Jonathan Smith was asked after last Friday’s Civil War who might have the edge in this week’s Pac-12 Championship.

Oregon State faced Washington at home on Nov. 18. A week later, the Beavers faced Oregon at Autzen Stadium. This upcoming Friday, the Ducks and Huskies will meet in Las Vegas for the Pac-12 championship. Smith didn’t explicitly make a pick for the game, but he did hint at who he believes is the favorite.

“That’ll be interesting. We’ve played both those teams. The quarterback play… The elements were a little bit different last week, but I’ll tell you, the way the Ducks played right now, they are going to be tough to beat,” Smith told reporters.

Oregon enters the game as an eight-point favorite over the unbeaten Huskies. UW is the higher-ranked team and it has a head-to-head win over Oregon. But since that Oct. 14 result at Husky Stadium, the Ducks have been rolling while Washington has been narrowly avoiding defeat.

USC is the only team to come within 14 points of the Ducks since the Washington defeat — and the Trojans lost their battle by nine points in a game that wasn’t quite as close as the final score indicated.

Washington beat Washington State for the Apple Cup last Saturday, 24-21, on a walk-off field goal. The week prior, it beat the Beavers by two points in a game that saw the Huskies blanked in the second half. In the fourth quarter over the last three weeks (all single-score games), Washington has scored a total of three points.

Friday’s Pac-12 title game kicks off at 5 p.m. PT on ABC.