The Big Game: Week 10

Arizona State - at - Oregon

Arizona State

Rushing Offense: 173.0 (38th), Rushing Defense: 89.4 (9th)
Passing Offense: 255.0 (35th), Passing Defense: 221.8 (58th)
Total Offense: 428.0 (33rd), Total Defense: 311.1 (19th)
Scoring Offense: 36.9 (17th), Scoring Defense: 15.6 (7th)

Schedule (8-0): won vs. San Jose State (45-3), won vs. Colorado (33-14), won vs. San Diego State (34-13), won vs. Oregon State (44-32), won at Stanford (41-3), won at Washington State (23-20), won vs. Washington (44-20), won vs. California (31-20)

Last year, first year head coaches Chris Petersen (Boise State, 13-0, Fiesta Bowl Champions) and Bret Bielema (Wisconsin, 12-1, Capital One Bowl Champions) had a great deal of success in their debut campaigns. However, they inherited nine and ten win teams, respectively. This season, first year head coaches Jeff Jagodzinski at Boston College and Dennis Erickson at Arizona State have also been quite successful, as each is among the nation's five remaining unbeatens. Jagodzinksi inherited a 10-3 BC program coming off a bowl win. Erickson, however, has done an amazing job as the Sun Devils were a mere 7-6 last year, including a Hawaii Bowl loss. Unlike the others though, Erickson has been a head coach at the FBS level before. This is his sixth program after logging time at Idaho (5 years, 36-23), Wyoming (1 year, 6-6), Washington State (2 years, 12-10-1), Miami (6 years, 63-9), and Oregon State (4 years, 31-17). Heading into this weekend's contest, his career record is 156-65-1, and he is in search of his second undefeated season after going 12-0 at Miami in 1991. Though the Sun Devils have posted impressive wins over Colorado, Oregon State, and California thus far in the season, they are yet to play a team of Oregon's caliber. To further complicate things, this will be the Devils first road trip of the year against a team with a winning record and the first game away from Sun Devil Stadium in almost a month. The fact that the game is at Autzen Stadium, one of the nation's toughest places to play, doesn't bode well for the boys from Tempe. Fortunately for Arizona State, their offense should be able to put up a lot of passing yards and points on the Ducks defense. However, their top-tier defense will certainly be tested by Oregon's potent offense. This game could easily turn into a shootout.

Oregon

Rushing Offense: 280.4 (4th), Rushing Defense: 137.8 (48th)
Passing Offense: 244.0 (45th), Passing Defense: 256.3 (91st)
Total Offense: 524.4 (4th), Total Defense: 394.0 (68th)
Scoring Offense: 43.8 (3rd), Scoring Defense: 21.9 (39th)

Schedule (7-1): won vs. Houston (48-27), won at Michigan (39-7), won vs. Fresno State (52-21), won at Stanford (55-31), lost vs. California (24-31), won vs. Washington State (53-7), won at Washington (55-34), won vs. USC (24-17)

The Ducks have looked amazing this year. They opened by trouncing the defending Conference USA Champions, Houston, on the field while their mascot was busy trouncing the Cougar mascot on the sidelines. After that, they went into the Big House and destroyed Michigan. Since that time, they have hung 50+ points on four of their victims (Fresno State, Stanford, Washington State, and Washington). They added a signature win to their resume this past weekend as they edged USC. The only thing holding the Ducks back from controlling the top of the polls was their week five slip-up, as they came up a touchdown shy of California at home. Since that game, Cal has dropped three straight games, but Oregon has continued to roll. Despite their loss, they have a chance to make an argument for themselves in the national title picture if they can knock the visiting Sun Devils of Arizona State from the ranks of the unbeaten this weekend. With one of the top five offenses in the entire country, led by an amazing ground attack feautring Jonathan Stewart (already over 1,000 yards on the year), the Ducks will look to give Arizona State's highly touted defense their biggest test to date. Unfortunately for Oregon, their pedestrian defense does not match up well with the Sun Devil offense. The defense is sure to give up plenty of scores while the offense is sure to generate them. This game is virtually guaranteed to have its share of fireworks. Rest assured, Mike Bellotti will have his team focused and ready to win this game. Though the Ducks are still very much in the national title hunt, they are surely concentrating on the Pac-10 title and the associated Rose Bowl berth. With one loss already in conference, they can not afford a second if they want to play in either Pasadena or New Orleans in the new year.

The Pick

Vegas: Oregon favored by 7.0
Schedule Performance Prediction: Oregon favored by 3.0
NpOl (8-1) / OpOl (7-2): Arizona State favored by 1.0
NpNl (9-0): Oregon favored by 3.0
Guru Pick (6-3): This game will be back and forth all night long. Expect each team to play their best game of the year as Arizona State tries to remain unbeaten and Oregon tries to remain in the Pac-10 and national title races. In the end, playing in front of a sold out crowd at Autzen Stadium, Ducks QB Dennis Dixon will be the hero of this game as he takes advantage of the suspect Sun Devil pass defense. Expect another undefeated team to fall as Oregon leaves the field victorious, 30-29.

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Games To Watch

Though the following games were not chosen as the week's Big Game, they are intriguing match-ups that may lead to upsets. Make sure to keep your eye on ...

LSU at Alabama
Troy at Georgia
Purdue at Penn State
Wisconsin at Ohio State
Virginia Tech at Georgia Tech
Florida State at Boston College
Cincinnati at South Florida

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Past Big Games

Week 1: Tennessee (31) at California (45)
picked correctly by all 3 models and guru

Week 2: Virginia Tech (7) at LSU (48)
picked correctly by all 3 models and guru

Week 3: USC (49) at Nebraska (31)
picked correctly by all 3 models and guru

Week 4: South Carolina (16) at LSU (28)
picked correctly by all 3 models and guru

Week 5: West Virginia (13) at South Florida (21)
picked correctly by 2 models

Week 6: Kentucky (23) at South Carolina (38)
picked correctly by NpNl model

Week 7: Missouri (31) at Oklahoma (41)
picked correctly by all 3 models and guru

Week 8: Auburn (24) at LSU (30)
picked correctly by all 3 models and guru

Week 9: Boston College (14) at Virginia Tech (10)
picked correctly by all 3 models