PAC-12 Round-Up: Week 10

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On paper week ten in the PAC-12 looked boring and uneventful, but week this week taught us a lot about the teams in our conference. Even with Oregon and Stanford on a BYE week the other teams stepped up and brought us some fun football to watch. A Thursday game and a Friday game led to a short Saturday but that only means we got to enjoy PAC-12 football three days in a row. We are all looking forward to week eleven with all the big match ups in college football but we still have all of week ten to talk about, and there is a lot to say.

Arizona State- 55 Washington State- 21

Arizona State absolutely dominated Washington State in this one, and had a huge first half. When the first half ended ASU already had a comfortable 42-14 lead, and never gave Washington State a chance. Quarterback Taylor Kelly accounted for seven total touchdowns as he passed for five and ran for two. Kelly looked sharp all night as he was 22-31 and 275 yards through the air, but also had 66 yards on 13 carries. Washington State needs to figure out their running game and fast because they rushed for an atrocious two yards. When you have no running game you are forced to air the ball out as WSU quarterback Connor Halliday threw the ball 54 times but only managed to complete 29 passes. ASU becomes bowl eligible with the win and showed that if they can play consistent football they are a real threat in the PAC-12.

USC-31 Oregon State-14

Coming into this one a lot of USC fans were nervous about getting spanked in Corvallis again. USC had not won a game at Oregon State since the foggy 2004 game and has all around played terrible football there. Combine the Curse of Corvallis with how well Oregon State had been playing, and a depleted roster it seemed like USC was destined for an embarrassment. Oregon State turned out to be the team who got embarrassed as the Trojans defense shut down the high-flying Beaver offense. Coming into the game OSU quarterback Sean Mannion was playing like a potential Heisman candidate but after going 26-45 with three interceptions his Heisman hopes all but died. Marqise Lee returned from his knee injury and USC’s first play from scrimmage was a 71-yard-touchdown pass to Lee that set the tone from the game. Despite Lee’s five catches for 105 yards he was not the player of the game, neither was Silas Redd who ran for 140 yards. The player of the gave was the young running back Javorius “Buck” Allen who ran for 133 yards and three touchdowns. USC in now bowl eligible and is 3-0 in PAC-12 play since the firing of Lane Kiffin.

Arizona-33 Cal-28

Cal is a team that is desperate for a win and were hoping to sneak one by Arizona. Despite a lackluster season by the Golden Bears we have to commend them for having the pride to continue fighting. It has been a rough few years for the Golden Bears and they are just trying to get out of this season holding their heads up high.  Arizona was able to out muscle Cal in this one as B.J. Denker ran for three touchdowns and tossed another. Arizona’s stud running back Ka’Deem Carey went over the 1,000 yard mark on the season as he had 152 in this one. Cal was able to stay in it the whole time but freshmen quarterback Jared Goff threw two second half interceptions that proved to be the difference. The Wildcats played efficiently on offense and did not turn over the ball once, holding on to the ball was huge for the turnover prone Wildcats. Arizona notched their sixth win and are still alive in the PAC-12 South.

Colorado-23 #20 UCLA-45

UCLA came home this week after back-to-back losses at Stanford and Oregon, but they had problems with Colorado early in the game. Colorado really fought in this one and although UCLA had a double digit win the Buffaloes made them earn it. UCLA played very sloppy as they had eleven penalties for 122 yards and until they figure those problems out they will not be regarded as an elite team. Colorado freshmen quarterback Sefo Liufau played a very good game and looked very composed. Liufau was 25-36 with 247 yards, one touchdown and zero interceptions.

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Week ten proved that even without Oregon and Stanford the PAC-12 still has teams that can be a real threat. We learned that the PAC-12 South is up for grabs as four teams have six wins. USC is not dead yet as they had a what could be a season changing upset win. With the loss to USC the Oregon State Beavers have basically knocked themselves out of the race for the North championship. With week ten over we can all look forward to Thursday night as Oregon and Stanford face-off in a game that not only has conference implications but national ones too.