Week 10

Hey All,

It's time for the column that takes up at least five minutes of your day, Notes on a Pac 10 Scorecard. Boy, do we miss you Alan Malamud.

Summaries

USC 14- Arizona State 9: This was a truly ugly game. From sputtering offenses to referees throwing flags at will, this game was plain ugly. It would be fitting that an ASU mistake would give USC the halftime lead when much maligned ASU QB Danny Sullivan threw a pass that was picked off and returned for a TD by USC's Will Harris. USC led at the break 7-3. The Trojans broke out its' coma for one big play in the third quarter when WR Damian took a short screen pass and turned into a 75-yard touchdown to give USC a 14-3 lead. At this point the ASU faithful were stunned. The Sun Devils had controlled the game, yet were down double digits in the third quarter. Then the USC offense slipped back into its' coma and the defense held on for the tough win.
Telling Stat: They won? USC threw for only 112 yards, rushed for 146 more, had 98 yards in penalties, yet won.

Oregon State 31- California 14: The Golden Bears annual slide contiued with a bad home loss to the Beavers. Overshadowing the Bears' loss was the concussion suffered by TB Jahvid Best. Best took a wicked fall after leaping into the endoze to cut OSU's lead to 14-7 in the second quarter. Best layed motionless on the field until he was carted off by paramedics and then taken to a local hospital. The image of their fallen teammate took a visible toll on the Golden Bears as they were never in the game after that moment. OSU dominated the rest of the game with QB Sean Canfield completing 29 of 39 passes for 342 yards and two touchdowns.
Telling Stat: They were freaked out. After Best's injury, the Golden Bears gained only 92 yards on their last eight possessions of the game with the 67 of those yards coming on a late fourth quartter drive when OSU had the game well in hand.

Arizona 48- Washington State 7: UofA's Travis Cobb took the opening kickoff back 95 yards for a touchdown and the Wildcats never looked back in this rout of the Cougars. The Wildcats moved the ball at will on the Cougars. They racked up 648 yards of offense, 27 first downs and held the ball for 41:19. Meanwhile, the hapless Wazzu offense was held to 185 total yards and eight first downs. The lone bright spot for Wazzu continues to be punter Reid Forrest who punted 8 times in this game for nifty 44.6 yard average.
Telling Stat: They can't compete. Wazzu is winless in Pac 10 play, losing each game by an average of 32 points.

UCLA 24- Washington 23: The bRuins used two quarterbacks and a strong effort from their defense in the second half to get their first Pac 10 win of 2009. UCLA QB Kevin Prince built on his fine fourth quarter at Oregon State last week by lighting up the Husky secondary for 212 yards and a touchdown before he was knocked from the game with a concussion on a helmet-to-helmet hit from UW LB Donald Butler. Kevin Craft then came in and led the bRuins to their their final 10 points of the game and the win. The bRuin defense set the stage for a comeback by holding the Huskies scoreless for the final 26:52 of the game. UW QB Jake Locker threw for 235 yards and 2 TDs in a losing effort.
Telling Stat: They couldn't capitalize on 'em. UW forced five bRuin turnovers, but couldn't get the win.

Stanford 51- Oregon 42: Just one week after being hailed as the greatest thing since sliced bread, the Oregon Ducks fell in a shootout on The Farm. The Duck defense had no answer for Cardinal TB Toby Gerhart who rushed the ball 38 times for 223 yards and three TDs. The Duck defense didn't have an answer for QB Andrew Luck either who threw for 251 yards and two TDs of his own. On the flipside of things, the Stanford defense managed to hold tough at critical times to ensure the win. However, Duck QB Jeremiah Masoli completed 21 of 37 passes for 334 yards and three TDs. He also ran for 55 yards and a touchdown as well.
Telling Stat: Both squads scored quickly. The longest scoring drive of the game lasted only 4:35.

Observations

...They've got trouble, trouble right now in Iowa City. Trouble with a capital T, that rhymes with P, which is before Q, which stands for Quarterback. Not only did the Hawkeyes' undefeated season get ruined in their 17-10 home loss to Northwestern, it looks like QB Ricky Stansi is lost as well. If Stansi can't make the trip to Columbus this week to face the Buckeyes, Iowa could go from #1 in the computer polls to #2 in the Big Ten in two short weeks.

...And then there were still four. New Mexico, Eastern Michigan, Western Kentucky, and Rice are still winless this season with identical 0-9 records.

...Don't cry for me, West Virginia. You can still be Big East Champs. West Virginia's last three games are with Cincinnati, Pitt, and Rutgers. If the 'eers win out, they're BCS bound.

...So much for Duke having a shot at the ACC crown, The Blue Devils were whipped by North Carolina ,19-6 last week. The Blue Devils still need a win to be bowl eligible.

...There may be a bright golden haze on the meadow, but not much else to be happy about in Oklahoma right now. A season that held such promise in Norman has fallen apart as quickly as Sam Bradford's shoulder. Further evidence of how much Bradford is missed was last Saturday when his backup Landry Jones threw five interceptions in a 10-3 loss to arch-rival Nebraska.

...Quietly making noise this week are the Nevada Wolfpack. After starting out 0-3, the boys from Reno have won six straight and are undefeated in WAC play. If they get by Fresno State and New Mexico State, they will have a showdown with Boise State for the conference title.

...Oh, to dream the impossible dream. TCU is now #4 in the BCS ratings and has the best chance of any team outside fo the BCS to make it to the National Championship Game.

...Air Force is this year's couple of points team. Meaning, they're a couple of points away from being undefeated. The Falcons are 6-4 with all four losses coming by a total of 20 points. Two of their losses were in overtime to Navy and Utah.

...525,600 minutes? Well, it's been about twice that long that Norm Chow has been at UCLA and the bRuin offense has started to wake up in the last week or so. The question to the UCLA administrators and faithful is, do you step up and actually pay Chow a salary that matches his skills or do the bRuins stay low-budget and let him go with a thank you to the Tennessee Titans for the two-year rental?

...Way to go Navy! The middies played smart, tough, inspired football and beat Notre Dame. Best stat of this game was that Navy's QB threw the ball only three times, completing two of those passes with one going for a touchdown. Navy must have had a schematic advantage.

...It is a puzzlement as to how anybody could think that Wazzu should bring Paul Wullf back for another year as Head Coach of the Cougars. Nothing has improved in Pullman since he took over the program.

...One last note folks, 20 years ago last week, the Los Angeles Herald-Examiner closed down. The Examiner had a great sports page with writers like Alan Malamud and Mel Durslag. With the age of newspapers is coming to an electronic end, I find myself more and more missing one of the great sports pages of Los Angeles.

Until next week folks, watch for bubble screens and the skinny post.
-The Commissioner