Week 11 Review and Pac 10 Power Poll

Note: I wrote this on Monday before the events of Thursday's Oregon/Arizona game. My work internet now blocks Blogspot and my time at home during the week is pretty limited so I was late in posting this.

Oregon was the big winner this week and they didn’t even play. Thanks to Illinois knocking off an untested Ohio State squad Oregon slid in to the #2 spot in the BCS. However even if they win out they are not assured a spot in the Big Game in New Orleans as the winner of the Big 12 Championship game may jump Oregon. In other news the winner of the ASU/USC game on Thanksgiving has put themselves in great position to get to a BCS game likely either the Rose or Fiesta Bowl depending on where Oregon ends up. I want to make the point to say that I was very happy to see Jake Locker come back form that scary situation with a clean bill of health. The kid is a hero who will lead Washington back to respectability of he gets a surrounding cast. Not sure if Ty Willingham will be the guy who gets to lead him to that point however. As much criticism as Gordon Reice received last year for the Oklahoma/Oregon call I have to say that the botched call in the OSU/UW was even worse though it didn’t effect the outcome of the game. At worst case the ball should have been called dead at the 6 inch line, my opinion was that Bernard scored, not sure how they called it a fumble and how the play wasn’t reviewed. USC and ASU won hard fought games and WSU maintained a glimmer of hope for a bowl with a win over Stanford.

1. UO (1) – The Ducks can see the light at the end of the tunnel but need to keep their eye on the prize. Simply winning out may not be enough for the Ducks if Kansas wins out, if Oklahoma wins out the Ducks need to show some serious style points. Oregon faces Zona at the worst possible time in that they face a team on a hot streak who can throw the ball down the field, play a night game in the desert which is always a gamble and face the whole #2 and Thursday night curse. All in all I think the Ducks still win by 10 but this was should be a memorable game.
2. USC (2) – USC seems to have its power running game back, where was it against Oregon however? The play at ASU on Thanksgiving in what amounts to a BCS playoff game.
3. ASU (3) – Did enough to beat UCLA but I would have expected a larger win all things considered. Depending on how the year ends ASU could find itself as low as the Sun Bowl or as high as the Fiesta or Rose Bowl.
4. OSU (4) – Weird game that OSU frankly should have won by 20 but was much closer due to some bad calls by the refs, an emotional effort by UW after Jake Locker and a breakdown in the Beaver pass defense mainly caused by 3 key secondary members being kicked out of the game. I think the Pac 10 gave the Beavs some justice by not suspending the players for the first half of the WSU game.
5. Cal (6) – Played USC tough but just didn’t have enough. This team has dropped quicker than almost any team in memory from a high national ranking. At this point probably can’t hope for anything better than the Sun Bowl.
6. UA (5) – Still Bowl eligible for one more night. Stoops is safe from what reports are saying but I am not so sure.
7. UCLA (7) – Stung by injuries more than any team in the country I thought they played pretty tough against ASU. I think this is Karl Dorrell’s swan song, probably a great time for a bye week to give them time to prepare for Oregon.
8. WSU (9) – Once giving up for dead WSU is now a home win against OSU and a road win in Seattle from getting 6 wins, which this year, unlike last will get the Cougars in to a bowl game. The Beavs likely not having Yvensen Bernard and what should be dicey weather should help out the Cougars.
9. UW (8) – Good to see Jake Locker okay, Carl Bonnell actually played pretty well in relief but until this team gets a solid running back they are going to have problems.
10. Stanford (10) – Decimated by injuries they get a needed bye week before playing Notre Dame and Cal to end the year. Stanford could be a bowl team next year