PAC-12 Week 6 Round Up

Cary Edmondson-USA TODAY Sports

Even without our wonderful Trojans playing this week we still had some great games to watch out of the PAC-12. Three of the conference’s five games were decided by a touchdown or less. Our top three highest ranked teams all stayed unbeaten proving the PAC-12 is once again the real deal. Lets dive in and look at each game from this exhilarating weekend.

#12 UCLA- 34 Utah- 27

The weekend started off with a bang as UCLA and Utah had a Thursday night showdown. UCLA quarterback Brett Hundley threw for a touchdown, ran for a touchdown, and oh yeah he caught on too. With 13:23 left in the game Hundley threw a pick six which led to the game being tied at 24, but he followed that up with a great drive where he converted two third downs to set up the go-ahead field goal. UCLA forced an interception and Hundley then ran for 38 yards to put the Bruins up by ten. The Utes were able to score a field goal and recover the onside kick but quarterback Travis Wilson threw his sixth interception of the game to finally end it. With the win UCLA starts the season 4-0, for the first time since 2005.

Washington St- 44 Cal- 22

Connor Halliday threw for 521 yards and three touchdowns as he led Washington State to a win over Cal for the first time in eight years. Cal’s freshman quarterback Jared Goff had his third 400 yard passing game but the offense got zero help from the defense. Cal now has a nine game losing streak to FBS opponents,they beat lower division Portland St. for their one win this season, the last time they won one was October 13, 2012 against none other but Washington St.

#2 Oregon- 57 Colorado- 16

Incase you haven’t already heard Oregon has one heck of a quarterback in Marcus Mariota. He has been putting up Heisman numbers all season and Saturday wasn’t any different. He threw for five touchdowns and added another two with his legs, and he hasn’t even played a full game all season. Oregon has scored at least 55 points in all their games this season and the starters are usually yanked in the third quarter. Even without superstar running back De’Anthony Thomas, who is recovering from an ankle injury, the Ducks still had 349 yards on the ground. The Ducks will face their toughest opponent yet this season when they go to Washington next week.

#22 Arizona State- 34 Notre Dame- 37

Notre Dame barely squeaked by ASU in the showdown at Dallas Cowboy Stadium. ASU was coming off a huge win after torching USC but the Irish caught them sleeping and capitalized on the Sun Devil mistakes. Three ASU turnovers proved to be their undoing, especially the pick six Taylor Kelly threw in the final two minutes of the game. Notre Dame took a 37-27 lead after the pick six but Taylor Kelly was able to throw one more touchdown to cut it within three. With eleven seconds left on the clock Notre Dame recovered the onside kick and took the knee that finally ended the game.

#15 Washington- 28 #2 Stanford- 31

This game was expected to be the best of the week and it lived up to the expectations. Ty Montgomery had 290 all-purpose yards and two touchdowns and was the difference maker in the battle of the unbeaten. The night started out with a bang when Montgomery brought back the opening kickoff 99 yards for a score. The half ended with Stanford leading 17-7, but Washington had 21 second half points to give them a chance to win it. Trailing by three and with time at a minimum the Huskies faced a 4th and 10, one they would need to convert in order to stay alive. Keith Price scrambled out of the pocket, stiff armed a defender and threw a 16 yard pass to Kevin Smith who was diving towards the sideline. The throw was initially called a catch but the play was eventually reversed in favor of Stanford. The Huskies have no time to lament over this loss because the number two ranked Oregon Ducks are coming to town and they have yet to be slowed down.

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Week six proved to be an entertaining one and we can only hope more comes in week seven. The Pac-12 has three teams undefeated and two of them are ranked in the top five. Next week starts on Thursday night as USC holds their first ever Thursday game, and battle with Arizona. The storyline of this one will be: Life without Lane Kiffin.