- The Oregon-USC total sits at 61.5, the highest of any game on this week’s ranked-team board.
- Maiava leads the nation with 12 touchdown passes and is 11-1 in 12 career home starts.
- Oregon is favored by 3 points after averaging 49.7 points a game through its first three contests.
- Running back Jordon Davison has scored four touchdowns and receiver Evan Stewart is averaging 14.8 yards a catch.
LOS ANGELES – No. 12 USC hosts No. 20 Oregon on Saturday night in the game carrying the highest total of any ranked-team matchup this week, and Jayden Maiava, the nation’s leader in touchdown passes, is 11-1 in 12 career starts at the Coliseum.
The Total Tops The Board
Saturday’s total is set at 61.5 points, well above every other game on this week’s ranked-team board, a mark that tracks with how both offenses have played all season. Oregon is averaging 49.7 points a game through three contests; USC is scoring 43.0 a game through four. Oregon is favored by 3 points and sits at -160 on the college football betting moneyline, with USC at +135. A total that size needs both defenses to keep giving up what they have all season, not just one of them.
Oregon sits at No. 20 in the Associated Press Top 25 at 2-1 after a 34-27 season-opening escape past Boise State, a 39-31 loss at unranked Oklahoma State, coach Dan Lanning’s first defeat to an unranked opponent in five seasons in Eugene, and an 84-0 rout of Portland State. USC is No. 12 and 4-0, unbeaten but not yet tested by a defense and offense like Oregon’s.
Maiava’s Home Numbers
Maiava has been nearly unbeatable at the Coliseum, going 11-1 in 12 career home starts with 32 touchdown passes against six interceptions in those games, per CBS Sports. He has carried that into this season, completing 75.7 percent of his throws for 1,173 yards and 12 touchdowns against a single interception through USC’s first four games, 293.3 yards a game, and he leads the nation in both passing yards and touchdown passes.
His production away from the Coliseum has been solid but not as sharp, a 15-to-11 touchdown-to-interception ratio on the road against that 32-to-6 mark at home. That split makes a home date against a defense still finding itself his most favorable setting of the season for another big touchdown number.
Oregon’s Answer
Oregon counters with scoring paths of its own. Running back Jordon Davison has carried 33 times for 194 yards and four touchdowns, a 5.9-yard average, and receiver Evan Stewart has caught 15 passes for 222 yards and two scores, a 14.8-yard average per catch.
Quarterback Dante Moore, who led Oregon to a 13-2 record and a College Football Playoff semifinal last season, gives both players plenty of chances in an offense built to keep pace with USC’s, the same math keeping this total atop legal sports betting boards this week.
