Pac-10 Review

by joenewby4040 on Nov 8, 2009 10:45 PM PST in Football Comment 2 comments

Yesterday was a crazy day in the Pac-10 and leaves the race wide open for Arizona. After Stanford knocked off Oregon and Cal fell to Oregon State here is what the Pac looks like:

RANK	TEAM	RECORD	NEXT OPPONENT
1.	Oregon	5-1	Arizona State
2.	Arizona	4-1	@ California
3.	Stanford	5-2	@ USC
4.	USC	4-2	Stanford
5.	Oregon State	4-2	Washington
6.	California	3-3	Arizona
7.	Arizona State	2-4	@Oregon
8.	Washington	2-4	Oregon State
9.	UCLA	1-5	@Washington State
10.	Washington State	0-6	UCLA

Arizona is in prime position to control their own destiny. Let's take a look at the teams left on the Cats schedule and what happened to them this past weekend:

California. Cal is definitely beatable as they fell yesterday to Oregon State at home by 17 points. Jahvid Best left the game in the 2nd quarter after a terrifying slam into the turf while going in for a TD:

Best also suffered a concussion two weeks ago against Arizona State. One would have to think that two concussions in two weeks would keep Best out of the lineup this week against Arizona. (Update: Jahvid Best will NOT play against Arizona next weekend.) Cal was slated to be a Pac-10 contender to start the year but have fallen to Oregon, Southern Cal, and Oregon State in conference play. Without Best, they are a team without a superstar.

Oregon. Did anyone see this coming? Stanford absolutely did whatever they wanted on offense against Oregon, beating the Ducks 51-42. Toby Gerhart ran for a school record 223 yards and Andrew Luck threw for 3 touchdowns against the Ducks, taking out the Pac-10's top rated top team. Oregon was unable to stop Stanford's attack and their defense looked shaky trying to defend the run and the pass. Let's hope that Arizona took some notes and will watch the game film a lot.

Arizona State. The Sun Devils have had a tough year in the Pac-10 only racking up two wins against Washington and Washington State. Arizona State's starting QB Danny Sullivan threw a pick 6 against USC in the 2nd quarter which was enough for head coach Dennis Erickson to make the switch to Brock Osweiler. This was a move that a lot of ASU fans have been waiting for. Osweiler was 12-23 for 113 yards and threw 2 interceptions. Long days ahead in Tempe.

USC. USC has squeaked out a few wins this year at Notre Dame, Oregon State, and Ohio State. They have been playing lackluster offense all year behind their freshman Matt Barkley. They barely got by a mediocre Arizona State team this past weekend, winning 14-9 and only scoring 1 offensive touchdown. The Trojans still have Stanford, UCLA, and Arizona left on their schedule. The way Stanford looked yesterday, they may give USC a run for their money.

0 recs | Comment 2 comments | Share

Story-email Email Printer Print

Comments

I'm optimistic.

Before this weekend, I thought AZ would beat Cal, would likely lose to Oregon (they were impressive against USC), would definitely beat ASU, and had a good chance to beat USC.

Now:
- I still believe UA will beat Cal. Without Best, they are without their best weapon and US is playing pretty well on both sides of the ball. As long as UA doesn’t underestimate or look past Cal, we’ll win.
- Oregon is beatable, especially if Griggs and Nwoko are back and at full strength. I’m cautiously optimistic.
- ASU. Their defense is pretty good, and I’m sure they’ll play hard against UA, but their offense stinks and our defense is pretty good too. I don’t believe it will even be close.
-USC. The UA defense is playing better and the offense is playing better. I think we’ll win it.

(I’m not going to mention the possibility of a certain flower bowl, but…)

by psknapp on Nov 9, 2009 7:00 AM PST reply actions 0 recs