Week Six Review and Pac 10 Power Poll

Halloween Greetings!
Originally uploaded by pete4ducks.

Week six was probably highlighted by Oregon State jumping right back in to the Pac 10 race and exposing Stanford in the same process. The Beavs looked faster than the Trees at almost every position and the Beavs were able to finally breakout Quizz Rodgers who had an historic day. The Beavs now get a week off before they travel to USC in what could be somewhat of a trap game for the Trojans. In between Notre Dame and USC road games playing an unranked team coming off a bye? Story sounds a bit familiar though the Trojans should never overlook USC as they have lost 2 of 3 to the Beavs. Oregon had a monumental performance by its’ defense and LaMichael James went for 150+ for the second time as Oregon sent UCLA’s season to the crapper. Now Slick Rick has a QB controversy on his hands and Cal coming to town after a bye week and two humiliating losses. Which team gets back on track here? I say Cal wins and UCLA may put an end to the Prince era at QB. ASU got what could be a rare win for them with a 14 point win in the Palouse. Versus any other opponent in the conference ASU’s pathetic turnover problems would have doomed them to a blowout loss but WSU was unable to capitalize on the sloppy ASU play. ASU now faces a UW team that can both score and give up points and yards in bunches. They’ll need to do a better job of ball control in a matchup that both teams need to win in order to feel good about getting bowl eligible. Speaking of Washington the football gods blessed them with a crazy kicked ball interception that led to them winning a game they were severely outplayed in. The Dawgs now are 3-3 and are smelling bowl berth.

1. USC (1) – Two weeks to prepare for an improved Notre Dame team is nice. The Domers are being confident in the media will be interesting to see if they can compete with the Trojans for the first time since 2005.

2. UO (2) – Nice team win for the Ducks who are sporting their best defense in recent memory. Bye week comes at a great time but there are still major questions about Masoli’s knee that remain unanswered.

3. Cal (4) – Were they able to right the ship during the bye week? The nice thing about how the schedule breaks out the rest of the way is that they’ve already played USC and UO and should have a legit shot to fight for third place in the conference. The loser of the UCLA/Cal game will probably go in to full rebuilding mode and may go a different direction at QB.

4. OSU (7) – Oregon State crushed Stanford in a game that wasn’t as close as the scoreboard showed. Looks like Riley is again working his second half magic. Two weeks to prepare for USC and a win there puts them back to controlling their own destiny for a Rose Bowl.

5. LSJU (3) – Just when they were about to become everyone in the media’s darling they get steamrolled in Corvallis. The schedule is really stiffening up and a bowl is not yet guaranteed as they travel to Tucson in a battle between two squads coming off tough losses.

6. UW (8) - Are they destiny’s team this year at home? The Dawgs pulled off a miracle against the Wildcats and now must avoid the same hangover on the road that got them beat in Palo Alto. Luckily they play a sloppy uninspired ASU team who won’t have a lot of fan support.

7. UA (6) – The Cats were up 11 with 2 minutes to go and lost. Nick Foles evidently audibled to a screen pass on the strange ball that deflected off the foot and in to the air and gave Washington the winning points. Probably should run their Nick but the Cats have to be happy with his ability to move the ball down the field. Had The Cats won they’d likely be in the Top 25 sporting only a loss to Top 15 Iowa on the road. Need to mentally regroup for Stanford in what will be more of grinder type game than a shootout.

8. UCLA (5) – UCLA’s season could be derailing. It boggles my mind of how a team who should have pick of the litter of recruits from Southern California can have such a bad offense so consistently and it is typically been because of busts at the QB position. If UCLA struggles early with Prince I think Rick and Norm will move on and go with Richard Brehuat as the starter for the rest of the year.

9. ASU (9) – If they beat UW they’ll become perhaps the worst 4 win team in a BCS conference. A loss and a poor attendance umber for the Husky game and you’ll start to hear a lot of grumbles in Tempe about Erickson’s status.

10. WSU (10) – Last chance for a Pac 10 win is 11/14/09 versus UCLA in Pullman.