Oh… the burning! Man, our secondary has more holes than OJ’s murder defense. But if there was hope for OJ, there must be hope for the Cougs… we just need to find our “bloody glove”.

Still looking for our first Pac-10 win, the Cougs play host to 18th ranked Arizona State who, if I know my Dennis Erickson history correctly, probably know how to make prison shanks out of all sorts of household materials by now. The Sun Devils’ most impressive win thus far is probably their week two win over Colorado, who beat Oklahoma. I don’t think Colorado is really as good as that win might suggest… and I don’t think ASU stays in the top 25 all year long. They have played their only conference games against Oregon State and Stanford while WSU’s schedule has been against much more respectable teams. ASU is a balloon ready to be burst… but who will do it?

Right now it all comes down to defense: the Cougs have the Pac-10’s worst passing defense and 9th rated rushing defense - not great. Especially when you consider the fact that ASU has a passing attack in the top third of the conference and second-best passing defense. Again, a creampuff schedule to start off certainly helps things when you want to look at pure numbers because I think WSU’s top three opponents to date (Wisconsin, USC, and Arizona) trump ASU’s top three (Colorado, Oregon State, Stanford). So there’s my feelings on this one in a nutshell: the numbers speak to a ASU thrashing of WSU this weekend but when you look at who those numbers have been accumulated against the Cougs look like a possible upset with the advantage of the fact that this game will be only their second home game in Pullman this year.

The line currently sits at about 9 in favor of ASU with the over/under at 63. I also saw the forecast of the game by a Rivals.com writer: 42-21 ASU. Right now I’m 3-2 against the spread with the Cougs so I need to be careful… and this game is terribly difficult to predict because of the fact that ASU has hardly been challenged this year.

First off, with the line at 9 and the Cougs at home I am definitely taking WSU with the spread. Also, I don’t think that ASU scores in the 40’s. but I’m still taking the over. As for the game score? I’m trying to be both optimistic as a WSU student-fan and objective as a blogger. It’s a bit tough here… and I really think that there is about a 50/50 chance ASU loses this weekend:

ASU 32
WSU 34