ASU Football: Betting lines explained, UCLA favored by 2.5

The breakdown: The Arizona State Sun Devils (5-2, 4-1 Pac-12) travel to Los Angeles Saturday night to take on the UCLA Bruins (4-5, 2-4) in both teams’ second-to-last Pac-12 South matchup of the year.

Arizona State comes into this weekend after regaining a bit of momentum during a 41-30 victory over Colorado. The run game was a huge component of the victory as the Devils managed 381 yards of offense on the ground — 191 of which came in the fourth quarter.

The defense, however, continued the slide it began against the Trojans. ASU allowed 454 total yards, 345 from quarterback Steven Montez through the air and it could have been a ton more. The Buffaloes had a few huge drops from their receiving core.

The Bruins are coming off of a brutal couple of games in which they’ve allowed a combined 92 points. UCLA is allowing over 300 yards per game on the ground, good for 129th of 130th in the country. They’ve allowed six teams to score at least 44 points on the season. The defense is bad.

The offense isn’t terribly impressive either. A running back core of juniors Soso Jamabo and Bolu Olorunfunmi have only combined for 748 yards and injuries have left the Bruins to promote their third wideout -- likely Theo Howard -- into the No. 1 role. Luckily for UCLA, Josh Rosen is back and he has been sensational when active for the Bruins, tossing 20 touchdowns, 2,713 yards and just eight picks.

Let’s take a look at how Vegas views the matchup:

The odds: Arizona State (+2.5), UCLA (-2.5), Over/Under 67.5

ARIZONA STATE

• Arizona State is 5-1 against the spread in its last six games
• The total has gone UNDER in four of ASU’s last six games
• Arizona State is 1-7 straight up in its last eight games on the road
• The total has gone OVER in five of ASU’s last seven games when playing UCLA
• Arizona State is 2-5 against the spread in its last seven games when playing on the road against UCLA

UCLA

• UCLA is 1-6 against the spread in its last seven games
• UCLA is 5-1 straight up in its last six games at home
• The total has gone UNDER in 14 of UCLA’s last 21 games at home
• UCLA is 2-5 straight up in its last seven games
• UCLA is 6-3 straight up in its last nine games when playing against Arizona State

Notes

• The Bruins may hold a longer-term hold on the Sun Devils across the last nine matchups, but ASU has won the last two in Los Angeles

Note: For entertainment purposes only.