Who Wins Michigan State vs. Oregon? What About USC vs. Stanford? Here are our Vegas Pac 12 Predictions for Week 2.
Vegas Pac 12 Predictions
Game of the Week
No. 7 Michigan State at No. 3 Oregon
Line: Oregon by 11.5
In what is definitely the game of the week, two teams are meeting in a non-conference match-up with a potential college football playoff berth on the line, in September. Both are coming off easy wins against cupcakes as well. Michigan State will hopefully have junior quarterback Connor Cook fully healthy after an injury scare in the Spartans 45-7 win over the weekend. They will want to control the clock with him and a good running game to limit the amount of times Oregon tries to score. If this is going to happen, though, the MSU linebackers are going to have to come on. This is an inexperienced bunch that will have to grow up in a hurry as it gets set to take on one of the most advanced spread offenses in college football.
The Oregon Ducks, meanwhile, began Marcus Mariota’s Heisman-hopeful season with an easy win over South Dakota. Against Michigan State, they’ll be looking to do the exact opposite of the Spartans: score as many points as quickly as possible and force them to match you blow for blow. This is where Mariota’s Heisman campaign will really show its legitimacy. It is also where the Ducks defense will have to show if there are other teams in the Pac 12 outside of Stanford and UCLA that know how to stop people. The winner of this game will be determined by how often and quickly Oregon can score, because the longer it drags out, the more it works in Michigan State’s favor.
Prediction
In many ways, the Spartans match-up perfectly against Oregon, but this year, with inexperience at linebacker, the key position needed to stop a spread offense, it won’t matter. On the road, the Spartans defense will get torched very quickly and often by the Ducks. They’ll match it with very good, time consuming drives, keeping the game close, but Oregon won’t be able to be stopped. They’ll hold on in the fourth quarter.
Oregon: 35 Michigan State: 28