Arizona State at Arizona
There was a lot of pent of frustration let loose by Arizona State in Tucson Friday evening. Maybe it was having to watch three of the five Power 5 conferences play football for nine weeks before you even got started. Maybe it was, even when you got started and were co-favorites along with USC to win the PAC-12 South, losing your first game out of the gate to those very same Trojans by one point on a miracle play. Maybe it was being in Week 6 of your shortened season but only playing your 3rd game because of an inability to control a rampaging virus. Whatever the hell it was, the Sun Devils scorched the earth in this year’s version of the Duel in the Desert in what ESPN referred to in its recap as a; “Territorial rout [as] as Arizona State blows out Arizona” while scoring the most points in Territorial Cup history.
Here I thought USC scored quickly the previous week, and much like that game the opponent seemed more than willing to help the other side. I turned the game on 20 seconds late and Arizona State was already in front 7-0 having escaped the Arizona special teams defense to run the kick-off all the way back to the house. Then, after a Sun Devil kick-off and Arizona return to their own 48 the Wildcats, through a holding penalty and a rushing play gaining negative yards combined with a lost fumble, found themselves 40 yards in the wrong direction, back on their own 4 yard line—now on defense. One play into their first possession of the game Arizona State runs it into the end zone and after a Christian Zendajas PAT are up 14-0 with less than a minute gone in the first quarter!
Does it get worse-of course! But not immediately even though the Sun Devils found themselves with the ball again with less than three minutes gone in the first quarter after Arizona QB Grant Gunnell tossed up an interception on the Wildcat’s very next possession. On and on it went with Arizona turning the ball back over on downs three times and fumbling twice while the Sun Devils put up six more TD’s on the board—all in the first half alone! The Wildcats finally scored on a five play 75 yard drive ending with a 20 yard Michael Wiley run for a TD. Score at halftime—Arizona 7, Arizona State 42.
Arizona continued their ineptitude in the second half with multiple three-and-outs aong with another fumble and two interceptions—leading to four more TD’s and a final score of 70-7. Kevin Sumlin continues his perfect losing season in grand fashion and as the AP wrote in their recap of the game; “The Wildcats (0-5) may have been thankful there were no fans in the stands after a lackluster performance that may put coach Kevin Sumlin’s job in jeopardy.” You think!
The only positive stat in this game for Arizona was first downs, where they out-paced Arizona State by one, 18-17. The other category they were ahead in was turnovers, 4 fumbles all lost and 3 interceptions, with five of the seven leading to Sun Devil TD’s. Arizona had three QB’s under center during the course of the game with Plummer, Gunnell, and Rodriguez connecting on a collective 26 of 46 for 213 yards, zero TD’s, and 3 interceptions. Arizona State QB Jayden Daniels connected on 80% of his passes for 203 yards, 2 TD’s, and no picks. The Sun Devils rushed 50 times for 259 yards and 7 TD’s against 137 yards and 1 TD for Arizona.
For some reason Arizona is looking to add a game next week, having only lost five so far this season—go figure. I thought you had to win six to play in a bowl. As I wrote earlier in the year, it remains to be seen what with all the financial loses to the athletic departments in the PAC-12 conference whether or not any head coach gets fired, especially adding in the cost of their contract buy-outs. But if any one does, Sumlin is a sure bet to be on top of that list. As far as Arizona State is concerned, just about everybody is coming back for a real season of football next year and I wouldn’t be surprised to see Herm Edwards and his Sun Devils sitting on top of the South this time next year.
USC at UCLA
After watching the Bruins this shortened season you just knew that their game against the Trojans on Saturday was going to be exciting, and it was, but in the end—just not for them. UCLA led after every quarter except the quarter that counted in their 43-38 heartbreaking loss to USC in the Rose Bowl. But coming back to win a game isn’t new for the Trojans this year and maybe it was fitting that they would end their regular season just like they started. Down 27-14 with just over four minutes left in the game, the Trojans scored two TD’s late in the 4th Qtr to defeat the Sun Devils 28-17 in Week 1. In Week 2, the game against Arizona was down to its last 25 seconds before USC finally scored a go-ahead TD to win the game 34-30. Saturday against the Bruins after being down 7-0 at the end of the 1st Qtr, 21-10 at the half, and 35 to 23 going into the 4th Qtr, USC outscored UCLA 20-3 to ensure the victory and to be as Bill Plaschke wrote for the Los Angeles Times, “5-0 for the first time since the Pete Carroll glory days of 2006.”
USC’s Sophomore QB Kedon Slovis wasn’t as flawless as he can be, connecting on less than 65% of his passes while throwing against a very talented UCLA secondary, but had another solid game for the Trojans and was perfect when it counted as noted in the Los Angeles Times review in which they wrote; “in the fourth quarter this season Slovis has thrown five touchdown passes with no interceptions,” and labeling them, “the comeback kids.” On the day he connected on 30 of 47 for 344 yards, 5 TD’s and 2 interceptions with WR’s Amon-Ra St. Brown and Drake London collectively hauling in 170 yards of that and 2 TD’s a piece while leaving the biggest chuck of what was left to Tyler Vaughns who picked up 128 yards and 1 TD on 8 receptions. After picking up less than 10 yards rushing the previous game, Senior RB Vavae Malepeai ran for 110 yards and a TD on 19 carries.
For UCLA, QB Dorian Thompson-Robinson completed 83% of his passes, 30-36 for 364 yards, 4 TD’s and 2 interceptions as well. Senior RB Demetric Felton was everywhere on the offense, picking up 90 yards on the ground as well as hauling in 5 receptions and 2 TD’s in the air. USC had no answer for 6’ 4” 242 pound Sophomore TE Greg Dulcich who averaged 20+ yards a catch while picking up 167 yards and 1 TD on just 8 receptions. In the air it was quite a battle between the two QB’s with both connecting 30 times for 9 scores collectively and a diffference of just 20 yards between them. DTR and Slovis also threw two picks a piece, but it was the interceptions thrown by UCLA along with a fumble that resulted in 2 TD’s and a field goal for the Trojans that made the difference in the game.
Although assured of victory in the South earlier in the day when undefeated Colorado dropped their game against Utah, the Trojans are scheduled to play Oregon on Friday in the Coliseum for the PAC-12 Conference Championship and a spot in the Fiesta Bowl. The Huskies were unable to field the minimum 53 required scholarship players for the match-up with Oregon this past Saturday to determine the PAC-12 North through competition instead of by default. As announced by the PAC-12 after consultation with Washington, second-place Oregon will replace the Huskies in the North Division and meet the South Division Champion, USC, in the PAC-12 Football Championship Game this coming Friday, December 18th, in Los Angeles. What a disappointment for the Huskies but as far as the folks who provided us with their best guess as to which two teams would be most likely playing in the final this year—they stumbled into getting this one right.
Utah at Colorado
As I mentioned regarding Utah’s win against Oregon State a week ago it looked as though RB Ty Jordan was starting to get really comfortable in the lead back spot for Utah while rushing for 167 yards and a TD. The Freshman certainly didn’t slow down against Colorado rushing 17 times for 147 yards and 2 TD’s including what the AP described in their write-up for ESPN as “a game sealing 66-yard burst” to put the Utes up 35-21 with under five minutes left in the game. Combine that with three forced turnovers as well as outscoring their opponent 28-to-7 after being down 14-10 at the break and you’ve got a pretty comfortable 38-21 win for the Utes on the road in Boulder.
Utah scored right out of the gate with a 6 play 60 yard drive in just under three minutes culminating with a six yard TD pass from Senior QB Jake Bentley to Junior WR Solomon Enis. After that the Colorado defense dug in and kept Utah from any additional scoring in the first half until a Jake Broussard fumble with less than a minute left leading to a field goal. In the meantime after two punts and a fumble on their first three possessions Colorado couldn’t seem to get out of their own way but finally scored early in the 2nd Qtr at the end of a 90 yard eleven play drive on a Sam Noyer 21 yard pass to Maurice Bell for a TD. After that Utah pitched in to help Colorado along, throwing an interception their next possession and then had a special team defense meltdown, resulting in a Colorado punt return for a touchdown putting the Buffaloes up 14-10 at the break.
Colorado got the ball to start the 2nd half and scored within the first minute to go up 21-10. But after that it was all Utah the rest of the way scoring three TD’s and two field goals while holding Colorado scoreless for all but that first half-minute or so. “They hung in there and fought their way out of a tough spot,” Utah coach Kyle Whittingham said. “They never flinched.” Of interest going forward for Colorado Brenden Rice, son of the great Jerry Rice and a Freshman WR and punt returner on special teams, scored twice in this game for the Buffaloes–once on an 81 yard punt return and again off a 61 yard catch, the first player to do that for Colorado since 1981. But it wasn’t enough and as Head Coach Karl Dorrell said afterwards; “It was a disappointing game, not quite the performance we were looking for.”
Typical for a Kyle Whittingham team, Utah possessed the ball for twelve more minutes than the Buffaloes, using that time to rack up more first downs, more yards of total offense, and more points than their opponents. But playing the spoiler wasn’t exactly what Utah had in mind for this season and as Junior WR Britain Covey said afterwards; “This is the first time in my career where we’re not playing for a championship or the opportunity to go to a championship. You’ve got to dig deep and find what motivates you.” As the AP noted in their recap; “As things currently stand, it ends Colorado’s Pac-12 title aspirations [as] the Buffaloes needed a win along with UCLA beating No. 16 Southern California later Saturday to capture the South.” But don’t expect to see Colorado fade away next year as though this were some kind of fluke season like 2016 was for them. Dorrell has a super young team and 85%+ will be back next year when it looks as though the PAC-12 South may be more competitive than it ever has been.
In order to get more games in for their teams in this abbreviated season the conference, in addition to their PAC-12 Conference Championship game that will be played this coming Friday in the Rose Bowl, has scheduled games on Saturday with Utah hosting Washington State at 10:30am. Colorado is currently not scheduled but may end up playing Cal if the Bears weren’t the team responsible for the cancellation of the game they were supposed to play against Arizona this coming weekend.