Golden Blogs Pick-Em Week 8: Can Cal and UCLA overcome injury bug?

Week 8 is upon us, and it begins with a Friday night showdown with Cal and Oregon! Oh hey, thats our Cal Bears! Hooray, it has been 13 days since we got to see our team on the field and its time to take that poor taste of victorious Beaver out of our mouths and feast on some Ducks!

Elsewhere in the Pac-12, UCLA and Utah face off in a big Pac-12 South showdown. The problem is, Josh Rosen may not be able to play for the Bruins and that could be a tough situation for them. Stanford and Colorado play too. Earlier this season you’d believe that would be an easy Furd victory but now Colorado can pull off a win and gain bowl eligibility before November even starts. Wow! We have some other great matchups too and we’ll discuss them (and show our staff’s picks) below...

Let’s learn a bit more about our staff pickers... by looking at their success rate from the first 7 weeks of the season.

Yikes, the only games we correctly predicted with more than 50% accuracy were the ones by U$C and Furd, and that’s never good... but hey, I’d still believe what we have to say about the following games! You should too...

These lines are as of Tuesday. I’ll try to include any updated lines as I can. We begin with OUR game!

CAL VS. OREGON

FRIDAY 7:30 PM on ESPN

Cal (home team) was a 3 point favorite. Over/Under was 87.5. Cal is NOW a 1.5 point favorite and over/under has moved up to an incredible 90.

While we’ve had a few weeks where we had 8 for 8 staff members choose the Bears, this time we have some doubters. Losing to Oregon State will do that for you.

Piotr T Le: WE WILL WIN. I BELIEVE WE WILL WIN.

Ruey Yen: I don't trust the Bears on the road, but they should take care of business in Berkeley.

boomtho: I think when I bet against Cal, we win. So this is for all the fans!

Berkelium97: It's our best chance in years to beat Oregon. But limited Hansen and a possibly not-yet-fully-healthy Webb have me worried. Also, Oregon knows how to run the ball.

Nik Jam: Home team magic helps Cal again! They cannot afford a loss if they want a faint shot at a bowl game.

PerryScope: Good ole Shootout

COLORADO @ STANFORD

SATURDAY 12:00PM on Pac-12 Network, Bay Area, Mountain

Stanfurd (home team) is a 2 point favorite. Over/Under is 49.5

A 50/50 split with Stanford and Colorado here. A low scoring game just edges a 50+ point affair from the staff.

Ruey Yen: When in doubt, I reluctantly go with the home team.

boomtho: I think Colorado keeps it close and it's fairly high scoring, but Furd pulls it out at the end. Though Colorado has proved be wrong a lot this year.

Berkelium97: The Lobsterbacks have not looked good over the past few weeks.

Nik Jam: I smell a bowl clincher in Palo Alto!

#19 UTAH @ UCLA

SATURDAY 1PM on FOX

On Tuesday there was no line, so we’re picking the games even and using a made-up 50 over/under. UCLA (home team) is now a 7 point favorite with an over/under of 46. Hey I was kinda close!

A majority of the staff goes with Utah despite a lack of a spread. Josh Rosen’s status is still unknown, what do you think will happen in Pasadena?

Note: If Rosen is unable to play, the staff is allowed to e-mail me a change of a pick (they can always do that for any game) and it’ll be reflected in next week’s results. Only boomtho has pre-emptively told me to change the pick if he starts.

Ruey Yen: It's a key Pac-12 south contest, I see the Utes playing their best.

boomtho: Utah if Rosen sits; UCLA if Rosen plays

Berkelium97: Utah may be the most unimpressive 6-1 team in the nation. UCLA wins even if Rosen sits.

Nik Jam: I can't imagine UCLA's backup is so bad they can't win at home against a Utah team that struggles away from Salt Lake.

OREGON STATE @ #5 WASHINGTON

SATURDAY 3:30PM on Pac-12 Network, Washington, Oregon

Washington (home team) is a 37.5 point underdog with an over/under of 55.

I hate spreads like these. I considered not including this game at all. Of course, I would assume everyone thinks Washington will win. Its just a question of that very high spread... most think Oregon State should have a more respectable final deficit than 37.

Piotr T Le: OSU will keep reminding me that WE SHOULD'VE RUN THE DANG BALL AND STACKED THE DAMN BOX... That's how Washington will win by the way.

Ruey Yen: Washington should win, but I am taking the points.

boomtho: I mean... I don't think I can stare at a 35+ line and not take the underdog.

Berkelium97: 37.5 is a huge spread, even without rain in the forecast. UW is good, but the conditions aren't right for that big of a win.

Nik Jam: I've been burned before. Both in the CGB Staff Pick-em and the CGB Pick-em league on Yahoo have I picked a bad team to cover an absurdly high spread and was wrong. So, I think Washington will get the 6 TD victory.

PerryScope: Trap Game. Too many points. I believe in the Beav

WASHINGTON STATE @ ARIZONA STATE

SATURDAY 7:00PM on Pac-12 Network, Washington, Arizona

Arizona State (home team) is a 7 point UNDERDOG. Over/Under is 64.

Although Cal and UCLA could not get it done in Tempe, most of the staff think Arizona State should get their first home loss to the red hot Cougars.

Ruey Yen: Wazzu is good, but it is tough to win on the road in the Pac.

boomtho: WSU has been really impressing me.

Berkelium97: Home field won't save the Sun Devils this week.

Nik Jam: Washington State can't stop now and give ground to the Huskies, so I think they keep it going.

WILD CARD: LOCK OF THE WEEK

Kansas State -3.5 @ Texas

#10 Wisconsin -3.5 @ Iowa

#22 North Carolina -7.5 @ Virginia

TCU +5 @ #12 West Virginia

#23 Ole Miss +6 @ #25 LSU

Wyoming -4 @ Nevada

#17 Arkansas +10 @ #21 Auburn

Memphis -1.5 @ #24 Navy

Wisconsin gets half of the picks from the staff! North Carolina, West Virginia, Navy, and Ole Miss also represented.

Ruey Yen: Coming off back-to-back losses to Michigan and Ohio State, I see Wisconsin taking out their frustrations on the Iowa Hawkeyes.

boomtho: Wisconsin's defense is really, really good.

WILD CARD: UPSET OF THE WEEK

San Jose State (23.5 point underdog @ San Diego State) [3]

Texas Tech (14 point underdogs vs. #16 Oklahoma) [3]

#16 Texas A&M (16.5 point underdogs @ #1 Alabama) [3]

Penn State (19.5 point underdogs @ #2 Ohio State) [3]

SMU (21.5 point underdogs vs. #11 Houston) [3]

Kansas (23.5 point underdog vs. Oklahoma State) [3]

NC State (20 point underdog @ #7 Louisville) [3]

Purdue (24 point underdogs @ #8 Nebraska) [3]

Oregon State (34.5 point underdogs @ #5 Washington) [4]

Illinois (35 point underdogs at #3 Michigan) [4]

No upsets among 10 listed teams + OTHERs [1]

Woah! I can’t remember the last time there was a consensus pick in the Upset of the Week question. Five people with Texas Tech. (And trust me I don’t look at the results before I make my picks). Nam, Piotr (who each have Texas A&M) and PerryScope with Penn State are certainly gonna hope Texas Tech don’t pull it out.

...and I forgot to put in a question asking for comments here, but usually this part doesn’t get a lot of comments anyway so... oh well?

CLOSING

This has been an insane week. A graveyard shift on Monday I didn’t really recover from (There’s a reason I wasn’t first in my own survey this week)... and then this morning the entire internet goes down!

Since I wait till the last minute to write these, that means I couldn’t write the article at all during the outage. I was actually thinking I wouldn’t get this up at all, but here I am! Unless another outage comes between now and the time I click Publish... its time to get some rest and get ready to walk up to Memorial Stadium tonight!

I’m not going to be able to proofread. Forgive me for any missed steaks.

GO BEARS!