No. 4 Penn State is the clear favorite going into Saturday’s matchup at USC.
Penn State is undefeated while USC is twice beaten through five games.
But ESPN’s matchup predictor still gives USC a slight edge.
USC’s win probability is 51.9, so this is about as close to 50-50 as one could get. In Vegas, Penn State’s favorite by anywhere from 3 to 4.5 points. This past weekend, USC fell victim to a wild Saturday of upsets, losing 27-24 at Minnesota.
In total, five of America’s top 11 teams fell, four of which to un-ranked opponents.
Penn State wasn’t one of them.
Add Nittany Sports Now as a preferred source in Google! Click here to add us.Instead, PSU beat UCLA, 27-11, and as a result, moved up three spots in the AP Poll.
USC’s previous loss was at Michigan 27-24.
A big question surrounding USC coming into the season was how it would adjust to “Big Ten physicality.” Based on its two losses, not well. This past Saturday night, Minnesota’s Darius Taylor— who picked up a combined 70 yards on 23 carries in the previous two games— went crazy, going for 144 yards on 25 carries. In USC’s other loss, which took place at Michigan, the Wolverines scored 27 points despite throwing for 32 yards. What does that tell you? USC has struggled stopping the run, and Penn State has two of the best running backs in the country in Nick Singleton (408 yards, three TD, 7.7 YPC) and Kaytron Allen (367 yards, two TD, 5 YPC), so if both are there, USC will be in trouble. Singleton didn’t play against UCLA this past Saturday, so Penn State needs to get him back ASAP.
With or without Singleton, Penn State will play USC at 3:30 on CBS Saturday afternoon.
