{"id":8440,"date":"2010-10-02T06:30:28","date_gmt":"2010-10-02T11:30:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/?p=8440"},"modified":"2010-10-02T03:10:12","modified_gmt":"2010-10-02T08:10:12","slug":"football-picks-usc-looking-for-revenge-against-washington","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/football-picks-usc-looking-for-revenge-against-washington-8440\/","title":{"rendered":"Football Picks: USC Looking for Revenge Against Washington"},"content":{"rendered":"

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We have 7 football picks today and USC -10 just missed the card but is still a solid wager in our book<\/figcaption><\/figure>The USC Trojans were one of the most disappointing teams early in the season. They didn\u2019t lose any games, but the way they won was uninspiring. They gave up 36 points to Hawaii, squeaked out a win against Virginia, and won an ugly game at Minnesota. The Trojans aren\u2019t the team they once were.<\/p>\n

But at the same time, Washington has been similarly disappointing. The Huskies came into the season as a potential dark horse in the Pac 10, but dropped a game to a rebuilding BYU team. They beat up on Syracuse, and then got stomped by the Huskers at home in a much anticipated game.<\/p>\n

The home Trojans opened as 10 point favorites and the college football line has held steady. All things considered, though, the Trojans feel like a strong play in this match-up. While playing against New Mexico has been profitable the past few weeks, the under-the-radar game of this week takes place in Pasadena. The Trojans should have little trouble disposing of an underperforming Husky team.<\/p>\n

One of Washington\u2019s biggest problems so far has been the play of Jake Locker. But Locker shouldn\u2019t be blamed for having a subpar season. He\u2019s been forced to adjust to Steve Sarkisian\u2019s preference for a pro-style offense. That will pay dividends for Locker when he starts playing on Sundays, but not in the college sphere. Locker has always been one of college football\u2019s most dangerous dual threat quarterbacks. But forcing him to sit in the pocket and not allowing him to pressure defenses with his feet has been one of Washington\u2019s primary failures. They rarely even role the pocket, which would allow Locker to attack a defense with his speed. He hasn\u2019t seemed comfortable as a pocket passer, and that was terribly evident in Washington\u2019s humbling loss to Nebraska. In that game, Locker was an awful 4-20 for 71 yards.<\/p>\n

Now Locker and company have to face a Monte Kiffin coached defense. Kiffin is known for designing schemes to frustrate quarterbacks and disrupt offensive rhythm. Considering the way Washington has struggled anyway, this could be a long day for Locker and the Washington offense.<\/p>\n

But Washington\u2019s problems have been on both sides of the ball. They\u2019re giving up 426 yards per game, and 214 yards on the ground at a 5.4 yards per carry average. If Nebraska\u2019s offense hung up 56 points in Husky Stadium, what can USC do to this team at home? This has the makings of a lopsided score.<\/p>\n

While Washington has been going in the wrong direction, USC has recently been going in the right direction. After giving up nearly 600 yards at Hawaii in week 1, they\u2019ve given up fewer than 350 yards to each of their previous 3 opponents. In their past 2 games combined, USC has given up 150 rushing yards on 63 attempts \u2013 about 2.5 yards per carry.<\/p>\n

Offensively, the Trojans are starting to find good rhythm and balance. Matt Barkley is a good quarterback, and in the past 2 games the ground game has racked up over 500 yards. Unfortunately, they\u2019ve turned the ball over a total of 6 times in those 2 games, but the defense has 6 takeaways to make that a wash. If the Trojans can limit their penalties and turnovers, they should roll over the Huskies in a big way.<\/p>\n

Don\u2019t forget \u2013 last year USC lost up at Washington, so they have the revenge factor working in their favor. And the Huskies simply aren\u2019t the team people expected them to be. They lost to an average BYU team and were blown out at home against Nebraska. USC is a top 15 team playing at home. A 10 point spread seems pretty good. Don\u2019t let this game fly under-the-radar. Back the Trojans and be glad you did.<\/p>\n

The professionals at Maddux Sports have been dominating the oddsmakers with their football picks. They\u2019re on a tremendous streak 72% heading into Saturday, and they\u2019ve isolated several easy plays for this Saturday. Don\u2019t miss out on another week of guaranteed winning plays.\u00a0 Get today’s college football sports picks and make today a profitable one.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The USC Trojans were one of the most disappointing teams early in the season. They didn\u2019t lose any games, but the way they won was uninspiring. They gave up 36 points to Hawaii, squeaked out a win against Virginia, and won an ugly game at Minnesota. The Trojans aren\u2019t the team they once were. But […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":203,"featured_media":6986,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[200,1444],"tags":[3129,2839,472,563],"class_list":["post-8440","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-college-football","category-headlines","tag-college-football-sports-picks","tag-football-picks","tag-usc-trojans","tag-washington-huskies"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8440","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/203"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8440"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8440\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8574,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8440\/revisions\/8574"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6986"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8440"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8440"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8440"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}