Storyline: Woe is the PAC-12! There’s UW and that’s about it. Stanford and Oregon have both hit the skids. But wait! Opportunity awaits this week for CU, Utah, ASU, WSU, UCLA, and USC. Who’ll emerge with wins?
Saturday, October 15th
(FOX) USC vs. Arizona- 3:30 – Arizona + 7
(PAC-12 Network) Utah vs. Oregon St. – 4:00 – Oregon St. + 12
(NBC) Stanford vs. Notre Dame- 7:30 – Notre Dame -2.5
(PAC-12 Network) Arizona St. vs. Colorado – 8:00 – Colorado -10
(ESPN) UCLA vs. Washington St. – 10:30 – Washington St. -4.5
BYES: California, Oregon, Washington
Overview: Week 6 in the PAC-12 included a major statement by a potential CFP team and three upsets.
The Washington Huskies made the trip to Eugene in a game that pit a surging Husky team against a desperate Oregon squad. Oregon wasn’t supposed to win the game, but giving up 70 points was totally unexpected. Washington put the league and nation on notice that they belong in the conversation with the best teams in the country.
WSU’s River Cracraft catches a pass over Stanford’s Noor Davis in the Cougars’ blow-out win in Palo Alto (photo by Thearon W. Henderson/Getty Images)
On the upside side, I thought Stanford would get off to a slow start at home against Washington St., but I also thought they’d take care of business at home. The Cougars had different ideas, though, and treated Palo Alto like it was their home field, dismantling the Cardinal 42-16. Now the Cardinal has more questions than answers.
UCLA went to Tempe after notching a solid win at home against Arizona. But the Bruins were unable to put together strong back-to-back performances, suffering a devastating 23-20 loss to ASU. The defeat put UCLA at 3-3 overall and 1-2 in the league. The Bruins are on their way to an extremely disappointing season. But let’s give kudos to the Sun Devils, who are now 5-1.
In the last of the three upsets last Saturday, Oregon St. picked up its first conference win of the season, beating Cal 47-44 in OT. The Beavers went all of last season without winning a conference game. Cal continues to show the country that it belongs in the Arena Football League, not the PAC-12.
This week features four conference match-ups. Outside of conference, Stanford makes a trip to South Bend to take on the Irish in a battle of STRUGGLING teams (more on that immediately below). Cal, Oregon, and Washington have byes.
Not What It’s Cracked Up To Be: College football fans salivated about the possibilities associated with the mid-season, non-conference match-up between Stanford and Notre Dame in South Bend. But now, six weeks into the season, this game has lost most of its juice — to say the least. Stanford has lost two games in a row in embarrassing fashion and the Cardinal goes into South Bend with a mediocre 3-2 record. The Irish come into the game in even worse shape. Coach Kelly’s team is 2-4 coming off of a puzzling 10-3 loss at N.C St.. The weather was awful and coach Kelly thought it would make more sense to throw the ball 35 times instead of running it. The Irish are a mess right now, but so is the Cardinal secondary. This game could go either way, but I think Stanford’s schedule has been a little better overall. I pick the Cardinal to win by a field goal.
Here Come The Cougars? Don’t look now, but Washington St. is 2-0 in the PAC-12 North. Back-to-back wins against Oregon and Stanford have put the Cougars in a nice position going into its cross-conference game against UCLA. With Stanford starting to slip and Oregon falling off the radar that means Washington is the team to beat in the North. If the Cougars are able to win this game, the next month sets up very nicely for them. Could the folks in Pullman start to dream about an Apple Cup game on Thanksgiving Weekend for the PAC-12 North title? Easy everyone! There’s still a LONG way to go.
Can the Buffs run to victory against ASU? (photo, PAC-12.com)
Back On Track? Colorado fought very hard last week even he Buffs came up short, 21-17. CU belongs in the talk for the PAC-12 South title. With struggles at USC and UCLA, the door is now open for someone outside of LA to walk in. If Colorado wants to be a part of that discussion, then it will need to regroup and defeat an overachieving Sun Devil team at home. This game should be fun. The winner will take a big step toward cementing a spot in the conference mix. Fans in Boulder will find out if their team is a contender or a pretender.
Where’s The Consistency? Besides Washington, it’s shocking to see what has happened to the PAC-12 this year. Drop-offs by Stanford and Oregon, coupled by disappointing starts by USC and UCLA, have caused the conference to fall off the map with respect to national attention. If Washington slips along the way, there’s a real possibility that the league will be left out of the CFP. The Big 12 faces a similar fate. All in all, the league’s performance is going to make for nervous moments come holiday bowl season. The Pac-12 needs more teams to step up!
Game Of The Week, UCLA vs. Washington St.: Shake your head, folks. It’s Week 7 and Washington St. is included in the Game Of The Week?! Excitement must be going through the roof this week for Cougar fans. A win against the Bruins and it will be time to puff out your chest. Well, let’s find out just how good you are, Wazzou. UCLA is capable of going into Pullman and beating Washington St. They’re also capable of being torched by Luke Falk and falling to 3-4 for the season. I think it’s time for Washington St. to come down to earth. I say UCLA 38-30.
Courtesy: AZ Cats Zone
Underrated Game Of The Week, USC vs. Arizona: Here we go again with the Trojans! USC is teasing me again after winning two games in a row after a quarterback change. If the Trojans are able to win a couple more in a row, then they’ll throw themselves back into the PAC-12 South race. On the other side of the ledger, Arizona doesn’t have much to play for … except for being a spoiler. Will the Trojans win again, bringing some much-needed stability to the league? I think that’s a good bet. So I say USC 38-27.
Upset Of The Week, Utah vs. Oregon St.: Oregon St. is flying high after winning its first conference game. Utah bounced back nicely by defeating Arizona at home last week. Both teams have momentum coming into this game, but Utah has much more to play for — a PAC-12 South title is at stake. Last week I wrote UCLA needed to be careful or they’d be beaten. And that’s exactly what happened. Utah is in the same boat this week — on the road expected to win. I don’t know why, but I have a funny feeling about this game. BE CAREFUL UTAH!!!
Lock Of The Week, Arizona St. vs. Colorado: Arizona St. comes into this game 5-1 (2-1). Colorado is 4-2 (2-1). I have challenged Colorado all year to step-up and show growth from last year to this year. Even though they’ve lost two games, I’m impressed with what I see. I feel this is the perfect time to be playing at home versus a solid Sun Devil team. Both of these teams have a chance to move to 3-1 in the league. If this game was being played in Tempe, I might feel differently, but I’m all in for the Buffalo this week. It took the first half of the season to prove to me that they’re FOR REAL. Don’t let me down this week, Buffs! I say Colorado, 38-20.
