Hey All,
Here's the column that makes Tuesday a little bit better, Notes on a Pac 12 Scorecard. We still miss you, Alan Malamud.
Summaries
USC 35- Boston College 7: The Trojans bounced back after being embarrassed at home last week by running over the outmanned BC Eagles. Cody Kessler showed what he can do when he's actually allowed to throw the ball downfield by completing 15 of 17 passes for 237 yards and a pair of scores. RBs Tre Madden and Justin Davis are becoming quite a 1-2 punch for SC. They combined for 198 yards on the ground and a pair of scores. Meanwhile, the Trojan defense shutdown the Eagles to the tune of allowing just 184 yards and 12 first downs for the afternoon.
Telling Stat: BC + D= W; The USC offense controlled the ball for 13 minutes more than Boston College, while the USC defense kept the Eagles offense grounded to get the win.
Stanford 34- Army 20: The Cardinal survived the noon eastern start time to grind out a win over the Black Knights of the Hudson. SU QB Kevin Hogan hit on 11 of 18 throws for 188 yards and three TDs. The Cardinal ground game was led by RB Tyler Gaffney who promenaded with the pigskin 20 times for 132 yards and one TD. On the other side of the ball, the Stanford defense took total control of the game in the second half, allowing just a cosmetic TD with :17 to play.
Telling Stat: B+E+D = W; I added D to Stanford's winning equation this week because not only did Stanford stay balanced (205 yards passing/ 203 yards rushing) and efficient (6 of 11 on third down), they were only penalized once, while Army was flagged twice. You get a D for discipline when you get flagged less than an academy team.
Washington 34- Illinois 24: The Huskies built up a 21 point lead through three quarters, then managed to hold off a late charge by the Illini for the victory. RB Bishop Sankey had a career high 208 yards rushing on 35 carries while QB Keith Price completed 28 of 35 passes for 342 yards and 2 TDs to lead the attack for the Dawgs. For the Illini QB Nathan Scheelhaase was the man, throwing for one TD and running for another to keep his squad in the game.
Telling Stat: Shouldn't have been close; Washington gained 300 more yards and 13 more first downs than Illiniois, but the Dawgs also were flagged 12 times for 104 yards and committed two turnovers which kept the Illini in the contest.
UCLA 38- Nebraska 21: Dealing with the death of a teammate and an early start time, the bRuins got off to a slow start. However after falling behind, 21-3 UCLA stormed back, scoring 38 unanswered points to shuck the Huskers. bRuin QB Brett Hundley had another good game, throwing for 294 yards and three TDs, while RB Jordan James led the UCLA ground assault with 105 yards and a TD on 22 carries. As for the Big Red, QB Taylor Martinez hit on 21 of 35 tosses for 203 yards and 3 TDs in the losing effort.
Telling Stat: bRuin shutdown; After giving up 185 yards and three TDs in the first 19:48 of the game, the UCLA defense shutdown Nebraska the rest of the way giving up only 152 yards and zero points over the last 40:12.
Arizona State 32- Wisconsin 30: So, lets see here. ASU RB Marion Grice crosses the double stripe four times and QB Taylor Kelly throws for 352 yards. Meanwhile, Badger RB Melvin Gordon racks up 193 yards and two TDs on just 15 carries, and nobody cares. The only thing anyone is talking about with regards to this game is how the refs got put in a strange situation and botched the end of the game. I'll talk about it further down in this blog, but remember that before the bizarre finish, this was one really good back-and-forth game.
Telling Stat: They ran out their clock; The refs let the clock run out on Wisconsin.
Arizona 38- UTSA 13: The Wildcats continued their early season cupcake feast with a win over BCS newbie, the Texas-San Antonio Roadrunners. UofA QB B.J. Denker completed 14 of 21 passes for 158 yards and one TD, while rushing for 90 yards and two more scores to lead the Wildcat attack. Wildcat RB Ka'Deem Carey had a good night, leading all rushers with 128 yards on 27 carries and two TDs of his own. UTSA QB Eric Soza threw for 277 yards and an interception in a losing cause.
Telling Stat: A quiet second half; Up 24-6 at the half, UofA used RB Ka'Deem Carey to run clock. 16 of Carey's 27 rushes came in the second half.
Oregon 59- Tennessee 14: The Volunteers came to Autzen Stadium with the idea of stopping Duck QB Marcus Mariota from running all over them. Mariota just threw all over them instead. Mariota torched the Volunteer secondary completing 23 of 33 passes for 456 yards and four TDs. The rest of the offense was pretty good too. UO ran up 687 yards on the hapless Vols. As for Tennesee's offense, they had a bookend kind of game. It looked good with a TD to start the game and one to end the game with nothing in between.
Telling Stat: It could have been worse; Oregon called off the dogs up 59-7 at the end of the third quarter. The Ducks could have had 700 yards and 70 points.
Fresno State- Colorado PPD: Due to torrential rains hitting the Boulder area, the Colorado- Fresno State game was postponed. The flooding from the torrential rains was so bad that most of Boulder was evacuated and many residents had to be moved out of flood damaged homes. No makeup date has been scheduled.
Oregon State 51- Utah 48 OT: While, everyone was watching the ASU-Wisconsin game, the best game of the weekend was going on in Utah. Everyone also missed OSU QB Sean Mannion's clutch play down the stretch. He converted two fourth downs late and threw the game-winning TD pass in overtime. For the game, Mannion completed 27 of 44 passes for 443 yards and five TDs. Just as impressive on the other side of the ball was Utah QB Tyler Wilson. He threw for 279 yards and 2 TDs while running 13 times for 142 yards and three more TDs. Even though there wasn't much defense in the game, the Beaver defense did make the stop of the game when they held Utah to a field goal in overtime.
Telling Stat: 2 guys did the damage; Of the 1,030 yards and 99 points racked up by the two teams, the two QBs accounted for 852 total yards and 60 points.
Washington State 48- Southern Utah 10: The Cougars didn't suffer any hangover off their upset of USC and whipped the Thunderbirds up in Pullman. Wazzu QB Connor Halliday connected on 32 of 41 passes for 383 yards and five TDs. The Cougar defense picked off three SUU passes and held the Thunderbirds in check the whole game.
Telling Stat: 0 for 40:55; After giving up a TD with 10:55 in the second quarter, Wazzu shut Southern Utah out the rest of the way in this laugher.
Ohio State 52- California 34: Braxton who? The Buckeyes didn't miss injured QB Braxton Miller as they raced to an early 21-0 lead en route to a win over the Golden Bears. QB Kenny Guiton filled in well for Miller, connecting on 21 of 32 aerials for 276 yards and four TDs. RB Jordan Hall led the ground game for the boys from Columbus, toting the rock 30 times for 168 yards and three TDs. For Cal, QB Jeff Goff threw for 371 yards and three TDs in the loss.
Telling Stat: Just too deep of a hole to crawl out of; After falling behind 21-0 in the first six minutes of the game, Cal outscored Thee OSU 34-31 the rest of the way, but they couldn't get back in the game.
Notre Dame 31- Purdue 24: The Fighting Irish got two huge plays as part of a 21 point fourth quarter to earn a win over the Boilermakers. With the game knotted at 17-17, QB Timmy Rees found WR DaVaris Daniels and 82 yards later, the Irish were up 24-17. Then a little over a minute later, LB Bennett Jackson picked off Purdue QB Rob Henry and took it 34 yards to the house to put ND up 31-17. The Boilermakers did make a game of it, cutting the ND lead to just seven points when Henry hooked up WR Justin Sinz from nine yards out. However, Purdue would never threaten again and ND came away with the win. For ND, QB Tommy Rees threw for 309 yards and 2 TDs.
Telling Stat: A big 10; Notre Dame ran the last 7:22 to win the game on the back of RB Cam McDaniel. He carried the ball on 10 out of NDs 13 plays to end the game.
Observations
...He is the Crescent City; I know I mentioned it in the departments section, but how cool is it that Tulane's starting running back has a first name of Orleans?
...Looking like a second half team; UCLA is 2-0. In the second half of those two wins, the bRuins have outscored their opponents 72-7. That stat is Pete Carroll-esque in the halftime adjustment department.
...Feels like Cuban baseball; Stanford's style of play reminds me of the motto of the Cienfuegos Elephantes of the old, Pre-Castro, Cuban Baseball league. Their motto was: The pace of the elephant is slow, yet crushing. The Cardinal have crushed a lot of people lately.
...They just didn't know; Rice didn't get the memo that Kansas had the schematic advantage. Because if they did, they would realize that they couldn't have beaten Kansas 23-14 like they did on Saturday.
...Not my team but; I really would have liked for Oregon to put up 80 on Tennessee.
...Three up, Three down; Northwestern, Baylor, and Ole Miss are in the the AP top 25 poll. USC, Texas, and Nebraska aren't.
...Not my team but- Part II; I'm really glad Alabama beat Texas A&M.
...They won, but lost; Iowa came way with a 27-21 over Iowa State to claim the Cy-Hawk rivalry trophy on Saturday, but some of the players and coaches couldn't tell anybody about it. Nine Iowa players and coaches had their cellphones and cash stolen form the visitor's locker room.
...This just in; Oregon State QB Sean Mannion is really, really good.
...One tough coach; Minnesota HC Jerry Kill left at halftime of his squad's 29-12 win over Western Illinois due to an epileptic seizure. This was the fourth time in three seasons he's had a seizure during a game. Running a major college program is tough enough without having to do it while dealing with epilepsy. Kill is one tough guy.
...That'll make 'em feel good; Does anyone think it makes Wisconsin feel any better at all that the Pac 12 has reprimanded the refs that screwed up the end of the ASU- Wisconsin game? I don't think so.
...Bears over Quacks; The Ducks have run 216 offensive plays in three games. That's pretty impressive, but California has run the most in the nation at 284 offensive plays. That's a cool 93 plays per game. Wow.
Anatomy of an Epic Fail: The ASU-Wisconsin Finish
1. The Wisconsin QB's kneel down was pretty bad. If he had just fallen down, this whole thing would have been avoided.
2. In that situation, the refs have to be ready for a kneel down to put the ball in the middle of the field for a placekick.
3. Even with the way the ASU defensive line reacted to the ball on the ground, the umpire acted like an idiot. He took a long time to get the ball spotted and then he lingered over it for a few seconds. If he'd gotten out of the way two seconds sooner, the Badgers still would have killed the clock and gotten their field goal attempt.
4. There is no way it should take 18 seconds to spot the football and mark it for play. Even with all the uproar over the kneel down, it shouldn't have happened. The spread teams all get the ball marked for play in an average of six seconds. This was a joke.
This Week's Three Notes About Nothing...
I love the Mosh Pit Mac'n Cheese at Rock & Brews
I actually spent some time cleaning windows last week.
Sometimes you can get some really good cheap sunglasses.
Until next time folks remember that good things can happen when you let your Tight Ends catch passes.
-The Commissioner
