12 Pac Review: Week 8

North:

1. Oregon 43 at Arizona State 21 - Projected BCS standings coming out this evening have Oregon dropping to #4 behind Kansas St after thoroughly demolishing the Sun Devils on Thursday. If you're upset about this, then rightfully so. First of all, Oregon has shown no weakness on either side of the ball. Oregon has a defense that perfectly complements their offense. Fast, versatile and loaded. And let's not even talk about the offense. Most teams are excited to get to 40 points in a game, while Oregon is pulling their starters once their lead gets that big in the first half. Second of all, Oregon is probably going to get jumped by a team that backed out of match up with them this year. You know what is better than beating someone in the polls? Proving it on the field. I'll start to respect Kansas State the day they play a decent OOC game. Bill Snyder is a pansy and I hope Texas Tech takes them behind the woodshed next week when Oregon is making fans do math on whether or not they would hit 100 if they left their starters in. Finally, I'm sure I'll hear about SOS, and it doesn't matter, and blah blah blah. Well, here's my last point, what else could Oregon do? In their 7 games, Oregon has been up 50-3, 35-6, 63-14, 49-0, 51-19, 52-14 and 43-7. That's 343 to 63. That is total domination. Show me a team that has dominated opponents anywhere like that this year. Now half of the games have started after 10:30pm or been on a Thursday night. That leads to people forgetting or not seeing just how dominant this team has been. So they get enamored by the 14-6 win against LSU by Florida, but forget that it took until the 4th quarter for them to beat Vanderbilt. Or that KSU just pounded a defensively inept West Virginia team, but only led North Texas 21-13 late in that game. This ASU game was supposed to be Oregon's test, and instead it will get swept under the rug where all the other forgettable blow outs live while everyone oh's and ah's their new shiny top teams.

2. Oregon State 21 vs Utah 7 - 227 yards of offense. OSU had the ball for 25 minutes and produced 227 yards of offense. I'm glad the Beavers keep winning (even though, I think they'll lose before they meet Oregon and hurt Oregon's chance of getting to the NCG) but they're not really fun to watch. Defensively, OSU makes you one dimensional by taking away your running game. Utah was persistent because of their QB problems, but OSU never relented and the 4 turnovers the Utes gave the Beavers was more than enough to give them the lead.

3. Stanford 21 at Cal 3 - Nunes bounced back from the loss at Notre Dame by going 16/31 for 214 yards and connecting with Zach Ertz 6 times for 134 yards. The big story was the running game where Stanford piled up 252 yards on the ground behind Stepfan Taylor's 189 on 28 carries. For now, the axe stays in Palo Alto.

4. Cal - 217 yards of total offense and 3 rushing. Maynard has his problems at QB, but the Bear's troubles extend far greater than the QB position.

5. washington 17 at Arizona 52 - This was a big game for Uw coming off a brutal first 6 games of the year, and they didn't show up on either side of the ball. Unfortunately, Arizona had 2 weeks to prepare and it looked like Rich Rod and the Wildcats made the most of it. Keith Price continues to struggle with his decision making and ball control skills as he had 3 more turnovers, none bigger than the fumble right after half time in which Uw could have driven and gotten within one score. Things don't get easier for the huskies as they get OSU next week, and the rumbling about Sark will only get louder until they win a game again.

6. Washington State

South:

1. USC 50 vs Colorado 6 - Matt Barkley set the Pac 12 record for touchdowns in a career. See you in 2 weeks Trojans.

2. ASU - I wonder if that game would have been different had Will Sutton not been injured on the second play of the game. Unfortunately for ASU, Sutton doesn't play offense, where Oregon's defense was manhandling them in the first half. ASU has their own gauntlet of games now with Ucla, @OSU and @USC in the next 3 weeks.

3. Ucla

4. Arizona - Great game by Matt Scott and Arizona. Scott was 14 for 22 for 256 yards and 4 TDs. Kareem Carey was just as brutal on the ground going for 172 yards on 29 carries. Big first Pac 12 win for Rich Rod, but no time to dwell as Arizona gets USC at home on Saturday.

5. Utah - Did you know that Colorado has a better Pac 12 record than Utah right now? The 2 additions to the Pac have been awful so far. I wonder what the return policy is.

6. Colorado