Oregon St. (7-3, 6-1 Pac-10) at Arizona (6-4, 4-3)
The No. 21 Oregon State Beavers are two wins from their first Rose Bowl in more than four decades, but a very dangerous game awaits the Beavers on Saturday at Arizona, which is actually a 2.5-point favorite on WagerWeb.com.
The Wildcats have been great at home, only losing to USC. In fact, other than that Trojans game, UA has averaged more than 40 points in every home game. And the Cats have scored 104 points in their past two games, which were both on the road – yet they went 1-1.
Clearly the defense has been an issue, as Arizona allowed 45 points and 411 yards to Oregon in a loss last week. The biggest issue seems to be that UA is having trouble against the run. Not a good thing with Oregon State’s Jacquizz Rodgers coming to town with his 123 yards-per-game rushing average.
The 5-foot-6 Rodgers has rushed for at least 100 yards in seven of his last eight games. He leads the Pac-10 and ranks ninth in I-A with 1,233 rushing yards, also adding 11 rushing touchdowns. During their five-game winning streak, the Beavers have averaged 39.0 points and 211.4 rushing yards.
These two teams are quite similar statistically: Arizona and Oregon State each have 223 first downs this season. Arizona has rushed for 1,724 yards, Oregon State 1,720. Arizona has thrown 318 passes, Oregon State 322. The Wildcats have completed 201, the Beavers 202.
The Beavers have won eight of the last nine meetings with the Wildcats, including the past three meetings in Tucson by a combined score of 78-33. The Beavers are 20-4 in the months of October, November and December over the past three seasons, but they go against an Arizona team that has knocked off a ranked opponent in Tucson in each of the previous four seasons.
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