Pac-12 Football 2017: 5 teams that will be on upset alert in Week 5
By Zach Bigalke
UCLA has had an up-and-down season to this point, yet they remain a touchdown favorite when they face defending Pac-12 champion Colorado during #Pac12AfterDark on Saturday night. The Bruins have relied heavily on Josh Rosen to generate offense, and that over-reliance on the quarterback proved costly in the past two losses.
Rosen threw no interceptions in UCLA’s first two games as they pulled off the comeback against Texas A&M and then followed up with a blowout of overmatched Hawaii. Over the past two weeks, though, Rosen’s luck has turned. He threw two interceptions in the loss at Memphis, then repeated that gift-giving last weekend to fall big at Stanford.
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Even though they fell hard to Washington in Week 4, Colorado is no slouch. Steven Montez has been playing solidly at quarterback as the new full-time starter. Phillip Lindsay has been consistently gaining yards on the ground. And the defense is one of the best in the nation at generating turnovers.
If the Bruins rely too heavily on Rosen once again, it will be to their own peril. The defense also needs to figure out a way to stop Lindsay from getting big yards running the ball, lest they take the upset on Saturday evening.