Game Preview: Washington @ Oregon State

The Huskies head down to Corvallis this weekend to take on the Beavers. OSU (and, for the record I'm not going to get into the ridiculous thing about how the program tried to call themselves OS) has a record of 5-4 on the season. Overall, they are just kind of lackluster to me. Sure, have a solid running back in Yvenson Bernard, but he has been hampered by injury this past week. He does claim he'll be playing tomorrow though. OSU will also be without their starting QB Sean Canfield, who will be replaced by Lyle Moevao. Both of these injuries ought to strengthen UW's chances tomorrow.

Building the Dam, Oregon State's SB Nation blog, has a look at the statistical breakdown of tomorrow's game. As I've said in previous game previews, cumulative stats at the college level are not always a good indicator for match ups. There is always the small sample size problem and the historical track record isn't there since most of these players only start a couple seasons in college. But enough of that and just to summarize the statistical match up, I'd say it is fairly even.

In my mind, the game rests on two points. First, Locker has to continue to show growth and play mistake free football. If he does that, then we've got a shot at getting some offensive production again and winning on the road. Forget Louis Rankin's standout performance last week; you won't see that from him again and Stanford is the worst defense that we'll face. Second, although OSU will be without their starting QB, how we defend the pass is going to determine if we can keep this a low scoring affair on the road. Usually, you don't go into to someone else's home field and win in a shootout (unless you Tuitama in Seattle, and I will never ever mention that again). So, the secondary needs to hold up and put the pressure on a Yvenson Bernard that is not completely healthy.

Prediction
Washington 28, Oregon State 17

Originally, my thought was that this game would be tough to pull out a win. But losing Canfield (not that he was a superstar to begin with) makes an average offense out of sync. I don't see them getting it together tomorrow despite how awful our defense has been this year (with the exception of last week). I think we pull a win out tomorrow and maybe, just maybe, things start looking a little brighter on Montlake.

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