I'm adding a new feature to my 12 Pac Review in that I'm going to be listing the teams I believe to be the best 1-10 in the Pac 10 (with Utah and Colorado at the bottom). You can feel free to talk about the games or whether or not you think my rankings are right or what you would change. Enjoy.
1. Arizona 34 vs Iowa 27 - Arizona jumped on the Hawkeyes early with a blocked punt and pick six to go up 21-7 early in this game. Major props to Arizona fans, as Arizona Stadium was rocking and Stoops had his guys ready to play. Even though Iowa was able to battle back and tie it in the 4th , Nick Foles was superb once again going 28/39 for 303 yards and 2 TDs and leading them to the victory. With the resume that Zona has put together, right now I have to say they are the best team in the Pac 10. They'll get a quick test next week as Cal comes to town to start their Pac 10 play.
2. Oregon 69 vs Portland St 0 - Ok boys, fun and games are over, time to get ready for Pac 10 play. Lots of confusing things going on in this game that I hope are settled down this week: Barner, Paulson and Williams injuries, Boyett sitting out the first quarter, Thomas and LMJ need to make sure they have the mesh handled. Good thing the defense is playing like they are. GODZILLA!
3. Stanford 68 vs Wake Forest 24 - Anyone want to argue about Luck versus Locker as best QB in the Pac 10? Anyone? Bueller? Bueller? Stanford broke out their all black uniforms and Luck went 17/23 for 207 yards and 4 TDs, and also rushed for another 69 and another TD. Luck was happy to have his WR, Chris Owusu, back as he caught 3 passes for 65 yards. Stanford gets to travel to South Bend to take on the Domers next week before heading to Eugene the week after that.
4. Oregon St 35 vs Louisville 28 - Oregon St jumped out to a 35-14 lead before giving up 2 TDs to Louisville and needing a late interception by James Dockery to secure the win. Jaquizz Rodgers broke his 3 game streak of rushing for less than 100 yards by carrying it 24 times for 132 yards and 2 scores. I hope that Katz can find some consistency this week as OSU heads to Donkey State where ESPN College Gameday should be camping out.
5. USC 32 at Minnesota 21 - USC did just enough to win once again as they beat a Gopher team that last week gave up 41 points to South Dakota. Matt Barkley didn't play his best game as he threw for only 192 yards and had two interceptions. USC gets a bye week next week... err I mean, starts Pac 10 play next week against Washington State. Bright spot for the Cougars is that USC seems to be playing down to their competition.
6. Arizona St 19 at Wisconsin 20 - Good effort by ASU on the road at Wisconsin, but a blocked extra point with less than 5 minutes to play ends up being the difference for the Badgers. ASU did a good job for most of the day bottling up Wisconsin's John clay who was averaging 6.5 yds/carry. Arizona St doesn't have much time to dwell on what might have been as they have to prepare for another potent rushing attack with the Ducks coming into their house next week to start the Pac 10 season.
7. California 31 at Nevada 52 - Kevin Riley didn't look anything like he did in the first two weeks when Cal went into Reno to take on Nevada. The best QB on the field had to be Nevada's Colin Kaepernick who rushed for 148 yards and threw for another 181 and had a total of 5 TDs. Riley threw for 277 yards and 1 TD, but had 3 interceptions which was impossible for Cal's defense to overcome. The biggest question has to be why Cal went away from Shane Vereen who had 198 yards on 19 carries. Cal's going to have to bounce back quickly because they take on Arizona on the road next week.
8. UCLA 31 vs Houston 13 - Rough night for Houston as they lose their starting and back up QBs for the season. UCLA used their bigger more experienced offensive line to pound the ball on the Cougars as they rushed for 266 yards and 4 TDs. Still have to wonder how UCLA is going to do in the Pac 10 when they still don't have a lot of consistency from the QB position.
9. Washington 21 vs Nebraska 56 - I'm just guessing that going 4 for 20 isn't going to help Locker get to that 65-68 completion percentage. Nebraska exposed exactly what you need to do in order to beat the huskies. Play a Nickel or Dime zone, make Locker make the right reads and throw an accurate ball, and don't worry about the rushing game beating you... because it can't. Obviously, husky fans aren't taking this loss very well as reality is starting to set in on the fact that their "football savior" is gong to go his entire career without going to a bowl game.
10. Washington St 21 at Southern Methodist 35 - Nothing like scheduling WSU to try and get your first win over a BCS conference school since 2000. There is just a talent and experience deficiencies in Pullman. I don't expect them to be moving from the bottom of the power poll this coming year.
Utah 56 at New Mexico 14 - Come on Utah, Barner had a bad week and didn't score any touchdowns and you had to go and let UNM score 14 to close the gap between them at 5 points. All in all, Utah looks to be on a collision course with TCU for the MWC crown. I would really like to see Utah take that crown before they head to the Pac 12.