The Stanford Cardinal travel down to Los Angeles to face the USC Trojans this Saturday on ABC and as expected the Cardinal opened as decent sized favorites, at approximately 9 1/2 point favorites. However, following USC's 31-17 victory over Notre Dame, Trojans are apparently getting a little bit excited about their team. The line has dropped two points over the last two days and Stanford now sits as a 7 1/2 point favorite.
The Cardinal have faced a relatively weak schedule to date, although it was expected to take a turn for the difficult this past Saturday against Washington. After being challenged into the early part of the second quarter, Stanford put their running game and defense into another gear and steamrolled the Huskies.
While Andrew Luck is having a very solid 2011 season that will end up with at least a Heisman finalist position, the Cardinal offensive line and rushing attack is simply overwhelming opponents. While they have specific tweaks in the game plan for each opponent, one would imagine Stanford will look to once again line up and bowl over another opponent.
It will be interesting to see if the line readjusts between now and Saturday. USC is a solid enough football team, but are gamblers giving them a bit too much credit at home?