The No. 2 USC Trojans will be on the road today, taking on the Syracuse Orange. The game is scheduled for a 3:30 pm EST start time and it will be televised live on ABC. The odds for the game have the Trojans favored by almost four touchdowns at 26 points.
This game is being played at MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, New Jersey. USC is led by Matt Barkley and his high powered offense that is expected to be a national championship contender this season. USC has won all three matchups in this series with Syracuse. The Orange haven't played well against ranked opponents in the past few years, going just 4-17 overall. However, they have won their last three games against Top 25 teams. I don't think that will happen in this game here today.
Last year USC was a two-touchdown favorite and they pounded Syracuse, 38-17. Barkley had an amazing game, completing 26 of 39 passes for 324 yards and five touchdowns. Not bad. The Trojans couldn't play in a bowl game last year because of sanctions but this year they are clear to win as many games and play in whatever bowl they want. In last year's game they rolled up over 500 yards of total offense. Last week, they scored on their first offensive play of the season, which was a 75-yard TD strike.
Syracuse dropped their first game of the season to Northwestern. They trailed 35-13 in the third quarter in that one but eventually took the lead 41-35. However, they wouldn't be able to hang on and lost by just a single point. Syracuse is a high-powered offense, even though they might struggle. They ran off 95 plays a week ago and rolled up almost 600 yards of total offense. QB Ryan Nassib tossed for 470 yards and completing 44 passes — 15 more than the previous school record.
An interesting angle in this game is that USC travels to Stanford next week — could there possibly be a little bit of a look ahead here? USC is a 26-point favorite in this one and they're going from one coast to the next coast in a span of a few days for this game, so there is probably going to be a backdoor opportunity late in this game.
Free Pick: Hmm. One would think that USC will travel east and hammer Syracuse in this game, but the Orange did prove last week that they are going to be able to score points this season. The question we need to figure out is whether or not USC is going to be completely set on this one. They have Stanford next week and there is the potential the Trojans just want to take care of business and the four TD spread is too much. We'll take the OVER in this one.
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