OK, continuing on my quest to prove I’m very good at predicting winners in the Pac-10, here are my picks for this upcoming weekend:

USC 49, UA 17: I can’t see Arizona getting blanked two weeks in a row. I bet they’re able to put up some points but will be completely overwhelmed by USC in the end.

Stanford 24, WaZoo 38: OK, if this game were at Stanford, I might be tempted to think that Stanford would start to get it’s act in gear against a very suspect WaZoo team. Alas, that won’t happen this week up in the frigid Washington plains. I think the Stanford offense will finally make some progress against a weak defense, but will be unable to slow WaZoo down enough to win this one.

Oregon 24, ASU 42: One of the bigger weaknesses of Oregon is their inability to slow passing games down. Everyone thinks they’re suspect against the run but that’s just because they got schooled by USC in the ground game. ASU will walk away with this one because of their potent passing offense easier than they should because these teams are more evenly matched than the final score will indicate.

Cal 35, UCLA 13: Everyone I’ve talked to who wears Blue and Gold on Saturdays is worried about this game. Let me let you in on a little secret: they’re fools. There are three reasons. 1. We have a direct comparison point for these two teams in that they’ve both played UW. Cal absolutely demolished UW (56-17) on the road. UCLA had to pull out all the stops to just barely sneak away with a come from behind win (21-17), and this is the important part, at home. OK, but what about Oklahoma? you ask. That brings me to point #2. Oklahoma S… U… C… K… S… with a double capital S. This is a team that lost to TCU, barely got their act together against Tulsa and then loses to UCLA. Is there something I’m missing here? Why is this the big win that everyone is pointing to for UCLA? This is a case of an over-rated team on the way down still getting credit for their overly high rating. UCLA didn’t prove anything by beating them. Which brings me to point #3, strength of schedule. Everyone loves to pick on the Bears weak schedule. OK, I’ll admit it’s been weak to date. But what everyone overlooks is how weak UCLA’s schedule has been, highlighted by an over-rated Oklahoma. Let’s compare schedules shall we? The bear beat New Mexico St. Would you say that they’re about as good as San Diego St.? I’d say so. The Bears beat Illinois? Would you say they’re as good as Rice? I’d say better. The bears beat Arizona. Would you say they’re as good as Oklahoma? Maybe not, but they’re at least in the same ballpark being in the lower half of their comparable conferences. Seeing as how San Diego St., Rice and Oklahoma are the opponents that UCLA has faced (outside of UW which we’ve both faced) I can’t say that UCLA has had a tougher schedule. All in all, the Bears defense will show what kind of hack offense UCLA really has and the Bears passing game will continue to improve to compliment it’s incredible running game.

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