Week Four Review and Pac 10 Power Poll

Evie and I
Originally uploaded by pete4ducks.

Not often do Top 10 teams lose by 39 points to unranked opponents. Not often does perhaps the leading Heisman candidate drop off the list altogether after an off game. And not often is a Cal/Oregon game a blowout. Not often does a team ranked 118th in offense but up over 300 yards in the first half alone and 42 points. However all of these things happened at Autzen Stadium last Saturday and the result was a Pac 10 race clearly in flux. After the Boise State game many Duck fans having given up hope and after the UW/USC game people had all but given the Pac 10 title to Cal but now both of those beliefs need to be readdressed. The upcoming Cal/USC game is for all intensive purposes a playoff game, probably more so for Cal than USC. If the Bears were to lose to USC it makes the road to Pasadena all but impossible for them since they would have loses to both USC and Oregon and unless they expect the Ducks and Trojans to each drop three Pac 10 games that will eliminate them from anything better than the Sun or Holiday Bowls. USC is still in the national title hunt and probably won’t be looking past the Bears since the Bears are still ranked and this has become a pretty intense rivalry despite USC’s domination in the win column. The Stafon Johnson injury is tragic but USC probably more so than anyone else in the country has depth to burn at halfback. More important for them I believe is to have Jeremy Bates open up the playbook. Cal on the other hand was clearly looking past Oregon to USC and the Ducks handed the Trojans a perfect notebook on how to play against Best. Force him to run inside and stack the box to make Riley beat them. Cal is a much better tem at home clearly but will they be able to pick themselves up off the mat after last week? The second playoff game of the week is Stanford vs UCLA. The Bruins have a very solid d but a shaky offense and in my book are still quite unproven. If they can contain Gearhart they can make a game of it but if not expect the Cardinal to grind out a victory and get to 3-0 in league play. If this happens they will be in the thick of the Rose Bowl race. They get Oregon at home late in the year and have been the only team since 2001 to beat USC in the Coliseum in league play. Oregon State could see its season go in the toilet if they can’t beat ASU and history says they won’t. The Beavs have not beaten ASU in Tempe since 1969 and Arizona State looks to have a solid offense. Look for Riley to have a quick trigger finger with Canfield if he craps the bed early with a pick. The Washington Huskies clearly were a bit hungover from USC to compete against Stanford. Being weak against the run against a power running team doesn’t work out too well. The Huskies played Stanford at a really bad time in between big time names USC and Notre Dame. Weis will be under immense pressure note to drop a game to Washington since he needs to go 10-2 to get a BCS bid and still has USC to play. Might still be a year to early for the Dawgs to go bowling. They will need to beat WSU, split with the Arizona and Oregon schools and steal a victory somewhere else to get 6 wins. Possible but a loss to Notre Dame makes that even tougher. Arizona made the switch from Matt Scott to Nick Foldes and the mulleted one was fairly prolific through the air against a weak Beaver pass defense. Nice road win for the Cats before the bye week. ASU played just well enough to lose at Georgia, they should be able to regroup with a win versus the Beavers. Jeff Tuel looked pretty solid in relief duty for WSU who is a hard playing yet low talent level team. They should struggle mightily in Eugene. Oregon has put up over 50 points both times Chip Kelly offenses have matched up with the Cougars.


1. USC (3) – Good news is they got Barkely back for WSU. Quite worrisome they went over 30 minutes without scoring vs the Cougs and only put up 27. Now they face the rest of the year without Stafon Johnson who is replaceable on the field but was a key senior leader on the offense in the huddle. Will this team continue to struggle offensively against non San Jose State defenses? If the Trojans lose to Cal do the wheels come off on the season for Carroll.
2. UO (4) – The Oregon performance last week amazing. The defense looks to be the best unit for the Ducks since at least 1995. However the coaches poll didn’t seem to notice. They somehow moved Boise State to 5th and then kept Cal 5 spots ahead of Oregon. BCS if you want any legitimacy force the coaches vote to be made public every week or better yet take the voting out of their hands completely and let AP and the Harris poll decide it.
3. Cal (1) – Probably read their press clippings a bit too much and got outplayed in all aspects of the game versus Oregon. Tedford teams have had a tendency to give up on the season after tough losses when they are highly ranked. Does this happen again? Lose to USC and the Rose Bowl is completely out of play.
4. UCLA (5) – I think that Stanford will beat them this week but until the game is played I will honor the only undefeated Pac 10 team left in the Bruins. Stanford/UCLA should be a low scoring game but I will give the edge to the team with the better offense in Stanford.
5. LSJU (8) – I have been under-ranking them since the Wake Forest game but still think this squad has an outside shot at the Rose Bowl if USC drops another game. Harbaugh has taken Carroll’s model of how to build a program at a private – high academic standard school and I truly believe that his goal to contend for national championships at Stanford is actually possible if he can keep his staff in place and keep the recruiting up.
6. ASU (7) – Hadn’t played a real team until the Georgia game and play the Dawgs close Between the Hedges. I still have major questions about the offense but the Devils have a tough defense and will be a difficult team to defeat at home. A win over OSU makes the Beavers path to being bowl eligible look not so hot with 5 Pac 10 road games this year and already a home loss.
7. UA (9) – Looks like Stoops made the right move with going to Foldes. The Cats get a week off to prepare for Washington who may be a bit tired after the emotional USC win and then back to back road games. Arizona beating Washington makes it very likely the Cats ends up in the top half of the conference.
8. UW (2) – Big drop I know but I had to honor them last week for the win versus USC. That they had a letdown versus Stanford was no surprise but the run defense looked atrocious as Toby Geahart went for over 200 yards. That isn’t a good sign for a team playing in a conference with a lot of solid power running teams.
9. OSU (6) – The Beavs have been off all year and maybe this is the season that Riley’s late season magic goes away. I think they need to move on to Moevao but the bigger issues may be on defense.
10. WSU (10) – I give the Cougs a lot of credit for having some heart. Makes me wonder if they can steal a home game some time this year against a team like OSU or UCLA.