[Each week during the football season I will be breaking down the WSU Cougar’s weekend match up and then predicting the outcome; let’s see if I can get one right!]

So to recap the season - briefly - the Cougs went into Madison and lost to the #7 Badgers by 21 points (42-21), beat SDSU 45-17 in Seattle, and in their home opener, beat Idaho 45-28… in each case for the last two games, the Cougs were a gamblers best friend and outscored the spread in each.

So this week, the Cougars again will look to open up the passing game against the #1 USC Trojans. The Trojans on the other hand, want to open up as little as possible going into Pac-10 play; let’s fact it, the less you show your opponents the better. Then you have to factor into the equation that WSU’s former defensive coordinator has already taken his Idaho team down to Cali to play the Trojans and I’m sure he probably shared a nugget or two with WSU head coach Bill Doba. So for anyone looking for a complete blowout (like Scout.com’s predicted score of 52-17) I think that you have to trust the Cougs as the gambler’s best friend again this week.

Here’s how it should go down: USC will open it up and score on their first two drives, then shut it down and try to run, run, run. The Cougs will hang on and at halftime the score will be 13-10 USC. Late in the thrird quarter, just like last year, WSU goes up with a touchdown and USC finally decides to pass, pass, pass. The middle of the field will be wide open, and after two scoring drives, USC shuts it down again to win by a score of:

WSU 23
USC 30

I see no way that the Cougars fail to put up at least 20 points and I don’t see them losing by the margin set by Vegas (25). It should be a good game to watch and with the right breaks/ bounces WSU could make this game very interesting as they have the offense to put up big numbers.