Oregon opens as significant favorites over USC
The Oregon Ducks aren’t in first place in the Pac-12, but it’s an easy argument that they are playing the best football in the conference right now. The USC Trojans still have a chance to play themselves into the Pac-12 Championship Game, but it will take a big upset against those Ducks, who were installed as a 14.5-point favorite by betonline.ag to open the week.
It’s the second week in a row USC opened as underdogs. Washington was favored by three points in the initial line, which quickly moved to the Huskies favored by four. This line also moved quickly away from USC, as Oregon grew to a 15.5-point favorite by Sunday night.
A loss to the Ducks would give the Trojans their fourth loss in the past five games and would give head coach Lincoln Riley his sixth loss in less than two seasons at USC. Riley lost just 10 games in five years at Oklahoma.
Some of the analytics are slightly more favorable toward USC, but they still predict a fairly large Oregon victory. ESPN’s SP+, created by Bill Connelly, gives Oregon a 77% chance to win the game and predicts a final score of 41-28.
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Oregon has scored at least 33 points in every game this season. USC has allowed at least 34 points in six straight games.
This will be USC’s first game without defensive coordinator Alex Grinch, who was relieved of his duties on Sunday. That side of the ball will be led by defensive line coach Shaun Nua and inside linebackers coach Brian Odom for the rest of the 2023 season. It will be interesting to see if there are any changes, either sweeping or incremental, that either co-coordinator looks to implement for this game and moving forward.
Oregon is led by quarterback and Heisman Trophy candidate Bo Nix, along with running back Bucky Irving, wide receiver Troy Franklin and a standout offensive line. Defensively, the Ducks are led up front by Brandon Dorlus and Jordan Burch, and in the secondary by safety Evan Williams and cornerback Khyree Jackson.
