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South:
1. USC 14 at Stanford 21 - The Cardinal were able to turn this game into exactly the style of game they wanted to play. They lined up and played smash mouth football with a team that was really hurting on the defensive and offensive lines. Stanford pounded USC in the running game, and once the safeties were focused inside they used play action to find their big tight ends to pick up bigger chunks of yardage. Stepfan Taylor was a beast in this game rushing 27 times for 153 yards a TD and catching 5 for 60 and a TD. For USC this is a brutal loss. It really hurts their chances of a National Title run and even worse, exposed a very big hole in their game. Their offensive line looked atrocious as they ended up rushing 28 times for 26 total yards. At one point USC was Uw (0-12) on 3rd down conversions in this game. If you can't force people to respect the running game, it doesn't matter how all-world Lee and Woods are, Barkley isn't going to have time to find them, and he didn't Saturday. For Barkley, I'm guessing losing to Stanford for the fourth time (something USC had never done) wasn't the "unfinished business" he was thinking about when he came back for his senior year.
2. Arizona 56 vs South Carolina St 0 - A needed breather of a game for Arizona in what is a brutal early schedule. Arizona's offense just keeps rolling, but still most surprising of all is the play of their defense. Rich Rod's revamped 3-3-5 defense held So Carolina St to 152 total yards. Both are going to get a test next week as Arizona gets a night game on the road in hostile Autzen.
3. Ucla 37 vs Houston 6 - Probably nobody enjoyed that USC loss as much as Bruin fans. As Dave and I talked about on Tuesday Night Talks, Ucla has a very easy early schedule now that they got by Nebraska. After whooping up on Houston they get OSU at home next week and then go on the road to Colorado and Cal. Bruins have to be looking at a 9 win season as their benchmark right now and with USC taking an early loss in the Pac, a chance of repeating as Pac 12 South Champs. That's right USC, Ucla is defending Pac 12 South Champs!
4. ASU 20 at Missouri 24 - ASU ended up giving this game away in more ways than one. First, Mizzou had scoring drives of 29 (FG), 18 (TD), 18(TD), and 33 (TD). Turnovers were a killer for the Sun Devils. Two fumbles lost and two interceptions gave Mizzou everything they needed in the first 3 quarters to have enough to win. Lastly, the play calling for ASU at the end of the game was awful. After 2 straight false start penalties (good to see some things don't change) made it first and goal at the Mizzou 18 yard line, Taylor Kelly, who was on fire, completes a pass to Jamal Miles to the 1 yard line. 2nd and goal from the one, down four and a hot QB. So Todd Graham subs in their "Tebow package" and proceeds to lose 2 yards on the next 2 plays.
5. Utah 24 vs BYU 21 - The Holy War, and a war it was. At least Utah played that way. The Utes playing without starting RB Johnathan White IV and starting QB Jordan Wynn, rallied behind a fired up defense to take it right at BYU. I'd rank Utah higher, but after a very disappointing loss to Utah State, and considering their injuries, I still see every team above them beating them this year.
6. Colorado 14 at Fresno State 69 - Someone that won't be beating Utah, nor anyone this year, is Colorado. Well Buff fans, at least you're a half game up on USC in the Pac 12 standings right now. That's about the only nice thing I can say about your team. Let's just move on.
North:
1. Oregon 63 vs Tennessee Tech 14 - There was definitely an intensity from Oregon in this game that we haven't seen so far this year, but that intensity at times led to some rather dumb plays. Way too many penalties, careless play with the football (I'm looking at you DAT, you should have another TD in the books) and finally, how do 5 defenders out in front of Kiko let a 5'9" QB get between them and bring him down? That is unacceptable. Oh well, at least the crappy games are over and it's on to Pac 12 play. Oh yeah, Oregon still has to play Colorado this year... at least most of the crappy games are over.
2. Stanford
3. Oregon State
4. washington 52 vs Portland State 13 - The lowly Vikings had to be a welcome sight for the hurting huskies this week. After watching what Stanford just did to USC's lines, Uw has to really hope their banged up patch-work lines use the bye week to get healthy before they face the Cardinal in 2 weeks. Don't worry it gets a lot easier from there when they go @Oregon, USC and @Arizona after that. Can you say 2-5?
5. Cal 28 at Ohio State 35- Inspired play by the Cal Bears this weekend. Good job, good effort guys! Being 1-2 headed to what is most likely a really pissed off USC team can't feel good for Bear fans. But they played really hard this week. Good job, good effort. Zach Maynard had one of his better games Saturday before throwing a game ending INT. Good job, good effort. And Cal really pounded what looked like another mediocre B1G team on the ground rushing for 224 yards. Lots of moral victories in this game for Cal. Good job, good effort!
6. Washington State 35 at UNLV 27 - Be honest, if Mike Leach wasn't coaching WSU, you wouldn't watch the WSU v Colorado game next week, would you? Who am I kidding, you're not going to watch the game anyway. Have to feel bad for FX. They get to follow up their broadcast of the game between Uw and Portland State with the Colorado v WSU game next week.
Next Week's Games:
Oregon St at Ucla
Colorado at WSU
Cal at USC
Utah at ASU
Arizona at Oregon