Staff Predictions: Oregon State vs Washington State

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Every Friday of each game week, the BeaversEdge.com staff will give its predictions for Oregon State's matchup.

With the Beavers (4-1, 2-0 Pac-12) set to face Washington State (2-3, 1-2) on Saturday, Publisher Brenden Slaughter and Recruiting Analyst Jared Halus give their two cents on the matchup and who's going to come out on top.

MORE: 2022 DB Sam Mason Calls OSU Atmosphere "Amazing" | Injury Report | Edge Podcast: Previewing OSU v WSU & Talkin' Recruiting

With a bye week on deck, this is a huge game for Oregon State and head coach Jonathan Smith...

Following the emotional wins over USC & Washington, this contest against the Cougars has the makings of being a bit of a 'trap game', but I don't see that happening.

With the Cougars having a ho-hum offense, I don't see them being able to put up a ton of points in this one. WSU hasn't scored more than 23 points this season outside of the win over Portland State and that should be an area where the OSU defense should be able to take advantage.

Offensively, I expect the Beavers will be able to pick up right where they left off, emphasizing a strong ground game that opens up the rest of the offense.

I expect Chance Nolan to have a much sharper game from under-center and in doing so, will ignite the passing attack, giving OSU a much more balanced offensive attack that I expect will give the Cougars problems on defense.

Nothing we've seen from the Cougars the first couple weeks of the season indicates they'll be able to lock down an offensive unit like the Beavs for an entire game, so I'm anticipating OSU being able to score a fair amount of points.

If B.J. Baylor can pick up where he left off, Nolan can move the ball downfield better than last week, and the defense does just enough to force WSU QB Jayden de Laura into a few mistakes, I like the Beavers to take this contest by a couple of scores.

Prediction: Oregon State 35, Washington State 18

Brenden's season record (4-1)

If you listened to the Edge Podcast prior to reading this, you'd know that at the time of recording I was not yet comfortable with my prediction and would need at least the night to think it over.

Potential trap game, too much hype following two big wins, road game environment, and more were all reasons why I was unsure.

Not anymore.

Jonathan Smith is not a "rah-rah" type of guy, and the message he has told his players following every win so far this season is that the job is not done.

As long as that sentiment has remained the focus throughout practice, I think Oregon State will come out and handle this one.

Chance Nolan returns to form, the offense continues to roll, and the defense forces at least two turnovers to get the Beavs up big before a late score makes the game appear a bit closer than it really was.

Prediction: Oregon State 41, Washington State 23

Jared's season record (4-1)

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