College Football Betting: UCLA Bruins at Washington State Cougars

By BetOnline September 17, 2019

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The UCLA Bruins are a total disaster. They’ve started the season 0-3 and are coming off a 48-14 drubbing at the hands of Oklahoma. With Pac-12 play starting, can UCLA – and their offense – get it together or are they facing an embarrassing 0-4 start?

UCLA BRUINS AT WASHINGTON STATE COUGARS
CFB ODDS: WASHINGTON STATE -17
CFB TOTAL: 58.5

WHY THE BRUINS WILL COVER THE SPREAD

The Bruins have not been terrible on defense this season. At this point, most people would say that UCLA’s defense has outperformed expectations so far this season. UCLA was not expected to limit Cincinnati to just 24 points in the season opener and San Diego State had hoped to score more than 23 points against the Bruins in Week 2. The Bruins should not have been disappointed with their defensive performance in either game. And in Week 3 against Oklahoma, they did take a whooping but it wasn’t as bad as some had thought. They didn’t put up an ungodly number of points like 63 or even 70 points. UCLA kept Oklahoma to 48, allowing just 14 points in the second half.

Now the challenge is to get the offense going, which is supposed to be Chip Kelly’s specialty. Figure out the offense and this team can turn things around. The challenge is that Kelly simply might not have the parts. His team has scored exactly 14 points in each of their first three games and that won’t be good enough this week.

WHY THE COUGARS WILL COVER THE SPREAD

They are miles better than UCLA and are playing at home. The Cougars just won at Houston, playing well on both sides of the ball and getting a composed, mature performance from new quarterback Anthony Gordon. Coach Mike Leach keeps developing quarterbacks at Washington State and Gordon is his latest gem. He makes side-arm throws and finds ways to get the ball in the right spot so that his receivers can catch the ball on the run against a defender who is out of position.

Gordon is helped in the backfield by running back Max Borghi, who is good between the tackles but can also catch passes in the flat as a versatile offensive weapon. Washington State is loaded with weapons, all while UCLA’s offense has been consistently bad.

How bad, do you ask? UCLA ranks 123rd in yards per game and 125th in terms of time of possession. They aren’t moving the ball at all and they’re producing a lot of three-and-outs. That’s a recipe for disaster not only this week but every week.

TAKING A LOOK AT THE TOTAL

The inability of UCLA to score more than 14 points per game means Washington State will have to score 45 or more to cover the number. With UCLA being 0-3 and having no fun at all, the Bruins might give up the ship in the third quarter, enabling Washington State to pile on the points and go over the total.