Oregon State Beavers at No. 8 Wisconsin Badgers (-22), Total 57 |
Oregon State will need to regroup this week in order to survive not getting absolutely blown out in Madison, as the team suffered a 29-28 loss in overtime at home to Sacramento State. It’s a loss that should never happen for a Pac-12 Conference school.
“It definitely stinks, it hurts right now, but we’re going to have to rebound and get over it pretty quick,” stated senior linebacker Cameron Collins. It was the first-such loss against a lower division school since 1996.
The Beavers were going so bad offensively that starter Ryan Katz was yanked after completing 11-of-22 passes for only 87 yards and an interception.
Katz was replaced by Sean Mannion, who finished 8-of-12 for 143 yards under center and has created a bit of a quarterback controversy.
Bettors still may ignore the season opener due to Oregon State’s 10-3 ATS mark as an underdog.
Wisconsin has won 29-straight regular-season non-conference games and added to that total with an impressive 51-17 win over the UNLV Rebels as 34-point home favorites.
It wasn’t all good for the Badgers, as the defense allowed too many yards in the opener and will face a Beavers’ offense that ran for 266 yards and threw for 230 more.
“We have got to get a lot better on tackling, make sure we have all of our assignments, run support and all of those things,” commented Badgers head coach Bret Bielema. “I think we have a real good week of work ahead.”
Offensively, the team was absolutely dominating in the opener, gaining 499 yards of total offense on just 53 plays. The Badgers have won 10-straight games at Camp Randall Stadium, only the fourth double-digit home winning streak in school history.
Playing the Badgers in the first half may be the play, as they’ve scored at least 37 points in the first 30 minutes in each of their last three home games. In its last six home games, Wisconsin has scored 346 combined points.
NC State transfer Russell Wilson was better than the Badgers’ faithful could ever hope for, hitting on 10 of 13 passes for 255 yards and two touchdowns.
Wisconsin is 7-6 ATS when playing against teams from the Pac-12 Conference.
Bettors will likely back the Beavers due to their 13-3 ATS mark as road underdogs, while the Badgers are 2-6 ATS in September.
