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Hey Hey All!

What a great weekend it was and here's another edition of the one and only Notes On a Pac 10 Scorecard. (We still miss you, Alan Malamud.)

Summaries

USC 35- Ohio State 3: The Coliseum rocked with a little over 93,000 fans as the USC Trojans routed the Buckeyes. QB Mark Sanchez led the Trojans to the big win by hitting on 18 of 30 throws for 184 yards and four TDs. The Trojans won the battle in the trenches as well. Sanchez had plenty of time to throw all day and Trojan tailbacks had good room to roam on a very good OSU defense. On the defensive side of things, the USC D-line was just too fast and talented for the slow Buckeye O-line. They set the stage for one of the game's biggest plays. Rey Maualuga picked off a Todd Boeckman pass in the second quarter and returned it 48 yards for a TD. That TD would give USC a commanding 21-3 lead. The Trojans would finish off OSU in the third quarter with Sanchez's last two TD throws.
Telling Stat: Defense wins. The Trojan defense held Ohio State to 2 yards rushing in the third quarter, 71 for the game.

Oregon State 45- Hawaii 7: Oregon State took out their frustrations at starting this season at 0-2 on Hawaii last Saturday. Beaver QB Lyle Moevao connected on 20 of 34 passes for 268 yards and three TDs on the day. The Beavers also ran the ball well too with Jacqizz Rodgers lugging the leather 26 times for 110 yards and two TDs. The Beaver defense did their job as well. They limited the Warriors to 211 total yards and just one short scoring drive. Up next for the Beavers is a date with USC a week from Thursday.
Telling Stat: OSU held Hawaii to 1 for 11 on third down conversions. Why did you leave, June Jones?

Oregon 32- Purdue 26 2OT: UO managed to pull off a big comeback win in West Lafayette, IN. last week. Throw out the defenses in this one, folks. The two schools managed to put up over 900 yards of offense, 51 first downs, and averaged nearly 6 yards a carry in this wild game. Purdue was cruising with a 20-3 lead in the third quarter when the Ducks' Jarius Byrd returned a punt 87 yards for a TD to ignite a second half comeback. After UO's Legarrette Blount tied the game with a 5-yard scamper in the third quarter, both teams traded field goals until the second overtime. It was then that Purdue missed a 47-yard field goal attempt, giving the Ducks the chance to end it and they did, It was Blount again with a 3-yard TD run and UO escaped with the win. The win did come at a price though as UO QB Justin Roper hurt his knee and will be out about a month.
Telling Stat: When T.O.P. means nothing; Purdue held the ball for 11 miuntes more than Oregon, yet lost.

Oklahoma 55, Washington 14: After coming off that referee induced, crushing loss to BYU, the Huskies took on the Sooners and were crushed again. The Sooners ran up 591 yards of offense in a dismantling of the Husky defense that sent the UW faithful to the exits early. OU QB Sam Bradford completed 18 of 21 passes for 304 yards and 5 TDs against the hapless UW secondary. Meanwhile, the Sooner defense held Jake Locker in check. He gained a little over 200 yards rushing and passing on the Sooners, but most of those yards were after the game was well in hand.
Telling Stat: 9. The number of games left in Ty Willingham's tenure as Washington's head coach.

Maryland 35- California 27: Once again the Golden Bears went back east on a road trip and came away with a loss. The kickoff was at noon in College Park, which translated to 9:00 AM California time. The Bears did not wake up for three quarters as the Terps scored TDs on their first three drives and then hit on another TD pass in the third quarter to take a 28-6 lead into the final frame. Then the Bears mounted a furious comeback attempt and came up just short. While Maryland held Cal's vaunted runnning game to 38 yards, Golden Bear QB Kevin Riley put up some big numbers. He completed 33 of 58 passes for 423 yards and three fourth quarter TDs. The game wasn't over until Maryland's hands team was able to bat CAL's onside kick out of bounds with a few seconds left to preserve the victory.
Telling Stat: 1955. Maryland's win over CAL was their first over a Pac 10 team since they beat UCLA in 1955.

Baylor 45- Washington St. 14: Under the Friday Night Lights in Waco, the Baylor Bears dismantled Wazzu. Bear QB Robert Griffin ran for 217 yards on just 11 carries and scored 2 TDs. He also threw for 129 yards and another TD in the rout of the Cougars. The anemic Cougar offense did manage to put up 340 total yards and score twice, but it wasn;t enough against the Bears. One big factor in this one was that Wazzu had to fly into Waco from Pullman and then play on the same night as the game was moved up to get it played before Hurricane Ike hit Texas. The Cougars weren't ready to play this one.
Telling Stat: Wazzu turned the ball over 5 times in this loss. Ask UofA what happens when you give it away 5 times.

UNLV 23- Arizona St. 20 OT: The Sun Devils got caught looking ahead to their showdown with Georgia this week and paid a heavy price for it. ASU did look like they had control of this game, leading 20-10 in the third quarter when Rudy Carpenter hit Kyle Williams with a 49-yard strike early in the third quarter. However, ASU wouldn't score again. The Rebels defense stiffened, while their offense finally got it in gear in the fourth quarter. The game-tying TD came with :18 seconds left as UNLV's Phillip Payne made an awesome one-handed grab in the corner of the endzone. In the overtime period, the Rebels' Kyle Watson connected on a 20-yard field goal attempt to give his squad their first lead of the game at 23-20. Then ASU's Thomas Weber had his 35-yard field goal attempt blocked in their half of the overtime and the upset was complete.
Telling Stat: 8 is great. The win was only the 8th for UNLV HC Mike Sanford in 4 years at UNLV. His record is 8-30.

TCU 31- Stanford 14: Continuing the theme here of losing to Mountain West schools this week, Stanford was basically run out of the stadium by TCU. The Horned Frogs ran the ball 53 times for 233 yards on the Cardinal. TCU held the ball for 39:29 in the game and scored all four of their TDs on the ground. TCU also held Stanford's rushing game to 71 yards on 29 carries. TCU spread the wealth around as four different tailbacks scored for the Purple and Black.
Telling Stat: In 7 2nd half drives, SU punted 3 times, turned it over three times, and the clock ran out on the last one.

BYU 59- UCLA 0: This one has already become known as the Debacle at the Tabernacle in bRuinland. BYU handed UCLA their worst loss since USC worked over the bRuins 76-0 in 1929. UCLA did actually make a game of this in the first quarter, then BYU lowered the boom. The Cougars ran up 521 yards of total offense, 337 through the air, and put 35 points in the second quarter alone. BYU also held the ball for a little over 37 minutes and converted on 13 of 17 third downs. BYU QB Max Hall looked like the second coming of Gifford Nielsen, Steve Young, Jim McMahon, and Robbie Bosco all rolled into one as he hit on 31 of 40 passes for 337 yards and 7 TDs. Yeah folks, 7 TDs. The BYU defense wasn't too shabby either, holding UCLA to a meager 9 yards rushing and 239 total yards.
Telling Stat: BYU led 59-0 after 3 qrtrs. How bad could it have been if they didn't empty their bench in the 4th quarter?

New Mexico 36- Arizona 28: The Lobos used a steady running game and great special teams to upset UofA last week. In this see-saw battle, the number 5 was prominent. UNM's freshman PK, James Aho hit on all five of his field goal attempts, while UofA turned the ball over 5 times in the game. The last of those turnovers coming when Willie Tuitama threw a pick deep in Lobo territory with just under eight minutes to play in the fourth quarter. UNM managed to keep ahead of the Wildcats with a running game that went for 221 yards. Lobo TB Ron Ferguson ran for 158 of those 221 yards and 2 TDs in the winning effort. UofA will now go take on UCLA at the Rose Bowl.
Telling Stat: James Aho's FGs weren't gimmies. They covered distances of 24, 43, 48, 42, and 46 yards.

Observations

...HC Paul Johnson left Navy for greener pastures at Georgia Tech. Tech is playing well and Navy is already 1-2. Navy will join Hawaii this year as having completely fallen apart in 2008 after having great 2007 seasons.

...0-4 this weekend against the Mountain West and 3-7 overall on the weekend makes the PAC 10 look pretty weak.

...And then there were 16. Three weeks into the 2008 season and there are 16 D-1 teams without a victory. Most notable among this group are Washington and Washington St.

...It's become quite apparent that Ohio St. doesn't have what it takes to compete against the elite teams in college football.

...It's also quite clear that Notre Dame and NBC are going to milk Charlie Weis' injury for the rest of the season. In every ND broadcast Weis will be protrayed as this great martyr who is sacrificing his own health needs to lead this bunch of Fighting Irish to glory. I'm getting sick already.

...Butch Davis is quietly making noise in Chapel Hill. The Tar Heels are 2-0 with a good win over Rutgers. Next, the Heels take on Va Tech. If the Heels win, watch the hype start to build for them in the ACC.

...Set your TiVo's this week for Boise State at Oregon. This game should be a shootout between these two high-powered offenses. However, shade your eyes as these two sets of ugly uniforms take the field together.

...Other Pac 10 games that should be good this weekend are Georgia at ASU and San Jose St. at Stanford.

...USC beat writer Scot Wolf placed USC #3 on his ballot behind Georgia and Florida on his AP poll ballot. What kind of drugs is this guy on?

...59-0, pretty funny, huh?

Later,
Lee