Hey All,
It must be Tuesday because here's another edition of Notes on a Pac 12 Scorecard. We still miss you, Alan Malamud.
Summaries
USC 17- Utah State 14: The Trojan defense carried the day because they had to in this lackluster game at the Coliseum. They carried the day by shutting down explosive Utah State QB Chuckie Keeton limiting him to just 179 yards through the air and -15 yards rushing. Meanwhile, the USC offense still looks like it needs a GPS to find the endzone. RB Tre Madded remained an early season bright spot for USC by rushing for 93 yards and a TD. The rare sight of a USC TE catching a pass also occurred in the game when Xavier Grimble hauled in a 30-yard aerial form QB Cody Kessler for USC's other TD in the contest. The win makes the Trojans the most unimpressive 3-1 team in the nation.
Telling Stat: A doink = A W; Utah State PK Nick Diaz's first quarter, 37-yard field goal attempt banged off the right upright and that was the difference in the game.
Washington 56- Idaho State 0: It got late early at Husky Stadium as the Dawgs raced out to 42-0 halftime lead in this rout over the Bengals from the Big Sky Conference. QB Keith Price completed 16 of 21 passes for 213 yards and three TDs in the first half. He didn't play the second half and neither did most of the UW starters as it turned into everybody gets their letter day for the Huskies.
Telling Stat: Just 10; While the UW offense was running wild over the Bengals in the first half, the Husky defense held ISU to 10 total yards for the first 30 minutes.
Oregon State 34- San Diego State 30: Coming off last week's thrilling overtime win at Utah, the Beavers looked horrible for most of the game at SDSU. The Aztecs looked strong and held a 27-14 lead at the end of three quarters. Then the Beavers put together a great fourth quarter and escaped from Qualcomm Stadium with a victory. OSU QB Sean Mannnion got his team back in the game with two TD passes in the fourth quarter, but the real hero for the Beavers was CB Steve Nelson. He picked off SDSU QB Quinn Kaehler with 2:31 left to play and took it back 16 yards for the game-winning TD. Mannion finished the game hitting on 38 of 55 passes for 367 yards and 3 TDs, while Kaehler finished with 251 yards through the air, 2 TDs, and two big interceptions for the Aztecs.
Telling Stat: Good when they had to be; Over the last 9:45 of the game. the OSU defense held SDSU to nine total yards of offense and picked off two passes, returning the second one of those passes for the game-winning TD.
Stanford 42- Arizona State 28: When you look at the final score of this game, it looks like it was a pretty good battle up on The Farm. It wasn't. Stanford slapped ASU around for the first three quarters before the Sun Devils got up off the deck and made the game look like it was competitive in the final period. The Cardinal built up a 29-0 halftime lead behind 2 TD passes from QB Kevin Hogan, a pair of TD runs from RBs Anthony Wilkerson and Tyler Gaffney and a safety off a botched punt. ASU did manage to make some noise on the fourth quarter scoring 21 straight points before Stanford capped off the scoing for the day with a final field goal. RB Tyler Gaffney led all rushers with 87 yards on 18 carries and two TDs. ASU QB Taylor Kelly completed 30 of 55 tosses for 367 yards, 3 TDs and 2 picks.
Telling Stat: 30 minute defense; Stanford set the tone for the game early by holding ASU to 84 total yards and just 5 first downs while forcing one turnover and blocking a punt in a dominating first half defensive display.
Utah 20- BYU 13: They Call it the Holy War when these two get together and for the fourth straight year the Utes won the Holy War. The Utes built up a 13-0 halftime lead behind a strong effort from the Utah defense, two field goals from PK Andy Phillips and a 1-yard TD pass from QB Travis Wilson to WR Anthony Denham. BYU did rally in the second half, but CB Michael Walker sealed the game for the Utes when he picked off a pass from Cougar QB Taysom Hill on his own 17-yard line with 1:37 to play. Wilson finished with 273 yards passing and threw for both of Utah's TDs in the victory, Hill finished with 260 yards and one big interception for the Cougars.
Telling Stat: Turnovers kill; BYU beat Utah in almost every statistical category except for one. BYU's 1-0 loss of the turnover battle cost the Cougars the game.
Washington State 42- Idaho 0; The Cougars came out and got a good workout in for the first half then cruised the rest of the way in this laugher in the Palouse. QB Connor Halliday led the Cougar attack completing 31 of 43 tosses for 346 yards and 4 TDs, torching the hapless Vandal defense. Meanwhile, the WSU defense easily kept the Vandals form getting nowhere near the endzone.
Telling Stat: No Vandalism in Pullman; While the Cougar offense built a 28-0 first half lead, the Cougar defense easily stopped Idaho holding the Vandals to 78 total first half yards, forcing 5 punts and two turnovers in the process.
UCLA 59- New Mexico State 13: The bRuins turned the ball over on their first two drives of the game, then they got it together and smashed the Aggies at the Rose Bowl. bRuin QB Brett Hundley turned in another great day, completing 23 of 35 aerials for 280 yards and 3 TDs. RB Jordan James led the UCLA ground attack by rushing 19 times for 164 yards and a pair of scores. NMSU QB Andrew McDonald threw for 98 yard and a TD in the losing effort.
Tellling Stat: They whipped 'em with chains; UCLA racked up 39 first downs and 692 yards of offense on the hapless Aggies.
Notre Dame 17- Michigan State 13: Thanks largely to some huge pass interference calls and one big interception, the Fighting Irish managed to hold on for a tight win over the Spartans. In fact, all three ND scoring drives in the game were aided by timely penalties against the MSU. Neither team lit up the stat sheet in this one as the two squads combined for just 474 total yards of offense. ND QB Tommy Rees completed only 14 of 34 passes for 142 yards and a TD on the afternoon.
Telling Stat: 18 flags over South Bend; The refs got a lot of face time in this snoozer flagging the two squads 18 total times for 201 yards.
Observations
...Clawless cats; If Kansas State hadn't played so incredibly ineptly down the stretch, Texas HC Mack Brown would be known as Former Texas HC Mack Brown today.
...A stark Trojan reality; An SC team with a good defense and no offense to speak of just screams Hackett era to me.
...Cardinal over Crimson; Stanford could easily hang with and most likely beat Alabama.
...State of Washington 98- State of Idaho 0; UW and Wazzu easily crushed their foes from Idaho and Idaho State this weekend.
...This week's sign of the coming NCAA apocalypse; Active Players from different schools are now banding together to voice their frustrations with the NCAA. Players from Georgia, Georgia Tech and Northwestern took the field with APU written on parts of their uniforms. APU stands for All Players United. The players have a list of items that they are protesting that range from better concussion protocols to player compensation. It's looking like the NCAA is a dead organization walking.
...10-20 1/2; Oregon State beat San Diego State this past weekend despite running the ball 20 times for just 10 total rushing yards. That's a nifty 1/2 yard per arry average.
...Aggies go 0 for 2; USC and UCLA both beat teams that claim Aggies as their mascot last Saturday. Oh, and no, I haven't researched if USC and UCLA playing schools with the same mascot has happened before.
...Bookends in Pullman; Wazzu's 42-0 shutout of Idaho over the weekend was their first since 2003 when the Cougars shutout, (yup, you guessed it,) Idaho 25-0.
...How time goes by; Got to feel old twice while watching highlights of the New Mexico State- UCLA game. First time happened when I realized, New Mexico State QB Andrew McDonald is former Trojan QB Paul McDonald's youngest son. and then the second time happened when I saw Rick Neuheisel's son Jerry play QB in mop-up duty for the bRuins. Sigh.
...The last of the guests have arrived; The ancient eight teams of the Ivy League began their seasons last Saturday. So from Roar Lions, Roar to Old Nassau to Bulldog, Bulldog, Bow Wow Wow here's a small shoutout to the league that started this madness.
...A grounded Navy with no air support; The Naval Academy leads the nation in rushing yards per game with 398.0. while they rank 110th out of 123 teams in passing with a 154.0 yards per game through the air.
...The Trojan offense is really bad; How bad is it? The leading scorer on the team is PK Andre Heidari with 23 big points. Meanwhile Oregon's DeAnthony Thomas leads the Ducks with 36 points scored and he's played basically one half in each Oregon game.
...Seriously, dude, you're just a kicker; SJSU attempted an onside kick late in their 43-24 loss at Minnesota. The kicker, Harrison Waid didn't like the way he was knocked down on the play and got up swinging. He was called for a flagrant personal foul and ejected. It had to have happened before, but I can't remember the last time a kicker was ejected from a game.
...A noble gesture for their fallen teammate; UCLA honored recently deceased teammate Nick Pasquale by lining up for their first play v. New Mexico State last Saturday with only 10 men. The missing man form the formation was where Pasquale would have lined up at wideout.
...A major thought; What ever happened to Major Ogilvie? He was the fullback on the 1978 Alabama squad that USC beat in Birmingham, 24-14. I thought he had a great name when I was a kid. It ranks right up there with the name of Bama's QB at the time Steadman Shealy.
...Quietly making noise; Minnesota and Texas Tech are both 4-0.
...And then there were 13; There are currently 13 teams left in the FBS that are winless. They are Georgia State, SDSU, Hawaii, Western Michigan, Miami (OH), Massachusetts, Southern Mississippi, Idaho, New Mexico State, Iowa State, Connecticut, South Florida, and Temple.
...Another WTF moment for the NCAA; The powers that be at the bastion of hypocrisy known as the NCAA have decided to start handing scholarships back to Penn State. The NCAA says they are pleased with Penn State's progress in restoring the integrity to their athletics program. So, when does USC get some scholies back? Oh wait, never mind, the USC administration doesn't have the guts to fight back.
And now, this week's Three Notes About Nothing
A's Burgers rocks.
I'm totally looking forward to the season premiers of Modern Family and The Big Bang Theory this week.
I think I'm sinkin' down. Found a street named Carmelita last weekend.
Until next time folks, remember what Arizona State learned this last Saturday. They learned that everyone has a gameplan going into a fight until they get punched in the face.
-The Commissioner
