus 4 and have forced 17 sacks. The Cardinal are scoring 43 points a game and only giving up 24. They are giving up 362 yards a game, including 147 yards a game on the ground.
Quarterback Jake Locker is battling bruised ribs and a bruised thigh. The injuries are preventing Locker form being the dual threat quarterback that makes him so dangerous. He isn’t as mobile and has had to change his style. It showed in the Huskies 41-14 blowout loss at Arizona last week. He was sacked 4 times and was credited with -24 rushing yards. Locker rushed for 276 yards in the Huskies’ previous 6 games along with 3 rushing touchdowns. Locker has thrown for 1,614 yards, 14 touchdowns and 4 interceptions. Locker mainly throws it to receiver Jermaine Kearse who has 41 catches, 670 yards and 10 touchdowns. Chris Polk is the Huskies’ top rusher with 123 carries, 636 yards and 4 touchdowns. The problems for the Huskies are on defense where they give up more than 424 yards a game including 203 on the ground. They are giving up 33 points a game and only scoring 25 themselves. The Huskies have forced 15 sacks. The Huskies do struggle on 3 down conversions as they convert only 39% of them.
Stanford’s offensive line has played fantastically so far only allowing 3 sacks. Washington has not played well on the offensive line allowing Locker to get killed and it could be a problem against Stanford who averages almost 3 sacks a game. Washington struggles to score points sometimes and can’t afford to get too far behind the high-powered Cardinal offense. Locker is very talented but is banged up right now. Rain is likely, not really a surprise playing in Seattle, but since it is on artificial turf it shouldn’t be much of an issue besides the ball being slippery. Both of these conference rivals need a victory badly.
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