The USC Trojans were underdogs heading into last week\u2019s\u00a0 matchup with the Oregon State Beavers, but they came away victorious\u00a0 31-14 on the road during a Friday night ESPN showing. This week, they\u2019ll\u00a0 head back down to their native California, as they prepare to take on\u00a0 the struggling California Golden Bears. <\/p>\n
USC (6-3, 3-2 Pac-12) @ California (1-8, 0-6 Pac 12) <\/strong> ATS Matchup Stats<\/a> | Betting Insight!<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n Check out our in-house Handicapper!!! Buy Razor Ray’s COLLEGE FOOTBALL Picks!<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n The Trojans haven\u2019t been what we expected them to\u00a0 be this season, but it\u2019s safe to say that they\u2019re one giant leap\u00a0 ahead of where the Golden Bears are at this point in the process.<\/p>\n Through 10 weeks, the Trojans have compiled a 6-3\u00a0 record, and they\u2019re coming off of two straight victories over the\u00a0 Oregon State Beavers and Utah Utes.<\/p>\n Their Pac-12 record of 3-2 is underwhelming\u00a0 at best, but all three of those victories have come in sequence since\u00a0 their first two losses to Washington State and Arizona State. Entering the contest with Cal, USC is winning games\u00a0 with its defense.<\/p>\n The offense is still struggling to find its stride\u00a0 without Matt Barkley in the backfield, but the defense is giving up\u00a0 just 18.7 points per game to its opponents\u2014the 13th-best mark in the\u00a0 nation. Against the Golden Bears, priority No. 1 has to be\u00a0 locking down Chris Harper.<\/p>\n [soliloquy id=”82219″]<\/p>\n The sophomore wide out has the most yards\u00a0 by a long shot in the receiving game, and his five touchdowns through\u00a0 the air is also a team-leading number.<\/p>\n The Trojans must put pressure\u00a0 on Jared Goff, but if you take Harper out of the equation early, you\u00a0 take away the team\u2019s No. 1 option.<\/p>\n Don\u2019t expect anything tricky from the Golden Bears.<\/p>\n They\u2019re going to throw the football, and they\u2019re going to do it\u00a0 the entire game whether it works or not.<\/p>\n At this point in the year, California is 110th in\u00a0 yards per game on the ground. Compare that to being eighth in the country\u00a0 in passing, and it\u2019s easy to see why there won\u2019t be much deviation\u00a0 from the season-long game plan.<\/p>\n Unfortunately for Cal, those passing yards are not\u00a0 turning into nearly as many points as they hoped for.<\/p>\n The team is 95th\u00a0 in the country in scoring, as it is scoring just 23.4 points per outing. To make matters worse, the defense has been, well,\u00a0 worse.<\/p>\n The team is allowing its opponents to score a ridiculous 42.8\u00a0 points per game, which puts it at 122nd in the FBS. Historically, USC has won the last five outings in\u00a0 this matchup straight up. The Trojans may be 1-10 ATS in their last\u00a0 11 road games, but the less-talented Golden Bears are 1-8 ATS in their\u00a0 last nine home games.<\/p>\n The only way Cal stands a chance is if the Trojans\u00a0 shoot themselves in the foot\u2014something they\u2019ve been known to do\u00a0 as of late. The Golden Bears need USC to make mental mistakes that result\u00a0 in turnovers, otherwise, this one will go pretty much as expected.<\/p>\n The road team is 12-5 ATS in the last\u00a0 17 meetings between these two teams, and it would be surprising to see\u00a0 a different outcome in 2013.<\/p>\n Prediction: USC 37 \u2013\u00a0California 20<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" USC vs California NCAA Football Odds The USC Trojans were underdogs heading into last week\u2019s\u00a0 matchup with the Oregon State Beavers, but they came away victorious\u00a0 31-14 on the road during a Friday night ESPN showing. This week, they\u2019ll\u00a0 head back down to their native California, as they prepare to take on\u00a0 the struggling California […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":68,"featured_media":29599,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[1691,14718,3648,1261,17814,1282,1851,60341,52623,44947],"class_list":["post-68505","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-ncaa-football","tag-cal","tag-cal-golden-bears","tag-golden-bears","tag-trojans","tag-trojans-vs-golden-bears","tag-usc","tag-usc-trojans","tag-usc-trojans-vs-cal-golden-bears","tag-usc-vs-cal","tag-usc-vs-california"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/68505","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/68"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=68505"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/68505\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":68516,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/68505\/revisions\/68516"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/29599"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=68505"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=68505"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=68505"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nSaturday, Nov. 9 3:00 PM ET @ Memorial Stadium<\/strong>
\n Spread: USC -17 <\/strong>
\nO\/U: OFF<\/strong>
\n [dfads params=’groups=63740&limit=1&return_javascript=0′]<\/strong><\/p>\nUSC<\/h3>\n
*CLICK HERE* GRAB OUR BEST Expert College FOOTBALL Picks for 2013 GAMBLING season!<\/strong><\/a><\/h3>\n
California<\/h3>\n