Sometimes it’s better to be lucky than good and while it’s probably a little bit of both, the USC Trojans been incredibly fortunate to skate through its first two games with a 2-0 record. Viewers will have to stay up late on Saturday night to check out the fourth quarter heroics on Saturday when they head on the road for the Utah Utes.
No. 20 USC is unbeaten but trailed in the final two minutes during wins over Arizona State and Arizona the last two weeks. Through two games, the Trojans aren’t excelling in too many areas, though they rank 33rd in the country with 6.1 yards per play on offense. On the other side, USC allows 5.9 yards per play, 82nd in college football. Despite starting 2-0 on the season, USC is 0-2 against the spread.
Utah is the final college football team that is expected to see the field in the fall of 2020. The Utes had their first two games canceled against Arizona and UCLA. Unfortunately Utah has just four games on its regular season schedule, and this will be the biggest. Utah had a fantastic season for its program’s standards in 2019 but lost a ton of talent especially at the skill positions, so this is going to very much be a new look Utes in 2020 now that we will finally see them in action.
USC won the last matchup in this series with a 30-23 home win in 2019.
Game Time/TV Channel/Streaming
You can watch USC vs. Utah on Saturday, Nov. 21 at 8:00 p.m. ET on ESPN, or you can stream it via the ESPN app with a cable or streaming service login.
Point Spread, Totals, Odds, Trends
Point spread: USC (-3) vs. Utah
Point Total: 57.5
Money line: USC (-143) vs. Utah (+118)
- USC is 6-3 straight up against in the last nine meetings against Utah but just 2-4 in its last six against the Utes.
- USC is 1-3 against the spread in its last four games coming in as a double-digit favorite.
- Utah is 8-2 straight up and against the spread in its last 10 games.
Betting splits
USC: (60% of handle, 62% percent of bets)
Utah: (40% of handle, 38% percent of bets)
The Best Bet
There are two ways to look at USC’s season so far. The first option is to say the Trojans are lucky to be 2-0, and this team isn’t that good. The other way to look at it is USC won its first two games despite not even playing its best. I might be the last one on the sinking ship, but I’m still a believe in USC. This is still a talented roster with a good quarterback going up against an inexperienced group that hasn’t seen the field in 2020.
Pick: USC -3
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