Week 6

Hay All,

Here's the column that makes your Tuesdays worthwhile, Notes on a Pac 10 scorecard. We still miss you, Alan Malamud.

Summaries

Stanford 37- USC 35: Trojan QB Matt Barkley threw for 390 yards and 3 TDs and incredible freshman WR Robert Woods caught all three of those TDs as well as 9 other passes for 224 yards. Those remarkable performances lead a USC offense that lit up Stanford for 498 yards and 35 points only to see it all be for nothing. Thanks to a sieve of a defense and a corrupt clock operator in Palo Alto, USC fell to the Cardinal on a last second field goal, 37-35.

Telling Stat: 75%: Stanford converted 75% of their third downs on USC's sieve of a defense in the game.

Oregon State 29- Arizona 27: Let's see, last weekend was the first weekend in October, which usually means it's just about the time Oregon State gets up off the deck after a medicore start and begins playing good, tough football. The Beavers did just that in their two point win over the previously undefeated Wildcats, in Tucson. OSU HC Mike Riley unleashed QB Ryan Katz on the UofA Defense and he ate them up, throwing for 393 yards and 2 TDs. The Beaver defense bent, but didn't break and OSU got the win. What OSU didn't like was losing WR James Rodgers for the rest of the year when he was tackled after already crossing the goal line for an apparent TD in the second quarter. That TD was called back on a penalty, but the damage was done and Rodgers was lost. UofA QB NIck Foles threw for 440 yards and 2 TDs in a losing cause.

Telling Stat: They kept moving the chains; OSU held the ball for 36:23 and converted on 10 of 15 third downs.

California 35- UCLA 7: The Golden Bear defense never allowed UCLA's pistol offense to fire a shot in this rout in Strawberry Canyon. CAL's defense was the story of this game. They held UCLA to 26 yards rushing, 144 total yards and allowed the bRuins to cross the 50-yard line only twice all day. Meanwhile, CAL RB Shane Vereen ran for 151 yards and 2 TDs to lead CAL's gashing of the bRuin defense for 304 yards rushing and a 34:08 to 25:52 T.O.P. advantage. The bRuins haven't won in Berkeley since 1998.

Telling Stat: 1 is the loneliest number; UCLA ran for 26 yards on 26 carries v. CAL. That's a nifty 1 yard per carry average.

Oregon 43- Washington State 23: 558 total yards of offense and going to 6-0 on the season were good for UO, but two big injuries took the joy out of this win for the Ducks. The first big injury was on a kickoff return when Duck RB Kenjon Barner was absolutley smashed to the ground by Wazzu's Anthony Carpenter. Barner was laying motionless on the field as the UO trainers worked on him. An ambulance was brought out to the field where Barner eventually got up and walked to a waiting stretcher. He was held overnight in Pullman for observation and is supposed to be back in Eugene today. The second big injury happened in the second quarter when QB Darron Thomas was knocked out of the game with a shoulder problem. Thomas was held out of the rest of the game as a precaution. Backup Qb Nick Costa took over and led the Ducks the rest of the way to victory. Costa finished the game with 151 yards passing and one TD. He also ran for 84 yards and another score.

Telling Stat: A dirty dozen; Wazzu's Pac 10 losing streak now stands at 12 games.

Arizona State 24- Washington 14: In a game played in heavy rain for most of the night, the Sun Devils were the ones who conquered the elements and the Huskies in Seattle. ASU QB Steven Threet completed 21 of 34 passes for 288 yards and 2 TDs. His TDs helped give the Sun Devils a 21-7 halftime lead. Both defenses dominated the second half in the bad conditions, but it was ASU's defense that made the big plays down the stretch. The capper was an interception in the endzone by CB Omar Bolden to snuff out UW's hopes with a little over a minute left to play.

Telling Stat: ASU's defense held running QB Jake Locker in check, allowing him to run for only 6 yards in the game.

Notre Dame 23- Pittsburgh 17: ND and their new offense under HC Brian Kelly was firing on all cylinders in the first half, then the Fighting Irish had to hang on in the second half for the win. The key man for ND was PK David Ruffa who hit three big field goals, including a 50-yarder in the third quarter. Ruffa is still perfect in his career at ND having made all 16 of his FG attempts. However, Irish fans couldn't breathe easy until Pitt's last pass fell incomplete with 1:11 to play.

Telling Stat: The first was their worst; While ND was building up a 17-3 lead in the first half, Pittsburgh missed a field goal and turned the ball over twice to dig a hole that they couldn't crawl out of.

Special Section: How They Made Time Stand Still on The Farm

So just what did go on with the clock in the final 1:23 of the USC-Stanford game last week? Well, simply stated, an incompetent referee and a hometown clock operator gave Stanford a better chance to win the game.

1:23 to play, USC has a 2nd and 10 at the Stanford 13-yard line: Matt Barkley hands off to Alan Bradford who runs for 10 yards down to the 3-yard line. The clock stops to move the chains with 1:15 left. The clock stays stopped as the referee calls for a measurement. The measurement shows USC gained the first down.

1:15 to play, USC 1st and goal at the Stanford 3-yard line: With the clock still stopped, the referee gets a signal from the booth for a review of the spot of the ball after Bradford's run. The review upholds the ruling on the field, it is still USC's ball, 1st and 10. It is after this review that the game clock should have been started by the referee. However, HE DIDN'T SIGNAL TO START THE CLOCK! Meanwhile, USC is in the huddle calling their play. By my count, USC takes 16 seconds in the huddle which are never run off the clock.

1:15 still to play: As USC breaks the huddle and lines up, the referee sees that neither the play nor the game clock are running and signals for the 25 second play clock and the game clock to start. HOWEVER, ONLY THE PLAY CLOCK RUNS! 14 seconds tick off the play clock before USC snaps the ball. Then, and only then, the game clock starts. Barkley hands off to Alan Bradford again and he scores on a 3-yard run. The run takes 3 seconds and the game clock reads 1:12 to play. AT LEAST 25 MORE SECONDS SHOULD HAVE RUN OFF THE CLOCK! The referee realizes something went wrong with the clock after the play, but doesn't consult to run the proper time off the clock, instead he just has the operator take only 4 seconds off, so the clock reads 1:08. IT SHOULD READ AT MOST :47 LEFT, NOT 1:08!!!!!

Now, we move onto the ensuing kickoff: Stanford's Chris Owusu fields the ball 5-yards deep in his own endzone. On kickoffs, the clock starts once the kick has been touched by the receiving team. THE CLOCK DIDN'T START UNTIL OWUSU HAD MADE IT OUT TO THE 9-YARD LINE! That' s a span of 4 seconds. Owusu goes down on about his own 25-yard line and the clock reads 1:02 to play. IT SHOULD HAVE READ AT MOST :37 LEFT!!!!!

Now folks, I know this USC defense is a sieve, but I think it would have been a little more difficult for Stanford to get into field goal range with just :37 seconds left on the clock instead of 1:02 when they got the ball for their final drive.

Observations

...And then there were four. Only four winless teams are left in FBS play. The woeful four schools are Akron and Eastern Michigan out of the MAC, New Mexico from the MWC, and Western Kentucky from the Sun Belt Conference. New Mexico State fell off the list when they got a 22-yard field goal from PK Tyler Stampler with 1:56 left in the game to defeat New Mexico last week, 16-14.

...A very light schedule in the Pac 10 this week. I can't remember a week in October where four Pac 10 teams had a bye.

...New Mexico-New Mexico State Redux; The rivalry game between these two schools goes back to 1894, a full 18 years before the Territory of New Mexico was granted statehood.

...Boise State is projected to be number one in the BCS rankings provided they win this week. The eastern backlash on ESPN will fill the airwaves come Monday.

...Everyone likes to talk about TCU and Utah in the Mountain West conference. Watch out for Air Force. The Falcons have enough talent and discipline to make a serious run at the league crown.

...I've talked about teams quietly making noise in the last couple of weeks. However each team I've brought to your attention has been beaten. So, who can I curse this week? How about 5-0 Missouri. The Tigers play at Texas A&M this week.

...I'm hearing rumors that the powers that be in the Pac 10 are thinking about putting the first Pac 12 Championship game in Las Vegas. What a mistake that would be. The only stadium in Las Vegas seats about 30,000 with not enough concessions to serve the crowd. Come on, a bigtime conference should put the game in a bigtime venue.

...Pac 10 officiating has got to be the worst in college football. Everyone from Arizona to Wazzu has been hurt by the extreme incompetence of the officials.

...Sad to see Aaron Corp injured his knee and will be out for the rest of the season. The kid had a tough enough career as it was.

...One of the best games of the week will be missed by most of the country. Nevada plays at Hawaii this week. It could be the highest scoring game all year.

...While the Ohio State-Wisconsin game will be the marquee attraction in the Big Ten this week, the best game might be Illinois at Michigan State. Both teams are coming off big wins.

...Fun stat; Hawaii QB Bryant Moniz has completed 160 passes this year. Army QB Trent Steelman has attempted 52 passes this year.

Until next week folks, remember how much of an impact the clock operator can have on the game.

-The Commissioner