Hey All,
It's time again for the column that you love to read that isn't behind a paywall, Notes on a Pac 12 Scorecard. We still miss you, Bud Furillo.
Summaries
USC 33- Utah 17: Salt Lake City, UT- The Trojans were facing their third straight team that hadn't played a game yet when they took on the Utes at Rice-Eccles Stadium. Utah's lack of a deep threat on offense helped the Trojans defense concentrate on shutting down the Utes rushing attack. USC held Utah to just 111 yards rushing, but the Utes held USC to just 93 yards on the ground. So, it came down to who had the best passing attack to decide the game. That the Trojans had, even with QB Kedon Slovis still looking off all game which only fueled the rumors that he is injured in some way but still playing. Slovis completed 24 of 35 aerials for 264 yards and a pair of TDs. The Trojans forced four Utah turnovers and shut them out in the second half. Ute QB Jake Bentley completed 16 of 28 passes for 171 yards, A TD and two huge interceptions in the losing effort.
Telling Stat: A leg up in Salt Lake; USC Freshman PK Parker Lewis had an outstanding game in the cold Utah night. He was perfect on all his kicks including a 47-yarder to ice the game with 1:03 to play. That last kick would have been good from 57 yards as it was still rising as it passed over the crossbar.
Oregon State 31- California 27: Corvalis, OR- This game featured two squads looking for their first win to make a needed step forward with their respective programs. The teams traded punches from the opening kickoff with he Beavers having just a little bit more in the tank than the Golden Bears. OSU found the end zone on the first play form scrimmage when RB Jermar Jefferson ran through a hole in the Cal defense the size of Strawberry Canyon and sprinted 75-yards for a touchdown. OSU would tally another score and take a 14-7 lead at the end of the first period. The second stanza belonged to Cal. A 21-yard TD toss from QB Chase Garbers to WR Kekoa Crawford and a pair of FGs from PK Dario Longhetto put the Berkley Boys up 20-17 at the intermission. The third quarter saw both defenses assert themselves with the only score being a 35-yard FG by OSU PK Everett Hayes. The fourth quarter saw the teams trade TDs with Cal holding a 27-24 lead with 5:26 to play. That's when the Beavers special teams made the play of the game when they blocked Cal's punt to set up the offense with a first and ten at the Golden Bears 14-yard line. two plays later Jefferson knifed into the end zone form seven yards out and OSU led, 31-27. Cal then mounted one last drive to try and win the game. They drove the ball from their own 21 to the OSU 10-yard line only to have Garbers' 1st and Goal pass tipped high into the air and intercepted by OSU. The Beavers then ran out the clock and picked up their first win of the year. Big stat games for both teams here with Jefferson carrying the ball 18 times for 196 yards and two TDs. As for the now 0-2 Bears, Garbers compete 28 of 42 passes for 315 yards and three TDs.
Telling Stat: Red Zone picks for the win; Cal statistically won this game, but Oregon State picked off two Cal passes inside their own 10-yard line to hold on for the win.
Washington 44- Arizona 27: Seattle, WA- The Huskies used a 17-point first quarter en route to a 24-0 half-time lead over the Wildcats. They then extended that lead to 37-0 through three quarters. The Dawgs then held a 44-6 lead with 11:34 left play before taking the rest of the game off while Arizona put up a lot of garbage time yards and points in game that truly was nowhere near as close as the final score indicates. The UW Offense routinely drove for long scores in the game while the Husky defense kept he Wildcats bottled up for the first three plus quarters. In fact, UofA had been held to 46 total yards until :58 were left in the third quarter. The Husky offense buried the Wildcats with a balanced attack that threw for 239 yards and rushed for 233. QB Dylan Morris completed 15 of 25 passes for 230 yards and two TDs while backfield mate RB Richard Newton led all rushers with 81 yards on eight carries and a pair of TDs of his own. TE Cade Otton (Brad's nephew) was the game's top receiver with seven catches for 100 yards and a score. As for the Wildcats, QB Grant Gunnell threw for 259 yards and three scores long after the game was firmly in the W column for the Dawgs.
Telling Stat; Positive Negatives; The Washington defense held three Arizona drives for negative yards while also forcing a fumble, a turnover on downs and five punts which allowed the Huskies offense build up a 44-6 lead early in the fourth quarter.
Oregon State 38- UCLA 35: Eugene, OR- The bRuins came prepared for a duck hunt. Even with their starting QB out due to COVID tracing, the offense still clicked with backup Chase Griffin at the controls. However, the turnover bug and one real bad play call kept the bRuins form leaving Eugene with a huge upset in HC Chip Kelly's return to the land of Phil Knight. UCLA turned the ball over twice in the first quarter and that staked the Ducks to a quick 14-0 lead. UCLA fought the Quacks tough the rest of the half. UCLA led 21-17 thanks to a one-yard run by RB Demetric Felton, a fumble return for a TD by DB Qwuantrezz Knight and a 32-yard TD reception by TE Greg Dulcich. Then, with :06 left in the half the bRuins eschewed the idea of falling on the ball and taking a lead into the break. They threw one last pass and it was picked off by UO's Jordan Happle who took the rock back 58-yards for a TD. The Bruins would never hold the lead again. It was a back and forth affair in the second half, but UO maintained their lead with strong scoring drives and key defensive stops. The Ducks were finally able to claim the victory when Griffin's fourth down pass with :19 left fell harmlessly to the Autzen Stadium turf. For the Ducks, QB Tyler Shough completed 19 of 34 tosses for 334 yards and there TDs. For the hard luck bRuins, Griffin threw for 195 yards and a TD while Felton tore up the Ducks defense for 167 yards on 34 carries with two TDs.
Telling Stat: -3=L; Once again turnovers killed the UCLA. No other stat matters in this game.
Observations
...CBS even said no; How unattractive of a matchup did the Missouri-South Carolina game have to be in order for CBS to choose to televise San Diego State at Nevada instead? Yes, CBS did originally have Ole Miss at Texas A&M lined up for that the slot, but when the game got cancelled, the execs at the Columbia Broadcasting System looked at Mizzou and SoCar and said, "Yeah, we'll pass." Hmmmmmmm
...A tool, and bragging rights; This Friday after Thanksgiving features two Pac 12 rivalry games. Stanford travels to Cal to try and win the Axe back while Oregon and Oregon State will face-off in another edition of The Civil War.
...Cowboys blues; Yeah, they are singing the blues in Stillwater after Okie State was crushed by OU... again. I say again, because it is just par for the course in this series. I call this matchup a series instead of a rivalry because Oklahoma owns a 89-18-7 series edge.
...Ducking with Dabo; After FSU called off their game with Clemson due to a Clemson player testing positive for COVID who made the trip and had practiced with the team all week, Tigers HC Dabo Swinney accused FSU of ducking out of the game. FSU HC Mike Norvell denied the accusation in what has become a war of words between the two coaches. Swinney comes off looking like a bigger tool than we already thought he was. Duck Duck Tiger
...We miss 'em too; UCLA HC Chip Kelly remarked on how weird it was to be at Autzen Stadium and not see Puddles, the Duck mascot. A lot of us Pac 12 fans are missing our mascots too. SC games just ain't the same without Traveller.
...Defense there's a defense; Pretty cool to see Northwestern winning with defense in this era of overblown offenses.
...Hit by a Cyclone; This intrepid reporter would love to see Iowa State work over Texas this week in the same say way they blew K-State off the field last Saturday.
...Third and Perfection; Last Tuesday, Kent State ran up 750 yards in a 69-35 rout of Akron. What's more impressive is that the Golden Flashes went a perfect 11 for 11 on third down conversions. That makes the Golden Flashes the only FBS team in the last 25 years to be perfect on third downs.
...Somewhere Ara Parseghian is smiling; Northwestern's upset win over Wisconsin marked the Wildcats first double digit win over a Top Ten team since 1959 when Parseghian's Wildcats blasted #2 Oklahoma, 45-13 to open the season.
...Pac 12 After Dark done; With the curfew restrictions in California, universities are not going to seek a special waiver for late kickoffs. That means for the most part that those dreaded 7:30 and later Pac 12 kickoff are mostly out for the rest of the season.
...A sad cancellation; This year's Thanksgiving battle between the Tough Turkeys and the Cranberry Crushers has been cancelled due to COVID social distancing concerns.
...3 OT; Don't know what's worse, is it the fact that Rutgers blew a lead to Michigan and lost in triple OT or the fact that Michigan had to go to triple OT to beat the State College of New Jersey?
...A stolen trophy; Here's a good story of how The Axe was stolen in the Stanford -Cal rivalry 60 years ago. The Axe is Missing!
...This just in; Penn State still stinks. The Nittany Lions are generationally bad at 0-5 for the first time in program history. What's really staggering is PSU's lack of team speed. Their games always look like someone put the video feed on Slo-Mo.
...Another only in 2020 moment; In the third quarter of USC's win over Utah, all of ESPN's camera feeds went out. That caused quite a stir because the announcers for the game were calling the game from their respective homes. That meant that nobody was able to describe the action. That sent many of us scrambling for our radios to listen to the game until the camera feeds returned. Part of me wanted to flip on the radio and hear Tom Kelly's voice calling the acton for the Trojans.
...Fun Fact; Arizona HC Kevin Sumlin's Wildcats are a dismal, 2-10 in road games since he took over the program in 2018.
...Be careful what you wish for; The folks at Nebraska whined, cajoled, protested and otherwise threw a hissy fit to play football this year. Well, they got to play. The Huskers are 1-3 and are a late defensive stop against Penn State from being the true laughing stock of the Big Ten. Maybe their zeal was a little shortsighted or as this lovely meme says about their desire to play...
Pac 12 Overreactions
- Colorado loves having an extra week to get ready for USC.
- Oregon got exposed last week.
- USC still has no O-line.
- Stanford will go 2-3.
- Washington will beat Oregon.
- Arizona State just hopes to play again this season.
- UCLA will have a letdown this week.
- Arizona will go 0-6.
- Oregon State will go 3-3
- Wazzu might play this week.
- Cal will beat Stanford.
- Utah may go 0-4.
Ugly Uniform of the Week
This week's honor goes to the Los Angeles Rams. Their all bone colored ensemble just looks like dingy tighty-whities before you toss them to go get real underwear. Also, the Rams pretentious names for team colors are awful . Forever the LA Rams wore Royal Blue, Athletic Gold and White. Now they wear Royal, Sol, and Bone. Facepalm.
Heck, I'd take these old Billy Wade era Ram uniforms over their new ones anytime.
Departments
Low Score Game of the Week: Evanston, IL- In the lowest scoring game in college football last week, the Northwestern Wildcats shutdown the Wisconsin Badgers 17-7, to go 5-0 and claim the inside track to the Big Ten West title and a spot in the Big Ten Championship Game. The Wildcats did it with defense. They took the vaunted Badgers rushing attack and held it to 136 yards. Meanwhile, NU's pass defense picked off Wisconsin QB Greg Mertz three times and sacked him three times as well. For the Wildcats offense QB Peyton Ramsey complete 23 of 44 passes for 203 yards and two TDs. PK Charlie Kuhbander put the game out of reach for NU when he tacked on a 32-yard field goal with 11:35 to play.
Blowout Game of the Week: Sioux City, IA- Well folks, the Defenders from Dordt University grace this section once again. This time they walloped the Briar Cliff Chargers, 64-0. Then Defenders racked up 711 yards of offense in this laugher. 437 of their 711 yards came on the ground with RB Jake Carroll amassing 170 yards on just nine carries with two TDs. QB Noah Clayburg thew for 199 yards an three TDs to lead the Defenders aerial attack.
Razorback Report: Fayetteville, AR- The Hogs came into their game with LSU down to just a handful of defensive linemen thanks to COVID and put up a valiant effort in a 27-24 loss to the Bayou Bengals. Despite the defense being worn down and just unable to get off the field, the Razorbacks still held a 24-20 lead deep into the fourth quarter. The dead-tired Hogs defense just could not keep LSU out of the end zone on their final drive and suffered a tough loss.
This Week's One Note About Thanksgiving...
This will be a strange one, with gatherings small and many loved ones scattered about the land. However, we must thankful we still have them around, even if at a distance. Many families have empty spots at their tables that will never be filled again. Stay safe folks, and hopefully we see a better Thanksgiving next year.
Until next time folks, remember that just you still have to be able to run the ball when it counts to win games.
-The Commissioner
