Weekend Picks: 10/11

Another Bye Week? Another chance for Cal fans to get away and enjoy things other than Cal football. I’ll use the weekend as an opportunity to partake in a friendly game of flag football with some friends. To avoid the chance of any paparazzi showing up, I can’t disclose the exact location of where I’ll be playing. But let’s just say I’ll be stiff-arming men, women, and yes…even midgets, come Saturday morning in the South Bay area.

(Patrick Chung'd)

If one doesn’t have immediate access to a flag football game, relax. Take it easy. There’s plenty of college football to follow up, specifically in the Pac-10. This gives me the rare occasion to share my picks with this week’s conference games. Since these are predictions for a Cal game, I’m allowed to a have bit more levity in making these picks. And they should be held as such.

USC vs. Arizona State (12:30)
As I mentioned earlier in the week, dark times lie ahead for Arizona State. They could be in the middle of a five to six game losing streak and will have to dig deep to be bowl eligible.

It’s certainly not a position ASU had expected to be in after having entered the season as the media favorite to seriously challenge the Trojans for the conference title.

USC is coming off a romp over Oregon, another Pac-10 “elite.” I predicted earlier in the fall that USC would suffer at least one loss in the Pac-10. It’s a bit of an annual ritual for the Trojans. They lose a conference game to an inferior team, get angry, and go on a Pac-9 dwarf bitch-smacking spree. Oregon was first, and Arizona State looks to follow.

And without Rudy Carpenter? That 3 TD spread just got even larger.

USC 49 ASU 13

Arizona vs. Stanford (2:00)
This is an important one for both teams. A win for either will go a long way in shoring up a bowl bid. The losing one could see a tricky road ahead for bowl eligibility.

Arizona is sporting its best opening record in years, and features the top scoring offense in the conference and is 2nd in scoring defense, and is among the top teams in the conference nearly every other statistical category offensively and defensively. The problem? They haven’t really played anybody with a pulse. So it’s hard to gauge where they’re at.

Stanford, on the other hand has seen its decent share of competition, and has understandably faltered. While they finally have a running game for the first time in years, their passing game has sputtered.

The Wildcats will contain the run enough to force bad decisions from Tavita Pritchard in a slug fest.

Oh and Bears fans will be tuned in to get a better sense of what Cal will be up against in the Wildcats for the following Saturday.

Arizona 35 Stanford 20


Washington State vs. Oregon State (3:30)
Poor, poor Wazzu. They just might be one of the worst BCS conference teams in the country. And that my friend, is no easy task. I’m not going to go into all the reasons why head coach Paul Wulff has a permanent IV of Pepto Bismol pumping into gut, but it’s a sad, sad situation.

Oregon State has this unusual habit of only beginning to show up for games beginning in October, and my guess that they’ll continue to pick up steam and finish their season strong, yet again. While their ulcer-inducing collapse to Utah last week still stings, a game against the Cougs is just what the doctor ordered to get them back into shape.

Sorry WSU, I guess you’ll have to wait your turn to clobber it out with the Huskies for 9th place in the conference.

OSU 31 Washington State 14

Oregon vs. UCLA (7:15)
Oregon has this amazing way of just laying on bad teams. And UCLA is kind of a bad team. They’re getting better on offense, and are still solid defensively, but still aren’t too much of a threat.

UCLA also has to travel for their first conference away game, and have to start at the always raucous Autzen Stadium. Not a good place to start for new QB Kevin Craft.

The biggest question is how the Ducks will respond after being spanked by USC. I think they’ll settle back into a groove just fine and proceed to run all over the Bruins. Over 200+ yards on the ground and another conference win for Oregon.

Oregon 38 UCLA 17