Arizona State at Cal
In true PAC-12 cannibalistic style we now have no teams with perfect records as the Arizona State Sun Devils prevailed on the road against the previously undefeated No. 15 California Golden Bears 24-17. That gives the Sun Devils two wins against ranked teams this year as they previously knocked off Michigan State, then a Top 25 team, in Week 3. Cal’s Defense had been getting a lot of accolades in the course of moving up to the No. 15 Spot after beating Washington in Week 2 and knocking off SEC’s Ole Miss on the road in Week 4. But it was the Arizona State Defense and their relentless ground attack that ruled this PAC-12 at Night encounter. As Cal linebacker Evan Weaver commented after it was over; “They outplayed us in every facet of the game . . . can’t win games when you’re not even making the simple plays, and we didn’t today. That was it.” You might remember Weaver if you watched their game against Ole Miss in which he picked up 22 Tackles-most against any SEC team in 15 years.
To be fair Cal lost their starting QB, Chase Garbers who was throwing the ball really well, to a shoulder injury with less than two minutes left in the first half. Before leaving he had connected on 75% of his passes, 9-of-12, for 1 TD and no interceptions. The Arizona State pass defense held his back-up, Junior QB Devon Modster, to just 23 yards in the air the rest of the way as he only connected on 5-of-14, a mere 35%, for one TD and one interception which he threw down at the Arizona State 20 yard line with just 10 seconds left in the half-denying his team a chance to score and go up before the break. It seemed that Cal either had an inordinate respect for the Arizona State Secondary or they weren’t all that confident in Modster’s ability as their first possession of the second half consisted of a 12 play 63 yard drive none of which included a single pass but did result in a TD and a 14-7 lead.
Freshman Sun Devil QB Jayden Daniels was 14-of-24 for 174 yards in the air as well as carrying the ball 12 times for 84 more. But if you were looking for someone to award the game ball, look no further than talented Arizona State Junior RB Eno Benjamin who carried the ball 29 times for 100 yards and 3 rushing TD’s which, when added to a Christian Zendejas’ 43 yard field goal and 3 PATs, was all the scoring the Sun Devils needed to put away the Bears.
In spite of the win on the road Arizona State could have played better and as the AP Recap of the game pointed out; “The Sun Devils won despite squandering several scoring opportunities in the first half.” As far as Cal goes, with Garbers in a splint during the second half and Modster’s dismal performance the Bears could be in for trouble in their immediate future as they travel to Eugene to take on the Oregon Ducks this coming week on Saturday, October 5th, at 5:00pm on FOX.
Stanford at Oregon State
For the first half of the game it looked as if the two teams we’d been watching for the last three weeks had been replaced with two other teams as Stanford scored on two of their three opportunities, blocked a field goal to prevent the Beavers from scoring, and went into the locker room up 14-0 at the half. Junior Davis Mills, Stanford’s back-up and starting QB for next year, came in and played for K. J. Costello who injured the thumb on his throwing hand in last week’s loss against Oregon. Mills looked really good, connecting on 18 of 25 for 245 yards, 3 TD’s and zero interceptions. Junior TE Colby Parkinson also connected for a TD on his only pass attempt of the game, an 8 yard toss early in the 4th Qtr back to the QB which gave Stanford their 4th TD of the night. But, as it turned out it took the Cardinal the entire game to actually win what looked to be a runaway early.
Oregon State’s Senior QB, Jake Luton, had a really good night against Stanford connecting on about 70% of his passes for 337 yards and 1 TD with no interceptions. Add that to the effort and output of Senior RB Artavis Pierce who averaged almost 9 yards a carry against the Cardinal for 141 of their 164 yards on the ground and 2 of their 3 rushing TD’s and you have just about 150 yards of Total Offense more than Stanford’s 353 yards. The problem is it took Oregon State more than half of the game to score and by then they were already down 21-0, but when they finally started rolling it was fun to watch.
The Beavers got the ball to start the second half but ended up punting after an ineffective 6 play 29 yard drive to the Stanford 49 yard line. The Cardinal took over and took almost 6 precious minutes off the clock in an 11 play, 80 yard drive that led to a Davis Mills TD pass to Brycen Tremaynea and a 21-0 lead. But after that Oregon State cranked those chainsaws up and scored a TD on every one of their next four possessions averaging 8 plays and 80 yards on each, including an 8 play 95 yard drive in 2:21 that started at their own 5 yard line and ended in a 43 yard TD run by RB Artavis Pierce to bring the Beavers to within one score, 21-14. Stanford scored again on their very next possession to put the Cardinal back up 28-14. But give Oregon State credit, they not only made it into the end zone on their next two possessions their Defense forced Stanford to a three-and-out, and, with just under two minutes left in the game they tied the score at 28 a piece on a 10 play, 77 yard drive.
Had the Oregon State Special Teams not allowed a 43 yard return on the subsequent 58 yard kick-off after their score this game would have probably gone into overtime, an overtime in which the Beavers given their momentum would have most likely won. But as it turned out Senior Place Kicker, Jet Toner, became a sort of book end for this game. After missing a 53 yard field goal on Stanford’s very first possession of the game he came in, after a 7 play 29 yard drive that took all the time off the clock, to hit a 39 yarder with 1 second remaining to win the game for Stanford 31-28.
Stanford comes back home to host the Washington Huskies this next Saturday, October 5th, at 7:30pm on ESPN while Oregon State travels to warmer climate to take on the Bruins in the Rose Bowl at 6:00pm on Saturday as well.
Utah at Washington State
Back in October of 2016 Becky Berdan, a high school Junior from Connecticut wrote an Op-Ed for the New York Times entitled, “Participation Trophies Send a Dangerous Message.” In the piece she writes; “Trophies for all convey an inaccurate and potentially dangerous life message to children: We are all winners . . . We begin to expect awards and praise for just showing up.” Listening to Washington State Head Coach Mike Leach after their dismal loss to Utah on Saturday it wasn’t hard to tell that he doesn’t believe in participation trophies either. After the 38-13 beat down by Utah Leach had this to say about the game: “It’s difficult to say how tough Utah is because they had token resistance on both of sides of the ball from us. We’re a very soft team . . . fat, dumb, happy, and entitled,”
After Washington State allowed 657 yards of Total Offense and 67 points in their loss to UCLA last week, the Utes gained 225 yards and scored 2 TD’s on their first three drives of the game against the Cougars this week and could have had another score if their WR Demari Simpkins, alone in the end zone, hadn’t dropped the ball. Back on his home turf at Rice Eccles Stadium in Salt Lake, Utah QB Tyler Huntley was right on the money Saturday connecting on 70% of his passes for 334 yards, 3 TD’s and no interceptions as well as running for another 31 yards and two more scores. Knowing they’d be without their star RB, Zack Moss, Utah put together a run-by-committee approach that had five guys rushing 37 times for 188 yards on the ground and 3 TD’s with Junior RB Devonta’e Henry-Cole picking up 79 of those yards on 15 carries. All toll Utah had 526 yards of Total Offense-200+ yards more than the Cougars were able to put together.
Washington State Senior QB Anthony Gordon connected on a respectable 30 of 49 for 252 yards and 1 TD but threw 2 interceptions, both of which led to Utah TD’s. Being efficient on third down just 25% of the time the Cougars ended up with 11 fewer first downs in the game compared to the Utes who also had possession of the ball about 10 minutes longer. With the running game more of a tool to keep the defense honest it’s hardly ever the focus of Leach’s Air Raid Offense, but against Utah they employed their ground game even less than normal rushing just 14 times. However, picking up a little over 4 yards a carry and facing a Utah Secondary that was doing a pretty adequate job they might have considered running a bit more this time.
USC at Washington
But for a slow start and three interceptions by the Trojan’s 3rd String Jr. QB Matt Fink, one picked off right at the goal line and two of which led to scores, this game might have had a different ending. But as it turns out the USC running game is probably the only positive take away from their 28-14 road loss to the Huskies. In addition to Fink, who had the Trojan’s sole rushing TD, three other guys carried the ball for a total of 212 yards on the ground-collectively averaging 7.5 yards per carry. Considering Washington has a pretty stout, respectable, defense that’s something USC should be able to capitalize on moving forward. In addition to the 3 turnovers, Fink connected on 19 of 32 for 163 yards and 1 TD. Washington’s QB Jacob Eason wasn’t exactly a ball of fire either connecting at a percentage just slightly highly than Fink, 61.5% for 180 yards, zero TD’s, but also zero interceptions.
The bulk of Washington’s game on the ground was provided by Junior RB Salvon Ahmed who carried the ball 15 times for 153 yards, including a thrilling, crowd pleasing, 89 yard run to the house. Freshman RB Richard Newton was the first to score for the Huskies with a 1 yard run on their 2nd possession of the game while Senior RB Andre Baccellia fell on a ball fumbled in the end zone for another score. Add those to a two point conversion and a couple of field goals and PATs by Sophomore Place Kicker Peyton Henry and you have it. Henry has really provided stability in a position that used to drive Washington fans crazy. He’s 9-for-9 on his field goals and 22-for-22 regarding extra points. Always nice to have someone who consistently performs at a high level.
As Los Angeles Times Sport’s Columnist Dylan Hernandez put it; “The carpet didn’t soar into the sky this time. The genie refused to come out of the lamp. The magic that produced an upset victory the previous week couldn’t be conjured again Saturday at Husky Stadium where USC was forced to confront reality-the Trojans played against a better team and lost.” USC takes this next week off before hitting the road to take on another better team, Notre Dame, currently No. 9 on the AP Poll, while the Huskies pack their bags right away for a two game road trip that begins in Palo Alto against Stanford this coming Saturday, October 5th, at 7:30pm on ESPN.
UCLA at Arizona
Once they got the ball it looked as though the Bruins were going to continue their torrid pace from the second half of the previous week’s game, going 85 yards in 12 plays to score on Junior TE Matt Lynch’s 2-yard touchdown catch to go up 7-0 against the Wildcats. After all this game shouldn’t be too hard to win, even on the road, given that Arizona’s starting QB Khalil Tate and most efficient RB J.J. Taylor were both out due to leg injuries-right? Wrong! Freshman QB Grant Gunnell, in his first career start, served up an efficient 29-of-44 while spreading the ball around multiple times to seven different receivers for 352 yards and no interceptions with a big chuck of that yardage going to fellow freshman Darrius Smith who collected 99 yards, including a 75 yard score, on just five receptions. Add in RB Gary Brightwell’s 10 yard rushing TD in the first five minutes of the 4th Qtr and Place Kicker Lucas Havrisik’s two field goals and two PATs and that turned out to be enough to beat UCLA 20-17, the same UCLA that scored 67 points the previous week.
A couple of things, besides themselves, got in the way of the Bruins. First, the Wildcats did a great job of keeping UCLA backed up, with their Senior Punter Matt Aragon averaging 47.3 yards on each of his five punts. Secondly, unlike Washington State, Arizona actually played defense-not just during UCLA’s possessions but also on Special Teams which limited UCLA’s returns on Aragon’s five punts to a total of 11 yards. Every time UCLA got the ball, they had a long way to go.
In spite of that the Bruins put together a well balanced attack with 228 yards in the air and 217 yards on the ground for a Total Offense of 445 yards, just shy of Arizona’s 451 yards. UCLA was also quite a bit more efficient on 3rd down conversion compared to the Wildcats, 47% to 35%, had half the penalties, and had their hands on the ball four more minutes than the Wildcats. Dorian Thompson-Robinson connected on just over 50% of his passes, 17-of-33 for 180 yards, 1 TD and 1 interception in addition to rushing 9 times for 63 more yards. UCLA’s most proficient runner on the ground this week was Senior RB Joshua Kelley who shouldered the bulk of the workload carrying the ball 27 times for 127 yards and 1 TD.
Looking at the numbers, it seems as though UCLA could have won this one. But as the headline on the AP Recap reads, “Arizona holds on to beat UCLA . . . “ In spite of loosing Thompson-Robinson to a leg injury in the second half UCLA’s back-up Sophomore QB, Austin Burton, starting on his own 9 yard line late in the 4th Qtr connected on 5-of-9 for 48 yards, moving the ball all the way down to the Arizona 21 yard line. It was from there where the Wildcats held on, and probably held their breath, as UCLA’s Place Kicker JJ Molsen tried and missed a 39 yard field goal with just 34 seconds left to play that would have tied the score and sent the game into overtime.
As it is UCLA is now 1-4 overall and 1-1 in Conference while Arizona is tied with Colorado for the lead in the PAC-12 South with an overall record of 3-1 and 1-0 in Conference. With UCLA’s dramatic victory the week before, had the Bruins pulled this one out they might have been able to start turning around the dismal home attendance numbers this next Saturday as they play host to Oregon State at 6:00pm in the Rose Bowl. Arizona hits the road to take on the Colorado Buffaloes with the winner becoming the sole owner of 1st place in the PAC-12 South-at least for a week anyway.