Jacob Thorpe’s Week 5 Pac-12 picks

PULLMAN – The whole Wild West, “Pac-12 After Dark” concept is fine and fun but honestly, dear readers, I’m worried if our hearts (and wallets) can take another day like last Saturday.

To recap, we saw a touchdown on Stanford’s final play that did not affect the game’s outcome, but sure affected the betting line. Ditto for that onside kick recovered for a touchdown by Arizona State.

Washington was supposed to have the easy game last week and needed overtime and an injury to finish off Arizona, and Oregon State darn near made a game of it against Boise State.

The Pac-12 will not have many weeks crazier than the last one. I guess it really was a good time for Washington State to sit one out.

No. 7 Stanford at No. 10 Washington, UW by 3: Back-to-back road games, a short week, shaky QB play and a packed Husky Stadium prove too much for the Cardinal to overcome.

The pick: UW, 21-13

Oregon State at Colorado, CU by 17.5: The Buffalos hope to get starting quarterback Sefo Liufau back this week. But after seeing backup Steven Montez win Pac-12 Offensive Player of the Week while beating Oregon, coach Mike MacIntyre might be relieved to put off that decision for another week.

The pick: CU, 38-17

No. 18 Utah at California, Cal by 1.5: The Utes entire defensive playbook consists of a punching bag with a picture of a quarterback on it, and Cal QB Davis Webb has not seen a tough defense in a while.

The pick: Utah, 31-28

Arizona State at USC, USC by 10: Sam Darnold looks good, USC needs a win and the Sun Devils might not be as good as their record.

The pick: USC, 42-31

Oregon at Washington State, UO by 1.5: All right, Cougars. I’ll buy that you figured it out during the bye.

The pick: WSU, 35-34

Arizona at UCLA, UCLA by 13: The Wildcats offense looked like a dangerous bunch last week. Then J.J. Taylor got hurt.

The pick: UCLA, 31-24

Last week: 3-3 straight up, 1-5 against the spread

Overall: 30-9 straight up, 13-16-2 against the spread