College Football Betting: UCLA Bruins at Arizona Wildcats

By BetOnline September 24, 2019

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Have the UCLA Bruins finally put it together? After looking dead in the water in the first three weeks, they came back from a 32-point deficit on the road to beat the Washington State Cougars last Saturday. Can they put together consecutive victories and build momentum in the Pac-12 South Division?

UCLA BRUINS AT ARIZONA WILDCATS
CFB ODDS: ARIZONA -7
CFB TOTAL: 71.5

WHY THE BRUINS WILL COVER THE SPREAD

The UCLA Bruins now have an offense. It didn’t seem that the Bruins had much of anything before but they finally showed what they are capable of in their win against Washington State. UCLA scored exactly 14 points in each of its first three games and couldn’t develop any kind of consistency. They were never effective at any point in a game.

For UCLA to break out of its funk with a 67-point explosion against Washington State, scoring not only in bunches, but under scoreboard pressure in the fourth quarter, is a huge lift for the offense. UCLA can now realistically believe that it is capable of playing at a high level, that it can win Pac-12 games, and that it can legitimately challenge for the division championship. Keep in mind that UCLA’s first three losses were all in non-conference games. UCLA is 1-0 in the Pac-12, so the possibility of winning a Pac-12 division title will fuel the Bruins in their efforts. Maybe they’ve finally woken up.

WHY THE WILDCATS WILL COVER THE SPREAD

The Wildcats played very physical defense in a recent win over Texas Tech and that’s a big step for this team. Arizona should be able to put the clamps on UCLA’s offense, which certainly did well in Week 4 against Washington State, but has not yet proved that it can be successful on a weekly basis. It’s perfectly fine to be skeptical of the Bruins as they were terrible before Week 4.

The other thing to point out is that UCLA’s comeback from a 49-17 deficit against Washington State was based on Washington State fumbling the ball several times in a short span of time. UCLA needed lots of big defensive plays – and opponents’ mistakes – to make that comeback.

As long as Arizona doesn’t cough up a lot of turnovers, it can play this game the way it wants to and not allow UCLA’s offense to get into a rhythm.

The other point which has to be mentioned here: UCLA did allow 63 points to Washington State and nine touchdown passes to WSU quarterback Anthony Gordon. Arizona could merely score 40 points and be in great position to win.

TAKING A LOOK AT THE TOTAL

The Wildcats, with quarterback Khalil Tate, have a dynamic playmaker who should be able to light up UCLA’s defense. Keep in mind that UCLA’s defense was not very good last week. If Arizona performs to its potential, it should score a very large number.

As for UCLA’s offense, they will probably be better than it was in the first three weeks of the season, but not nearly as productive as last week. Even so, this Wildcats defense gave up 41 points to Northern Arizona and 45 to Hawaii. The Bruins should move the ball and do enough to push this game over.