The California Golden Bears will compete against the Washington Huskies. See our college football odds series for our prediction and pick for Washington, California.
When playing at home in Seattle, the Washington Huskies are a fantastic squad this season. Washington is 5-0 and has won each of those games by a score of at least 39. When playing in Husky Stadium, quarterback Michael Penix has had the appearance of a Heisman Trophy contender. Washington dominated Michigan State, Stanford, and Arizona, scoring 49 points against the Wildcats.
However, Washington appears to be a bad squad when travelling. The Huskies have a poor road record of 0–2. They lost those two games on the road by allowing 40 points or more. It wasn’t a terrible offence. In both of those away contests, UW scored over 30 points, but the defence is a porous sieve. The secondary for the Huskies is quite inexperienced and incredibly weak against downfield passes. A few weeks ago, Washington’s defence was so awful that it allowed 45 points to Arizona State, who was forced to use backup quarterback Trenton Bourguet because Emory Jones had suffered a concussion. The fact that a backup quarterback burned Washington was a low point. The following week, Arizona scored 39 more points against the Huskies. It’s difficult to call that an improvement, but at least Arizona State was outscored by six points.
Of course, Washington now has to play another road game, which is the problem. Berkeley is not particularly daunting on the road, but the fact that Berkeley is not Seattle could make the game more harder for Washington than many might initially assume.
The team from California is not exceptionally strong. Additionally, the Golden Bears just suffered an embarrassing overtime loss to Colorado. This was Colorado’s first victory of the year. Cal may be more dangerous and motivated this week as a result of the defeat, but let’s face it: A team of any calibre should never lose to Colorado. When Cal took Notre Dame to the final play in South Bend, a game that was usually close, and then scored 49 against Arizona at home, much like Washington did, Cal appeared to be a halfway respectable club. It’s difficult to see how Cal lost the plot versus Colorado as a team because the squad appears to have regressed. Coach Justin Wilcox, who formerly served as a coach on the staff of Washington, has a lot to learn.
Here are the College Football odds between Washington and California, courtesy of FanDuel.
College Football Odds: Washington-California Odds
Huskies of Washington: -7.5 (-106)
Golden Bears of California: +7.5 (-114)
Over: 54.5 (-110) (-110)
Under: 54.5 (-110)
Why Washington Could Cover the Spread
The Cal team that the Huskies are up against struggled to move the ball well and score many points against Colorado. If an offence has restrictions of that nature, that is the team that gives Washington a strong matchup. Every opponent the Huskies have faced has been defeated by a flurry of their own goals (with the partial exception of UCLA, which limited UW to 16 points in the first three quarters on Sept. 30). Washington will comfortably cover the spread if Cal is unable to score.
Why California Could Cover the Spread
Washington is a bad squad when they are away from Seattle. Washington must demonstrate its ability to compete in a Pac-12 away game. Additionally, Cal will be extremely motivated following its humiliating loss to Colorado. Remember that a few weeks ago, Cal did score 49 points against Arizona at home. Although this offence isn’t reliable, it has demonstrated that it is capable of excellent performance when everything is running smoothly.
Final Washington-California Prediction & Pick
As a travelling team, Washington has not merited the benefit of the doubt. Cal ought should be able to cover and maintain a close game.
California-Washington final Pick and Prediction: California +7.5
The first version of this article published on ClutchPoints: College Football Odds: Washington at California forecast, odds, and pick – 10/22/2022.
