What a wild week in the Pac 12. A week that produced not one, but two candidates for game of the year. A week in which the Pac kept it’s playoff hopes alive with a Stanford win. With conference play getting under way we have a lot to talk about. Hope you Enjoy! Let’s start with the Power Rankings.
1. Stanford (1): The Cardinal looked down and out going into the second half. Largely because of an Oregon defense that came to play. In the second half Stanford emerged as the better team though. Winning the game off two forced Turnovers including a fumble recover in there own red zone and returned the length of the field in the fourth. That shouldn’t overshadow the fantastic performance of QB KJ Costello though. Who for the first time this season had a turnover free game throwing for 327 yards and 3 touchdowns. Bryce Love ran for 89 yards on 19 carries but was much more effective in the passing game.
2. Washington (2): Despite Arizona State’s defense playing well through three quarters the Huskies offense via the running game took off down the stretch of this game. Jake Browning threw for three touchdowns but barely 200 yards. The Washington defense was the most impressive unit in this game holding Arizona State to 268 yards of total offense.
3. Oregon (5): Despite a loss the Ducks proved on a national stage they have a feisty defense and the best QB in the country. It would not shock me at all if this is there only loss of the season. They shouldn’t be hurt in the national rankings by this loss, but they will be.
4. USC (8): As I have said all year this team is going to have dramatic leaps. They got lucky with a targeting call that was missed on the last drive of this game but that aside the Trojans played for the first time all year how they were billed to play. An explosive offense with a defense that would struggle against high profile offenses. Yes I said it Washington State is a high profile offense but we will get to them later. JT Daniels threw for 241 yards and 3 touchdowns.
5. Colorado (3): BYE
6. Cal (6): BYE
7. Washington State (7): Gardner Mishew had the performance of a life time. 344 yards and 3 touchdowns this WSU team is no joke and deserve our respect. They should have won this game. Why are they so low on this list then? Well because compared to the teams above them they haven’t played anyone. They have a cupcake out of conference schedule and as such they sit at the top of the bottom half of these rankings. If they get a Pac 12 win don’t be shocked if they catapult into the top five I love this team.
8. Arizona State (2): I hate putting them this low but you can only ride a Michigan State win for so long. They need to get a win in to move back up. I don’t care how well Herm “manages the game” what matters at this point in the year especially are L’s and W’s.
9. Utah (9): BYE
10. Arizona (10): The offense got back to what it was most of last year. Caveat, it was an Oregon State team that definitely is as bad as advertised. Forget my Oregon State might be good takes, they were patently false.
11. Oregon State (11): Can we just not talk about them? It’s my column so yes we can.
12. UCLA (12): BYE
Week five brings a ton of interesting games so here are my picks. (3-1 last week)
Colorado 31 UCLA 17
Washington State 36 Utah 16
Stanford 34 Notre Dame 24
BYU 31 Washington 28
USC 35 Arizona 21
Oregon 33 Cal 19
ASU 30 Oregon State 17