Hey all,
Here's another edition of then column that lets you relive last weekend, Notes on a Pac 12 Scorecard. We still miss you, Mal Florence.
Summaries
Oregon 45- UCLA 30: Eugene, OR- The marquee game of this past weekend's light Pac 12 schedule featured the undefeated, but not road tested bRuins going to Autzen to take on the once beaten Ducks. It was also yet another homecoming in Quackland for UCLA HC Chip Kelly. What Kelly saw unfold on the field was eerily similar to what his Mallard Men used to do to visiting teams. The squads traded early blows and sat tied at 10-10 with 12:38 to play in the second quarter after UCLA QB Dorian Thompson-Robinson threw a short pass to RB Keegan Jones who took it the rest of the way for a 36-yard TD. Oregon took the ball on the ensuing kickoff and in five plays later covered 75 yards to take the lead back for good when RB Jordan James crossed the double stripe form two yards out. Then the Ducks turned the game on its' ear. UO PK Andrew Boyle executed a perfect onside kick and recovered it himself on the Ducks 46-yard line. That was all the Men of Oregon needed to spark a 28-6 run. The start of the fourth quarter saw the dazed and confused bRuins staring up at the wrong end of a 38-16 score. UCLA did manage to win in the final period 14-7, but it just wasn't enough. This game seemed to be a lot closer than it looked. Neither defense played well. Each team was only stopped once on offense on drives that didn't involve a kneel down to end a half. However, Oregon wasn't going to settle for anything less than touchdowns while UCLA settled for ending three drives with field goals. Webfoot QB Bo Nix kept his string of great games going by completing 22 of 28 passes for 283 yards and five TDs. He also ran for 51 yards on eight carries. In the jarring loss, Thompson-Robinson completed 27 of 39 passes for 262 yards, two TDs and an interception.
Telling Stat: 1+1 = W; The one extra possession Oregon stole on the onside kick plus the fourth quarter interception in their own end zone gave the Ducks the win over the bRuins.
Stanford 15- Arizona State 14: Palo Alto, CA- It was Homecoming up on The Farm and the small gathering that passed for a crowd at Stanford Stadium saw a vintage David Shaw-style grinder of a game. The Cardinal trailed 7-6 early as PK Josh Karty's pair of early field goals was topped by a 15-yard TD jaunt form ASU RB Xazavian Valladay. ASU would extend that lead to 14-6 in the second quarter when QB Emory Jones connected with WR Elijah Badger for a 39-yard TD toss. The score stood that way into the break. After the break Stanford dominated the game in the second half. The Cardinal defense stymied the Sun Devils while their offense churned up yards and chewed up the clock. They also got three more field goals from Karty. Karty's fifth scoring kick came from 47 yards with 6:28 to play and ended up being the game-winning kick. ASU's final chance to win the game did come with a bit of controversy as the Jones completed a pass to Badger at the Stanford one-yard line with five seconds left on the clock only to see the completion overturned on replay. ASU's fourth down pass after that fell incomplete and the Cardinal had their first Pac 12 win since beating Oregon 31-24 on 10-2-2021.
Telling Stat: A Cardinal wall; The Stanford defense made a comeback win with just five field goals a reality by shutting down the ASU offense in the second half. The Sun Devils Never got closer than the Stanford 34-yard line in the final 30 minutes.
Oregon State 42- Colorado 9: Corvallis, OR- After grabbing their first win of the season last week, the Buffaloes found themselves back on the losing side of things at Reser Stadium. The Beavers built up a 21-3 lead at the half and then put the game away early in the third quarter. TE Jack Velling put Bucky's Boys up 28-3 with a 60-yard TD reception to start the third quarter. Then on the ensuing possession, DB Alex Austin picked off CU QB J.T. Shrout and took it back 42-yards for a score top put the Beavers up 35-3. The game was basically a glorified scrimmage from that point on. For the victorious Beavers, RB Damien Martinez carved up the CU defense, gaining 178 yards on 22 carries with three TDs. His backfield mate, QB Ben Gulbranson turned in a solid performance, completing 14 of 22 aerials for 202 yards and two TDs. For the hapless Buffs, Shrout completed 13 of 29 for 206 yards and two interceptions.
Telling Stat: Dammed up; Buffaloes just couldn't move the chains, converting on just 2 of 11 3rd downs.
Washington 28- California 21: Berkeley, CA- The night cap of the Pac 12 slate featured a strange affair that saw the Huskies dominate every statistical category in the first half and hold just a 6-0 lead over the Golden Bears to start the third quarter. Then Cal took the third quarter kickoff and drove right down the field to take a 7-6 lead over the Dawgs when QB Jack Plummer threw an eight-yard TD pass the WR J. Michael Sturdivant. The Huskies would strike right back to retake the lead when RB Cameron Davis took a six-yard walk to the end zone through the Cal defense. The Huskies then ran one of the cooler two-point conversion plays I've ever seen to go up 14-7. On their next possession, Cal worked the Plummer to Sturdivant connection again to tie the game. This time the pass covered 48 yards. The Huskies would answer that score right away with 13-yard TD pass from QB Michael Penix, Jr. to WR Jalen McMillan. The Huskies now led 21-14 and wouldn't trail again for two reasons. The first reason is that they realized that they had to cover Cal WR J. Michael Sturdivant. The second reason is that Cal's OL stinks. Cal did have chances to tie the game late, but the UW defense just snuffed out any hopes of Cal sending the game to OT with heavy pressure on the QB. In the win, Penix, Jr completed 36 of 52 tosses for 374 yards and two TDs for the Dawgs, while Plummer completed 21 of 34 passes for 245 yards and three TDs for the Golden Bears in the tough loss.
Telling Stat: 5 keeps the win alive; The Washington defense sacked Cal QB Jack Plummer five times and harassed him and hit him many times to secure a victory.
Observations
...No end zone needed; Stanford is 2-0 in their last two games and has scored just one touchdown. In fact the Cardinal haven't found paydirt in the last 110:05 of game time. Wow.
...The gift of grab; Purdue did lose to 35-24 to Wisconsin, but Boilermaker WR Charlie Jones sure made one of best catches of the season. He caught it!
...Buzzin' in the Capitol City; The Sacramento State Hornets are 7-0 for the first time in school history and sit atop the standings in the Big Sky Conference.
...Pheeling Philly; The Phillies have made the World Series, The Eagles are undefeated and the Phighting Quakers of Penn are also undefeated. Somewhere Chuck Badnarik is smiling.
...Memo to Oregon fans and media; Yes, the Ducks have been nothing short of stellar in their last six wins. Please quit trying to tell the rest of us to forget about your one loss. Your butts got whipped by Georgia, 49-3 to open the year. That loss counts. Oh, and your epic failure on the national stage just about wiped out whatever credibility the Pac 12 had left coming into the season. Live with it, own it.
...Hard to fathom; I like to watch Texas lose football games like a lot of folks, but how can the Longhorns get flagged 14 times for 119 yards while their hosts, the Oklahoma State Cowboys not get penalized once? Hmmmmm.
...Turf tale; Do you want to know how a grounds crew puts a field back together after the fans storm it in celebration of a huge win? Check out this story from ESPN on how the they did it at Tennessee last week. The Real Field Generals
...Unexpected help; USC's strength of schedule might improve because of Rice. Huh? The Fightin' White Owls are 4-3 and have a shot to win Conference-USA.
...MWC craziness; 10 of the 12 Mountain West schools are still in the running for their respective division titles. Could be a case of tie breaker craziness at the end of the year. Whoa.
...NFL Stripes fail; We all know referees love the game. We also know a lot of them collect memorabilia from games, but dude this isn't allowed in the NFL Refs CBA. Can we have your autograph?
...Another one gone; The Charlotte 49ers have fired HC Will Healy after his team dropped to 1-7 after a 34-15 beating at the hands of Florida International. Healy finishes with a 15-24 overall record.
...Cruise control; TheeOSU won't be challenged until they host Michigan on 11/26.
...A very Jersey name; It is fitting that Rutgers, the official state college of New Jersey, has an OC named Nunzio... Nunzio Campanile.
...Time flies; remember a few weeks ago when Kansas was undefeated? Good times.
...Huh?; Here's your rambling, what is he talking about, Mike Leach presser for this week. Hands? ok
...Low rent district; You can easily tell by the feed interruptions, muffled sound, poor camera angles and flat out lack of additional cameras that ESPN just doesn't care about the quality of their late night Pac 12 games.
...Just quad-awful; Weber State long snapper, Grant Sands had just about the the worst day that could happen to anyone playing his position. He set an FCS record with four bad snaps that went for safeties in the Wildcats 43-38 loss to Montana State. The Wildcats were undefeated and ranked #5 in the FCS before dropping this game to the #3 Bobcats.
...Mean Stat riddle; What do Colorado, Colorado State and Massachusetts have in common? They are the only three FBS schools to have scored less points this year than Iowa. The absolute worst scoring offense in the nation on any level is D-III's Westminister College (MO). The Blue Jays have scored just 26 points in seven games this year.
...Turmoil in Aggieland; Things haven't been good for Texas A&M this year to say the least. Not only have the 3-4 Aggies just announced the loss of three OL starters for the year due to injury, but it has also just come down that three, possibly four, freshman from their top ranked 2022 recruiting class have been suspended indefinitely for an incident in the locker room at halftime of their game at South Carolina last Saturday.
Pac 12 Overreactions
USC had a quiet bye week. Haven't seen that in awhile.
Colorado is still a 1-11 team.
Oregon State is Sun Bowl bound.
Stanford will score another TD this year... eventually.
Oregon keeps pretending Georgia never happened.
Arizona will whip ASU this year.
Cal will go 5-7.
Wazzu will go 6-6.
UCLA is now afraid of road trips.
Arizona State's defense still can't believe they lost last Saturday.
Utah ain't looking forward to playing at Wazzu this Thursday night.
Washington can't believe they had to come form behind to beat Cal.
Cool Looking Uniform of the Week
I don't think anybody else in college has a sky blue and green color scheme like Tulane and they can sure make it look good.
Departments
Low Score Game of the Week: Valley, AL- Let's take a trip to the NAIA ranks for this Mid-South Conference game where the Point University Skyhawks defeated the Union College Bulldogs, 16-13. PK Quinn Vega's 31-yard FG with 2:49 left completed the comeback win for the Skyhawks. QB Mitchell Gossett threw for both of PU's TDs in the Homecoming victory.
Blowout Game of the Week: Yankton, SD- We now stay in the NAIA ranks where the Morningside (IA) Mustangs traveled west and smashed the Mount Mary Lancers, 77-0. The Mustangs are a perennial power in NAIA football while the Lancers are only in their second year as a football program. The Mustangs built up a 56-0 halftime lead then sat their starters down the rest of the way. QB Joe Dolincheck threw for 346 yards and four TDs to lead the scoring onslaught along with RB Ryan Cole who ran for 118 yards with four TDs.
Razorback Report: The Razorbacks had a bye and will travel to Auburn to take on the Tigers this Saturday. I do have knowledge that at least one Razorback fan spent this past Saturday night enjoying homemade lemon meringue pie and pecan pie at the local church potluck dinner.
This Week's Three Things About Nothing...
Picking out movies with my wife for our holiday watch list involved a lot more deliberation than I thought it would.
People who give out candy corn on Halloween are as bad the people that give out granola or pencils.
It's hard to argue against the Reese's Peanut Butter Cup being one of the top three candies of all-time.
Until next time folks, remember that offense sells tickets, but defense wins games and special teams wins championships.
-The Commissioner
