USC at Arizona State
USC had a great first quarter in Tempe and held on to beat Arizona State despite coughing up the ball twice and getting tagged 11 times for almost 100 yards in penalties. As Ryan Kartje wrote in the Los Angeles Times; “What began as smooth sailing to bowl eligibility quickly became a rocky ride just to stay alive.” Love ‘em or hate ‘em USC is like the monster in the horror flick that just won’t stay dead and with their win over the Sun Devils in Week 11 the Trojans are finally bowl eligible and aren’t out of winning the PAC-12 South just quite yet. Credit USC Senior Christian Rector for cashing in one more of Clay Helton’s nine lives when, with less than a minute left, USC ahead 31-26, and Arizona State sitting on a 1st and 10 at the USC 32 yard line, 6’ 4” Rector reached up and tipped QB Joey Yellen’s pass then dived to the ground to cradle it for the interception before it hit the turf to save the game for the Trojans.
USC’s Freshman QB Kedon Slovis, who had an absolutely horrible game against Oregon the week before, was on fire to start the game connecting on 15 of 17 for 305 yards and 4 TD’s in just the 1st Qtr to give the Trojans a 28-7 lead. The USC Defense came out firing on all cylinders as well forcing two three and outs and probably would have had a third if not for the poor play of the Special Teams unit who allowed a 97 yard kick-off return in Arizona’s second possession of the game setting up a short pass from Yellen into the end zone. This is the same group that allowed a 100 yard kick-off return to the house the prior week against Oregon. Honestly, how does something like that happen two weeks in a row?
After that torrid first quarter things slowed down considerably for Slovis who picked up another 132 yards over the next three quarters, no additional TD’s, and one interception with WR’s Amon-Ra St. Brown and Michael Pittman Jr. the collective recipients of 319 of those yards. With all the injuries to their RB’s USC couldn’t get much accomplished in the ground game, rushing 28 times for just 70 yards and no TD’s. Helton and the Trojans caught a break with the Sun Devil’s starting QB, Kayden Daniels, out injured and replaced by Freshman Joey Yellen in his first ever college start at QB. Considering it was baptism-by-fire he didn’t fair that badly connecting on over 60% of his passes, 28-of-44, for 4 TD’s, but did throw a couple of picks-including the fatal onel that was tipped by Rector. Arizona didn’t get much going on the ground either and picked up even less yards than the Trojans with Junior RB Eno Benjamin picking up all of it, 52 yards on 20 attempts.
It’s crazy, but USC could theorectically end up facing off against UCLA in the last game of the season to decide who will represent the South in the PAC-12 Championship Game. That would be incredible but not necessarily great for the PAC-12 Conference’s slim chance to place a team into the final four. With neither USC nor UCLA currently ranked, either one of those teams facing off against the Ducks in the championship game would do nothing to help Oregon’s strength of schedule. Oregon’s hope resides with Utah winning out in the South and being in the Top 10 when they face the Ducks. Other teams ahead of them in the polls will also need to contribute to the scenario by loosing and therefore bumping both Utah and Oregon up the ladder. It’s a long stretch and most likely won’t happen, but it won’t happen for sure if UCLA finds a way to beat Utah. That said and given the fact that I loathe everytinig Urban Meyer ever had his hands on, it would be so much fun to see that happen and amazing for UCLA and Chip Kelly.
USC stays on the road to play the California Bears next Saturday, November 16th while Arizona State will also pack their bags to head up to Corvallis where they’ll face an Oregon State team that desparately needs two more games to become bowl eligible.
Washington State at Cal
Cal was finally able to stop the bleeding of a four game loosing streak with the return of their starting Junior QB, Devon Modster, who had the best game of his career in a 33-20 win over Washington State at home in Berkeley. Modster connected on 16-of-24 for 230 yards, 3 TD’s to three different receivers, threw no interceptions in addition to rushing seven times for 43 yards and another score. Sophomore RB Christopher Brown Jr. hauled in one of those Modster TD’s while also collecting the lion’s share of Cal’s yards on the ground with 95 of the 196 total-throwing in a rushing TD for good measure.
All toll, Washington State had four more first downs, just three less yards of Total Offense than Cal at 423 to 426, had the ball three plus minutes longer but found a way to lose aided by 100 yards in penalties and 2 turnovers. As the AP reported in their recap; “Coach Mike Leach’s team came unraveled in the fourth quarter. Safety Tyrese Ross was called for a late hit out of bounds [and] on the same play, a member of the Cougars coaching staff was called for unsportsmanlike conduct, giving the Bears 30 yards in penalties.” Although still leading the nation in passing yards and TD’s, QB Anthony Gordon and the Cougars were behind from start-to-finish in this one in spite of his 75% completion rate, 400+ yards in the air and 2 TD’s. Over half of that yardage went to Senior WR’s Brandon Arconado and Easop Winston Jr. with seven other guys collecting the rest.
The Cougar’s couldn’t seem to get their leading rushing weapon, Max Borghi, that involved although it looked great to start with as on the first play of the game, after the kickoff, Borghi was handed the ball and rushed 13 yards for a Cougar first down. Unfortunately on the 2nd play QB Anthony Gordon’s pass was intercepted and returned 17 yards back to the Washington State 27 yard line. It only took one play for RB, Christopher Brown Jr., to scamper into the end zone for an early 7-0 Cal lead. Since Borghi only got 19 total yards on the ground all game it’s clear that the Cougars decided to abandon the rush after trailing early, to their detriment. I mean rushing has never been a big part of Leach’s Air Raid Offense but Borghi has been averaging about 60 yards per game by himself and does enough on the ground to keep the defense honest which provides more time for Gordon to do damage in the air-which in turn loosens things up for Borghi on the ground. Leach has always been a plug-and-play kind of coach with the system always more important than the players in it. In the recent past his system has always produced, regardless of the the players. This year not so much.
The win leaves Cal needing to win just one of their next three against USC, Stanford, or UCLA to become bowl eligible. If they do, that will be the third time in the three years Head Coach Justin Wilcox has been in charge that they will have accomplished that goal. Before Wilcox arriving the Bears had not played in a bowl the previous three years. After having a team last year that went 11-2 Head Coach Mike Leach and his Washington State Cougars have lost for the fifth time in their last six games and at 4-5 sit at the bottom of the PAC-12 North needing to win two of their next three games against Stanford, Oregon State, and Washington to just get bowl eligible. It’s doable, but they’ll need to play a lot better in order to make it happen as Stanford and Oregon State are both in the same position and will be playing with an equal amount of desperation. The Cougars go back home to Pullman to host Stanford this coming Saturday, November 16th, at 1:30pm on the PAC12 Network while Cal heads to the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum to take on the Trojans in a PAC-12 at Night Game on FS1 at 8:00pm.
Stanford at Colorado
Other than Utah and Oregon what a strange unpredictable year it’s been in the PAC-12. It took Washington 11 weeks to win six games and become bowl eligible; UCLA has a chance, albeit ever so slim, to win the PAC-12 South and play in the conference championship; while heading into Week 12 Washington State, after going 11-2 last year, and Stanford are both sitting at 4-5 overall needing to win two of their last three games to just make it into a bowl game.
One would have thought that the Cardinal, with a healthy K. J. Costello, could have gone on the road and beaten Colorado in Boulder leaving themselves needing just one win in the last three weeks to become bowl eligible. But that wasn’t to be, and in a contest that was dominated more by field goals than TD’s it seemed appropriate that the game would end with one. After the Colorado Defense forced the Cardinal into a three and out followed by a subsequent 61 yard drive down to the Stanford 19 yard line, with no time remaining Buffalo Freshman Place Kicker Evan Price kicked a 37 yard field goal to give Colorado the win, 16-13.
Stanford had opportunities to score a lot more as they seemed to have no problem driving down into or right at the Red Zone. But once they got there they abandoned their running game while at the same time the Colorado Defense stiffened, especially in their pass coverage, with the result being Stanford putting three points up on the board instead of seven. Frequently puting themselves in third and long situations and facing what proved to be a well coached secondary the Cardinal were only able to convert those third downs 30% of the time leading to three-and-outs and punts instead of points.
The Buffaloes didn’t fair much better and actually had fourteen less yards of Total Offense, 358-to-372, compared to Stanford. But they were much better on third down conversions which lead to longer drives, greater possession time, and just a few more points which is just what they needed as it turned out to win the game. Steven Montez didn’t exactly set the world on fire for Colorado in this one connecting on 20-of-30 for just 186 yard, no TD’s and one interception that led to a Cardinal field goal. They gained slightly less yards on the ground, 172 on 41 carries, with Montez making up for his lack of production in the air by running one in for a TD himself. All toll Colorado rushed 41 times for 172 yards with Sophomore RB Alex Fontenot getting the majority of those-95 yards on 18 carries.
For Stanford, QB K. J. Costello was 18-of-29 for 245 yards, 1 TD and 1 interception-also leading to a field goal. Costello connected multiple times with five different receivers but it was Sophomore WR Simi Fehoko who pulled in the most yards and the only score on just two receptions. Continuing their ground game by committee approach, the Cardinal rushed 25 times for 127 yards. As I mentioned above it was a game decided by field goals and fittingly Colorado’s Freshman Place Kicker Evan Price, in the game as the result of an injury to their starter James Stefanou, connected on all three of his attempts while Stanford’s Freshman Place Kicker, Ryan Sanborn, hit just two out of his three.
Stanford stays on the road and will travel up to Pullman to take on Washington State this coming Saturday, November 16th, at 1:30pm on the PAC12 Network while Colorado gets a bye week before hosting the Washington Huskies on Saturday, November 23rd.
Washington at Oregon State
You’d have to go back four years to find back-to-back loses in the regular season and yet heading into their game against Oregon State the Huskies had lost two heart-breaking games in a row if you’re a Washington fan, both of which they seemed to have in hand. First a four point loss to Oregon and then a three point loss to Utah-losses that eliminated them from contention in the PAC-12 North, games that ensured they would not make it back into the Top 25, games that left them short of being even bowl eligible. In Chris Peterson’s entire career as a head coach his teams have always made it into the post season. Between those back-to-back loses and Oregon State’s vast improvement on offense I decided not to be surprised if the Huskies went to Corvallis and dropped another one and for a while it was hard to tell what was going to happen.
Waiting for points to get up on the board in this game was like watching grass grow. There’s was less than two minutes remaining in the 1st Qtr when Washington was able to finally put points up on the board-the first points in the game-a Peyton Henry 47 yard field goal to make it 3-0. Neither team scored after that until there was, once again, less than two minutes left before the half when, after a 9 play 70 yard drive, Salvon Ahmed ran one in from the Oregon State six yard line to put the Huskies ahead 10-0 going into the break.
Washington got the ball to start the 2nd half and after an 11 play 39 yard drive that including an offensive holding and delay-of-game penalty, Peyton Henry knocked another one in to put the Huskies up 13-0. After holding the Beavers to a three-and-out on their subsequent possession one got the impression that Washington was finally going to start putting points up more rapidly. But a Jacob Eason pick six on the third play of their next drive, picked off by Oregon State Sophomore DB Jaydon Grant, got in the way of that and gave the Beavers their first points on the day, behind now only by six at 13-7. Washington finally created a bit more separation when, with 2:34 left in the 3rd Qtr, RB Salvon Ahmed hit the gap for a 60 yard run and score. The Huskies went for a two point conversion and failed leaving the score at 19-7 but held Oregon State to three-and-outs on their next three possessions to ensure the win.
If you take out this game and their loss to Utah, the Beavers were averaging 37+ points a game on the season. But against the two best defenses they played this year they were only able to muster up seven points in each. Oregon State QB, Jake Luton, connected on 19-of-28 for a mere 88 yards, no scores, and one interception. They faired even worse on the ground, rushing 22 times for slightly over 1 yard per carry, 31 total with nothing to show for it. Although Husky QB Jacob Eason threw for a lot more yards, 175, he actually faired worse as far as the scoreboard goes throwing zero TD’s and 2 interceptions, one a pick-six. But Washington’s running game was another story as they rushed 48 times for 245 yards with Salvon Ahmed picking up 174 of those and 2 TD’s on 25 attempts.
Unable to significantly move the ball in the air or on the ground Oregon State ended up facing a lot of third and longs and converted on less than 8% of those. Washington wasn’t all that great either, converting on less that 30% of theirs as well even though they did dominate in Total Offense, 420 yards to 119, and had possession of the ball for almost a quarter longer. Going into the game Washington’s Place Kicker, Peyton Henry, had been a kind of outlier this year by having a perfect season for a team that has been far from perfect. But in this game he missed a field goal, two actually, and finally became a kindred spirit with the rest of the Huskies-a team that probably spends some time, regardless of what the coach advises, thinking about missed opportunities and what might have been this year. As Washington Outside Linebacker Joe Tryon put it; “It’s irritating that we lost those three games, but at the end of the day we’ve got football games to win. We just can’t think about what we can’t do.”
With the victory the Huskies finally become bowl eligible while Oregon State needs to still find two more wins in their remaining three games against Washington State, Oregon and Arizona State who they’ll play at home this coming Saturay, November 16th, at 4:30pm on FS1. The Huskies get a bye week before heading out to Boulder to take on Colorado, Saturday, November 23rd.