Oregon vs. BYU: TV info, betting odds, and expert predictions
Both Oregon and BYU are good teams still working to play up to their potential. The 12th-ranked Cougars have a top-25 win and confidence. The 25th-ranked Ducks have an itch to prove their Week 1 performance against the Georgia Bulldogs said more about the defending champs than it did them.
Oregon got its offense rolling in Week 2 against Eastern Washington. The Ducks scored 70 points and put up over 600 yards of offense. Quarterback Bo Nix got into a rhythm, flipping the ball out to his playmakers in space and letting them churn for yardage after the catch.
Nix finished with 277 yards and a career-high five touchdowns as the Ducks set a record for first downs in a game, just methodically working their way up and down the football field.
Now come the Cougars, who just a week ago suffocated the Baylor offense. Baylor quarterback Blake Shapen had just 137 passing yards and the ground game sputtered to 2.9 yards a carry. Shapen was unable to take the top off, and everything fizzled.
The Ducks will look to succeed where Baylor failed and down the Cougars for a signature win early in Dan Lanning’s tenure.
Here’s all the info you need for the game.
TV and Kickoff Time
Kickoff time: 12:35 p.m. PT
TV Network: FOX; fans can also watch the game live on FOXSports.com with a cable or satellite provider login
Betting odds
Line: Oregon -3.5
Total: 58.5
Money line: Oregon -176, BYU +146
Expert predictions
ESPN’s FPI gives Oregon a 54.3% chance of winning.
Bill Connelly’s SP+ predicts a 28-27 Oregon win.
CBS Sports’ Shehan Jeyarajah has the Cougars:
Simply put: BYU is better than Oregon at the vast majority of position groups. Quarterback Jaren Hall flashed his NFL arm in an upset over Baylor last weekend despite missing his top two receiving targets. The offensive and defensive lines have excelled for most of the past three seasons. The secondary played at a high level, while running back Christopher Brooks has slotted in nicely. Conversely, Oregon has gone 1-4 in its last five FBS matchups and been outscored 201-90. With wins over Baylor, USC, Utah and four other Power Five foes in the past year, don’t expect the Cougars to be intimidated by Oregon’s recruiting stars.
CFN’s Pete Fiutak has the Ducks winning 27-23:
This will be the Oregon defense stepping up to show just how good it can be. BYU will come up with the power for the ground game, but it will have to get the downfield passing game going more and it won’t be able to. This will be a tough, tight fight throughout, but Oregon will finally start to pull away a bit with a power ground game of its own. It won’t be pretty, and the stats might not be great, but the Ducks will take it.
Our own Jon Gold has the Ducks:
This feels like a matchup that would have a rich history, but Oregon and BYU have only met six times, with each team winning three. They haven’t even met since the 2006 Las Vegas Bowl. So there isn’t much history to go on here, and it will simply come down to talent. And the Ducks have the edge there.