It was the weekend of the great matchup in the Pac-12. Utah and Cal met with 0-3 conference records, UCLA and Arizona met in the “Should you Fire Your Coach During, or After the Season?” Bowl, Stanford played its first ranked opponent and USC visited Notre Dame.
We sort through the best and worst of the week in the Week 8 Pac-12 Roundup:
BIGGEST WIN: USC saved its best game for the biggest stage, looking phenomenal in South Bend and ARIZONA beat its first FBS opponent in nearly a year, but STANFORD’s win over Washington was absolutely HUGE.
At a time in the season when half a dozen undefeated teams had stepped forward to make a case to play the LSU – Alabama winner in the BCS Championship game, Stanford’s collection of San Jose States and Dukes wasn’t getting the job done.
Washington came in with a 5-1 record, a top 25 ranking, and a red-hot quarterback. Stanford responded with their best game of the season, showing offensive balance and defensive toughness befitting a championship team.
Stanford scored EVERY SINGLE POSSESSION of the 1sthalf, earning a 38-10 halftime lead. The Cardinal took it easy on
Washington in the 2nd half, scoring only 27 more, even punting once in the third quarter.
Not to say Washington had a horrible game. The Huskies scored three touchdowns and had 430 yards of offense, and Chris Polk ran for nearly 150 yards. Washington did what they do, but ran into a Stanford team that is simply on another level.
The Cardinal’s defense held Keith Price (who entered the game tied with Kellen More for the 2nd most touchdowns in the FBS) to one touchdown, and forced an interception from a Price, who had thrown only four all season long.
The Cardinal offense was even more impressive. Three tailbacks, Stepfan Taylor, Tyler Gaffney and Anthony Wilkerson combined for a Stanford Record 446 rushing yards on Saturday, proving the Cardinal offense is a lot more than headliner Andrew Luck.
The fact is, Stanford isn’t a typical high scoring college team that puts up a ton of points with a spread-out passing game. They are a power run team who also happens to have the nation’s best quarterback. They can play fast, they can play power, and they looked as good on Saturday as any team in the country.
Not only did Stanford get it’s best win of the season last weekend, but things started to look worse for a lot of their competition. Wisconsin and Oklahoma lost and Kansas State will soon. The Wildcats completed the cakewalk portion of their schedule at Kansas. Their next four games are Oklahoma, @OK State, Texas A&M, @Texas.
Clemson should be nervous too. They just gave up 45 points to a Maryland team starting a new QB who likes to run the ball. How do you think they’ll fair against Paul Johnson’s well-oiled triple option this weekend?
The Cardinal is now in the top 5 of the AP poll and showing they are one of the soundest teams in the nation. They are the only team in FBS that is top 5 nationally in both scoring offense and defense (#2 in points for and #4 in points against). They have the 2nd fewest giveaways in FBS and are #1 in fewest sacks allowed.
The humans are already impressed with the Cardinal, putting them right behind the monsters of the SEC and Oklahoma State (who’s road to an undefeated season from here is much tougher than the Cardinal’s). The Computers should follow suit and jump Stanford ahead of Boise State if the Cardinal can win at USC and beat Oregon at home.
I’m not telling Stanford fans (I think there are a couple dozen of them) to book tickets to New Orleans just yet, but after their biggest win, and their two top competitors losing, things have never looked better for Stanford Football.
WORST LOSS: Utah and Colorado are a combined 0-8 (actually 0-9 because of CU’s loss to CAL) in their new conference. But no loss was worse this week than UCLA’s obliteration in Tucson on Thursday Night.
The Bruins slouched into the desert with #1 (??) quarterback Kevin Prince back in the lineup and Rick Neuheisel’s seat as hot as a Sonoran summer.
On the surface, Arizona seemed like a great place for the Bruins to build some momentum. After all, the Bruins were coming off a spirited win over Washington State, and bye week that got their quarterback healthy. If that wasn’t enough, their opponent was a hapless squad that just fired its head coach and hadn’t won an FBS game for 355 days.
But who was that opponent the Cat’s defeated last on October 30 of 2010? Why, UCLA, of course! Arizona interim head coach Tim Kish had a particularly inspiring message for his troops for their game against the Bruins: “Have fun”.
Oddly, that seemed to be exactly what Arizona needed to hear. Clearly the Wildcats took it to heart. It isn’t often a team on a 10 game (FBS) losing streak looks more excited to be playing football than a team that came off a win and a bye. But that’s exactly what transpired on Thursday night. The Wildcats looked like they couldn’t wait to play football. The Bruins looked disinterested and defeated from the start.
Arizona also had a better game plan on 4 days preparation than the Bruins had on eleven. The Wildcats crowded the box all game long, just begging the Bruins to beat them over the top.
Jonathan Franklin and Derrick Coleman are superb backs but Arizona’s previously porous run defense completely contained them. The Burins star duo combined for an incredible 24 yards on 11 carries. These are crazy numbers, but they get even crazier when you remember that Arizona’s run defense is one of the worst in the nation allowing almost 180 yards per game.
On the other side of the ball things weren’t any better for the Bruins. Arizona’s passing game has been sharp all season, but against UCLA’s loaded defense, the Wildcats got their ground game going as well. The Cats had only broken 100 yards rushing once all season (against USC), but put up 254 yards on the ground against the Bruins seemingly out of nowhere.
UCLA has one of the most talented defenses in the Pac but is one of the worst performing. They are 10th in total yards, 11th in rushing yards, and 11th in scoring defense.
There is no way around this: The Bruins were out-schemed, out-motivated and simply out-coached by a team in total turmoil tail spinning toward a 1-11 season. Rick Neuheisel is simply not preparing or motivating this team and NEEDS to be replaced.
PLAYER OF THE WEEK: I can’t believe I’m doing this, but how about OREGON STATE QB SEAN MANNION? Hear me out here. Mannion was 26 of 34 for 376 yards and 4 Touchdowns, leading a Beaver team we all left for dead to a rout. On the road! It was on the road at Washington State, but still.
The Beavers may have been a laughing stock after losing to Sacramento State and, even worse, UCLA, but OSU has a .500 conference record and it’s almost Halloween! Sean Mannion is a 1st year starter and is getting better and better ever week.
The Beavers are going to Salt Lake City this weekend to play a Utah team that looked absolutely hapless offensively on Saturday and could easily win to establish… a winning conference record! Amazing.
Mike Riley is clearly doing his typical great job again in Corvallis and this Beaver team is starting to believe. Congratulations to the OSU, and congratulations to Sean Mannion on a phenomenal game.