Cal is eight-point underdogs to Washington State

The California Golden Bears are in must-win mode, and they begin their final home stand in Berkeley against a Washington State Cougars offense that’s playing their best football of the season. Washington State opens as eight-point favorites in Berkeley, with the over-under set at 51.

Washington State is 4-4, but they came within a last-second field goal of beating likely Pac-12 North champion Oregon in Autzen. They also savaged Colorado. They’ve suffered two narrow losses to UCLA (in embarrassing fashion admittedly) and Arizona State, and they were beaten up by Utah like every other team. So the Cougars aren’t that far off from being a 6-2 team.

Justin Wilcox has had success with Washington State in the past, upsetting the Cougars in 2017 in shocking fashion and then taking a Wazzu team threatening for the Pac-12 North in 2018 to the final minute before falling a touchdown short. But Cal’s offense has never looked more dead in the the water and Washington State’s offense appears to be peaking. The bright side is Cal’s defense is much better than Washington State’s defense, but Wazzu grades out as a better version of Oregon State by all metrics.

It’ll be a very tough test for Cal to catch up in the points category.