Oregon State at UCLA
Right about now I’m thinking Chris Petersen at Washington would love to still be working with Jonathan Smith, Head Coach of Oregon State. Smith, a former Beaver QB (1998-2001) who threw for 9,500+ yard and 55 TD’s, stayed in Corvallis a year as a graduate assistant, and was then hired by Idaho as a QB coach from 2004 to 2009. Following that he worked at Idaho for a couple of year’s as their Offensive Coordinator and was then hired by Chris Petersen at Boise State. He followed Petersen to Washington and was the Huskies Offensive Coordinator for four seasons which includes 2016 when they made a run on the national title, ranked 15th in total offense, and ended the season ranked 4th in the Final AP Poll.
While Smith works on recruiting bigger guys to match his competition he has put an offense together that is capable of winning by just scoring more points than his opponent. If not for a slow start and a late game kick-off return that put the Cardinal in place to kick a winning FG with 1 second left the previous week, Oregon State would have beaten Stanford. This past week Beaver QB Jake Luton rushed for a score as well as threw a career high five TD’s, connecting on 18 of 26 for 285 yards and no interceptions in a 48-31 victory on the road in the Rose Bowl against UCLA. Having grown up in Pasadena it must have been a sweet homecoming for the coach. Junior Wide Receiver Isaiah Hodgins had a career day with 10 receptions for 123 yards and 3 of those Luton TD’s while his teammate, Senior RB Artavis Pierce, rushed 21 times for 119 yards and another score.
With Dorian Thompson-Robinson out with an injury, the Bruins started their Sophomore backup Austin Burton who did a good job managing the game for UCLA connecting on 65% of his passes for 236 yards, 1 TD, and no interceptions. In between, the Bruins ran a solid ground-game-by-committee approach in which three RB’s handled the ball an average of 15 times a piece for 256 yards and three TD’s-one score and almost 100 yards more than the Beavers on the ground.
Oregon State did a better job of pressuring UCLA’s offense with 3 sacks and 8 tackles for loss while the Bruins had seven more first downs, more Total Offense, and possession of the ball 10 more minutes than Oregon State. But in a strange bit of irony the Beaver’s didn’t need extra 1st downs or time of possession because they scored 7 TD’s on drives that averaged less than 3 minutes a piece against UCLA and Head Coach Chip Kelly whose Blur Offense was known for doing just that. As far as a Take-Away for UCLA from this game, according to the AP Recap; “Any positive momentum the Bruins had after their upset of Washington State two weeks ago is long gone. Kelly’s biggest task is trying to convince a skeptical fan base that things can’t get worse.”
After almost knocking off Stanford and beating UCLA in the Rose Bowl, a very confident Oregon State heads home to Corvallis to host No. 17 Utah on Saturday, October 12th, at 5:00pm on the PAC12 Network. Don’t count them out. UCLA has a week off to pull it together before heading up north to Palo Alto where they have lost 11 straight games to take on Stanford on October 17th.
Cal at Oregon
Cal continues to play stiff defense, holding the Ducks scoreless through the first half on the road in Eugene at Autzen Stadium and led in the game until just under two minutes were left in the 3rd Qtr. Devon Modster started for the Golden Bears in place of Chase Garbers, who was injured in last week’s game against the Sun Devils, and connected on 17 of 34 for 190 yards, 1 TD and 2 picks, one of which led to an Oregon TD in the second half of the 4th Quarter.
The Ducks came into the game having only turned the ball over twice the entire season but couldn’t get out of their own way in the first half going interception, fumble, fumble, punt, missed field goal in their five possessions with that pick leading to a Cal TD and early 7-0 lead in the 1st Qtr. It was the first TD scored against the Oregon defense since their game at Auburn Week 1. Cal had a chance to extend the lead by 3 points in the first half but their Place Kicker, Greg Thomas, missed what should have been a give me field goal at the Oregon 15 yard line with most of the 2nd Qtr still remaining. As it was, the score remained 7-0 at the break.
After that first score by Cal the Oregon defense, as MSN reported, “held the Golden Bears scoreless over the final 51 minutes, 58 seconds.” Overall the Ducks limited Cal to 256 yards of Total Offense, including just 66 yards on the ground, while sacking Modster four times. And after the break Oregon finally got it going on offense scoring a field goal and a TD while holding Cal to four consecutive three-and-outs. Cal tried to get some of that back but Modster threw one of his two picks which led to another TD by the Ducks and what turned out to be the last score in a 17-7 victory for Oregon.
Commenting on the fact that his team had just two turnovers all season long coming into the game but three in this game alone with Herbert’s first interception of the season and RB Travis Dye’s two lost fumbles Duck Head Coach Mario Cristobal said after the game; “At times, pretty sloppy tonight, we saw that especially in the first half. Second half certainly got better, and got some things rolling. Certainly happy to have our second win in the conference against a team that we knew was going to be a tough team. We’ve got to get out of our own way sometimes.”
As reported by the Associated Press and published on espy.com; “The Ducks’ streak of three games without allowing a touchdown was its longest since 1933.” Oregon hosts Colorado this coming Friday, October 11th, at 7:00pm on FS1 while Washington hits the road and hopes to right the ship against Arizona-a team that has the capability of scoring a lot of points. That will be a PAC-12 at Night game this Saturday, October 12th, at 8:00pm on FS1.
Arizona at Colorado
I’m sure Arizona’s QB Kahlil Tate can’t graduate soon enough as far as the Colorado Buffaloes are concerned. Two years ago, entering the game in relief of the Wildcat’s starting QB, Tate set an FBS rushing record for a QB, 327 yards, in their narrow 45-42 victory. Last year he threw five TD’s in a win over the Buffaloes and this past Saturday he completed 75% of his passes for 404 yards and 3 TD’s against 1 pick in a back and forth contest that saw the lead change nine times with Arizona able to hold Colorado off in the end to hang onto a 35-30 victory.
The scoring was slow to evolve with both teams punting three times in between an Arizona TD and two field goals by the Buffaloes. But with the Wildcats in possession and hanging onto a 7-6 lead with just a little over two minutes left in the 2nd Qtr Tate threw a pick and the craziness started. 9 seconds and 1 play later Colorado Junior Wide Receiver, K.D. Nixon, completed a 38 yard pass into the end zone to Freshman WR Dimitri Stanley giving the Buffaloes a 13-7 lead. Not incapable of creating his own magic, in the first play after the kick-off Tate completed a 75 yard pass to Senior WR Cedric Peterson for a TD as well to retake the lead 14-13 which took all of 10 seconds. Nine plays and 75 yards later at the end of a drive that took just 1:37 Colorado’s Steven Montez connected with Sophomore Tight End Brady Russell for a 12 yard score and a 20-14 lead going into the break.
There were five more lead changes after the half with Arizona RB Nathan Tilford taking it into the end zone for a rushing TD and a 35-30 lead with 6:51 left in the 4th Qtr which ended up being the final score. Colorado had a chance at the beginning of the 4th to go up 34 to 28 with a first and goal at the Arizona 2 yard line but couldn’t move the ball and had to settle for a James Stefanou field goal.
Even though the Buffaloes were missing a lot of key players like star receiver Laviska Shenault, CB Chris Miller, DE Mustafa Johnson and ended up with three more on the bench by the time the game was over, Head Coach Mel Tucker was having none of it as an excuse for loosing the game and stated; “Next man up is not a cliche, it’s what’s required. There’s really no excuse and no explanation.” As far as that missed TD opportunity at the beginning of the 4th Qtr, Arizona Head Coach Kevin Sumlin said; “That was the difference in the game.”
Arizona heads back home to take on a Washington team next Saturday night that will really need to get its act together if they are going to be able to outscore the Wildcats at home. Colorado hits the road to take on Oregon this coming Friday, October 11th, at 7:00pm on FS1.
Washington at Stanford
As Matt Calkins, sportswriter for The Seattle Times put it; “Saturday night, Stanford played bully to Washington’s geek. In a 23-13 win the Cardinal pushed the Huskies around, ran over them at will and might have thrown in a wedgie.” For some reason I chose to record this one so that I could catch our favorite local band, “The Shy Boys,” at Davenport-a popular local coffee shop in Uptown Gig Harbor. I did watch the second half of the game live when I got home and it was so disgusting that I haven’t and am not sure if I will watch the first half. Didn’t Washington just beat USC last week, the same USC that beat Stanford by 25 points, the same Stanford that just squeaked by Oregon State with a last second field goal, the same Stanford who, as Matt writes, “came into the game ranked 115th out of 130 teams in the country in pass defense and last in the PAC-12 in scoring.” If it wasn’t easy enough for Washington going in, Stanford tied one hand behind it’s back and played without their starting QB or all their starters on the OLine and still won.
Stanford’s Junior Backup QB Davis Mills connected on 70% of his passes for 293 yards, 1 TD, and no interceptions while spreading the ball out multiple times to five different receivers with the most individually going to Sophomore WR Simi Fehoko who picked up 91 yards and 1 TD on just three receptions. Meanwhile Jacob Eason, Washington’s 5-star transfer out of Georgia who is touted as a first round draft pick in the NFL next year, connected at just a 45% rate for 85+ yards less than Mills, one TD, and 1 interception that led to points on the board for Stanford. Eason might have been able to get it going had he gotten more opportunity, but Stanford’s long time eating drives had the Cardinal on the field 18 minutes longer than Washington-longer than an entire quarter. And when they were on the field they couldn’t move the chains with a 3rd down efficiency of just over 15%.
On the ground the Huskies were just as anemic rushing 22 times for 88 yards and no scores while the Cardinal’s RB, Cameron Scarlett, ran for 151 of Stanford’s 189 yards and a TD on 33 attempts-a career high. Even defending against a Cardinal line that wasn’t intact the Huskies were only able to sack Mills once on the night. The only guy I can point to for sure that did his job was Husky Place Kicker Peyton Henry who is still perfect on the year after connecting on two field goals and one PAT for what amounted to over half of Washington’s 13 points.
I remember mentioning in the preview that this was a rebuilding year for the Huskies but I thought they would be a tough out and might exceed expectations. However, this is their second loss to a unranked team and as far as this past Saturday goes, rebuilding yes, tough out, a big no. As Washington Head Coach Chris Petersen said after the game; “They outplayed us in every area.” The win for Stanford extends their winning streak at home against the Huskies to six games. All in all the loss hurts not only Washington but Oregon as well who may end up coming into Husky stadium to play a team that could be unranked by the time they get there. With No. 7 Auburn (Oregon’s only loss) loosing to No. 10 Florida, the Duck’s slight chance of making it into the CFP Semi-Final is slipping towards slim-to-none.
Stanford takes a week off before hosting UCLA at home on Thursday night, October 17th. Washington stays on the road to take on PAC-12 South Division Leader Arizona in Tucson this next Saturday.