Hey All,
Here's the column that makes Tuesdays fun, Notes on a Pac 12 Scorecard. We still miss you, Alan Malamud.
Summaries
USC 38- Oregon 35: USC came out confident and strong at Autzen Stadium. Behind QB Matt Barkley and an incredible defensive effort led by LB Hayes Pullard, the Trojans built up a 38-14 lead over the Ducks. Then , they held on for dear life in the final quarter to claim a victory that shook the nation. As UO PK Alejandro Maldonado's 37-yard FG attempt faded wide left, the Ducks 21-game home winning streak, 19-game conference winning streak and BCS title game hopes faded away as well. Barkley had a great game, completing 26 of 34 passes for 323 yards and 4 TDs. The big story of this game was the USC defense. The final numbers won't show it, but they did an incredible job shutting down the Ducks enough for a win.
Telling Stat: The clock; UO HC Chip Kelly doesn't care for clock management and it showed as he mismanaged it on UO's final drive.
Oregon State 38- Washington 21: The Huskies limped into Corvalis with QB Nick Montana starting in place of injured starter, Keith Price. The Beavers shut Montana and the Huskies down in that order. The Beaver defense held Montana to just 11 of 21 passing for 79 yards and 2 TDs. He also threw one interception and fumbled once to kill a pair of Husky drives. Meanwhile, OSU QB Sean Mannion burned up the Husky defense, completing 26 of 37 passes for 339 yards and a pair of TDs. The big running star of the day was OSU RB Jovan Stevenson who rushed for only 41 yards, but scored all 3 of the Beavers second half TDs on runs of 1, 3, and 15 yards.
Telling Stat: A big 3; The beavers put the game away with three straight TD drives in the final quarter.
Utah 30- Washington State 27 1OT: The Utes escaped Pullman with a big win that kept them in the Pac 12 South race. Ute RB John White IV spearheaded the Utah attack with 186 yards rushing on a whopping 42 carries and 2 TDs. As for the Cougars, freshman sensation QB Connor Halliday had some shine come off his penny as he threw four interceptions to go along with his 290 yards passing and 2 TDs. None of those picks were bigger than the one he threw in overtime that set up Utah for the game winning field goal. The kick was a 38-yarder by PK Coleman Petersen. The loss ended Wazzu's bowl hopes for 2011.
Telling Stat: 7-0; The Utes are 7-0 this season when RB John White IV rushes for over 100 yards a the game.
Stanford 31- California 28: The Cardinal recovered an onside kick by the Golden Bears to seal their win in the 114th Big Game. Stanford's offense wasn't really in sync for most of the rainy night in Palo Alto, but they came away with the win. SU QB Andrew Luck had an off first half completing only 8 of 15 passes for 81 yards, but he turned that around in the second half. He went 12 of 15 inn the second half for 199 yards and 2 TDs. Stanford's rushing game kept the Bear defense off balance by using a committee of backs to gain 149 yards and 2 TDs on a sloppy field. As for the Golden Bears, lefty QB Zach Maynard threw for 280 yards and 2 TDs to lead the Bear cause.
Telling Stat: 7s not 3s; Cal had two drives stall inside the Stanford five-yard line only to settle for a pair of field goals, when TDs might have won the game.
UCLA 45- Colorado 6: The bRuins came out and did what they didn't do last week at Utah. They came out strong and fast against the Buffaloes. The bRuins held a 21-0 lead at the end of he first quarter behind, two TD passes by QB Kevin Prince and a 14-yard TD run by RB Johnathan Franklin. UCLA then took the the second and third quarters off before exploding for another 21 points in the fourth quarter to turn this game into a rout. Prince had one of his best days as a bRuin, completing 15 of 19 passes for 225 yards and 4 TDs. He also ran for 84 yards. Franklin led all rushers with 162 yards on 15 carries and a touchdown.
Telling Stat: No threat; UCLA's defense totally shutdown the Buffs, allowing a lone TD in 14 CU possessions.
Arizona 31- Arizona State 27: ASU proved once again this week that they really don't want to win the Pac 12 South or the Territorial Cup by falling to the Wildcats. The Wildcats got another great day out of QB Nick Foles who threw for 370 yards and a pair of TDs, but it was backup QB Bryson Beirne who etched his name into the lore of this rivalry. Midway through the fourth quarter, UofA trailed 27-24 and just had Nick Foles knocked out of the game. All Beirne did was come in and lead his squad on the game-winning drive. He capped off the drive with a 23-yard TD pass to WR Juron Criner. ASU did engineer one final drive, but the Wildcat defense held, sending the Sun Devils down to defeat. ASU QB Brock Osweiler threw for 487 yards and a TD in defeat.
Telling Stat: 1/1/1; UofA backup QB Bryson Beirne attempted one pass, completed that one pass for one huge game-winning TD and became a hero in the ASU-UofA rivalry for all time.
Bowl Eligibility Update
Currently there are 66 Bowl Eligible teams for the 70 bowl slots available for this season. However, there are still 18 teams on the bubble to become bowl eligible in the final two weeks of the season. Nine of those teams are from BCS conferences. So, they would seem to have the inside track to some of those spots. However, for the first time in a long time it looks like there will be a good 10 teams or so sitting home despite being bowl eligible.
Observations
...There is still one; Florida Atlantic is still the only winless team in the FBS. At 0-10, they still have two games to play and both of those are against under .500 teams in Alabama-Birmingham and Louisiana-Monroe. So, there's hope for FAU.
...Fight, Fight, for dear old Harvard! Congrats to the Harvard Crimson, 2011 Ivy League Champions. The Crimson sealed their title run with a 45-7 thrashing of Yale at the Yale Bowl. It's always good to take a minute to salute the Ancient Eight where college football was born.
...Uniform watch; I saw a team wear something I'd never seen before, brown helmets. Wyoming broke out brown helmets for their tilt with New Mexico last week.
...Heavens to Bo and Woody! It's hard to believe that the first ever Big Ten title game won't have either Ohio State or Michigan as a participant.
...Great rivalry games this week; USC-UCLA, OSU-Michigan, Pittsburgh-West Virginia, and Indiana-Purdue are among the "big" games that have bragging rights on the line this week. Remember, all rivalry games are "big" and do mean something, just ask Arizona.
...Red v. Blue for the right to face the Green; Penn State travels to Wisconsin this week where the winner of their matchup will face Michigan State in the inaugural Big 10 Championship Game. Could we get a matchup of that great Wisc.-MSU game earlier in the season?
...No bowling for the 'Canes; So, Miami chose not to accept a bowl bid this year in the wake of their NCAA probe. It could be the first of many bowl-less seasons in Coral Gables.
...Scary stat for the Ducks; USC became the first team to beat a Chip Kelly Oregon team with just one week to prepare.
...Not as attractive; It's not as pretty a matchup as last week, but the Okie State-Oklahoma game is still for the Big XII title and a BCS berth.
...Big Least; It looks like Louisville could win the Big East win a 7-5 record.
...If an Independent fell in the forrest; BYU could finish the season at 9-3 with a win over Hawaii on December 3rd. Has anyone seen the Cougars play? Does anyone care? Way to grab those headlines and make people notice you as an independent BYU!
...Ahhh, a bi-coastal November; Notre Dame has racked up three straight wins this month over opponents from the ACC, this week they'll come over to the Pacific Coast to take on Stanford. Somehow, I don't see them enjoying it as much.
...All a Twitter; So, UofA used Twitter to announce the hiring of Rich Rodriguez as their Head Coach. I saw many of his press conferences at Michigan and West Virginia. I wouldn't let him speak either.
...Still ranked; Can someone explain to me how Texas can still be ranked at #25? They're 6-4 and in 7th place in the Big XII.
...Son shines; I wonder how the post game handshake went between UCLA WR Taylor Embree and his father, Colorado Head Coach Jon Embree after UCLA's 45-6 win?
Until next week folks, remember it's great to have speed on defense.
-The Commissioner
