Though the Ducks did not play this weekend as they began preparation for Cal on Thursday night, let’s wrap up the rest of the Pac-12.
Oregon Coach Mourns
Offensive Coordinator Mark Helfrich spent Friday in Coos Bay mourning the loss of his father Mike. On the evening of the Arizona game, Mike, in Tuscon for the game, passed away in his hotel room just prior to the start of the game. Helfrich learned of his father’s passing after the lopsided victory.
We would like to send all of our thoughts and prayers to the Helfrich family. Mike was a legend in Coos Bay and will be sorely missed.
Arizona State-Oregon State
The Beavers came out strong early jumping to an early 13-0 lead. For many this almost changed some minds about the Beavers prospect this season. Then, the second quarter came and those hopes faded quickly as the Sun Devils scored 21 unanswered points to take the lead. The Beavers got back within a point in the third quarter before the Sun Devils pulled away for a 35-20 victory.
ASU QB Brock Osweiler threw 3 interceptions while Beaver signal caller Sean Mannion threw 4 of his own in a very sloppy game. Meanwhile, someone needs to call 9-1-1 for the Beavers nearly non-existent running game.
Stanford-UCLA
UCLA stayed close for a while with the Cardinal, but, in the end, they were not much of a threat to Stanford in this game. Stanford was efficient and balanced. The Cardinal passed for 240 yards while rushing for 202 more. UCLA was able to force quite a few third down situations, but could not take advantage as Stanford converted 10-14 of their third downs and 1-1 on fourth down.
Heisman front-runner Andrew Luck went 23-27 for 227 yards and 3 touchdowns.
Washington-Utah
Welcome to the Pac-12 Utah. Many thought Utah might challenge Arizona State for the South Division title during the inaugural Pac-12 football season. On Saturday the Washington Huskies stuffed the Utah running game holding them to just 17 yards on 23 carries. On the other side of the ball, Washington running Back Chris Polk carried the ball 29 times for 189 yards on the ground.
Keith Price threw for 3 more touchdowns increasing his season total to 17.
Arizona-USC
In the wildest game of the weekend, USC held on to beat Arizona in a game that featured a lot of passing and virtually no defense. Nick Foles went 41-53 for 425 yards and 4 touchdowns. Foles did throw his first 2 interceptions of the season.
Not to be outdone, Matt Barkley 32-39 for 468 yards and 4 touchdowns of his own. The USC running game was not very good. Without the 44 yard run by Curtis McNeal, the rushing offense for USC would have been uncharacteristically poor.
The final score of 48-41does not even begin to indicate just how wild the game was.
Washington State-Colorado
If there were moral victory points for “close losses” Colorado would lead the conference. After losing to Cal by 3 points, the Buffs thought they were on their way to a Pac-12 victory. With 5:54 left in the game, Colorado scored a touchdown to take a 27-17 lead.
The Colorado pass defense failed, though, as WSU QB Marshall Lobbestael threw for 2 TD’s in the final 3:00, including a 63 yard strike to Marquess Wilson with just 1:24 remaining in the game.