A Look Back At The Week That Was...
- USC Defeats Utah in The Very First Pac-12 Game, in What Will Most Surely be Remembered as The Game That Screwed a lot of People Over in Vegas: After the Trojans blocked a kick in the final seconds and returned it for a TD, the officials decided the points would not count and the final score would be USC 17, Utah 14. Hours later, Conference officials said there was a miscommunication between referees and coliseum press box officials, and the touchdown should have counted. Making the final score USC 23, Utah 14. The line for the game was at 8 or 9 all week in Vegas. Those who took Utah and were given the points thought they had won the bet, and those who had actually won, thought they lost and probably ripped up their tickets. It left the league with a brand new slogan, " The Pac-12, where you can still score points even after the final whistle."
- The Oregon Ducks Bounce Back From a Week 1 Loss to #3 LSU, Demolishing Nevada 69-20: Now, it was only Nevada. And they are not nearly as good as they were last year when they knocked of Boise State. Even that shouldn't have happened, just ask Boise's kicker. Still, the Ducks offense looked like, well, the Ducks offense. Highly touted Frosh Running back De'Anthony Thomas, who looks like a young, slimmer version of one Don Cheadle, caught 2 touchdown passes and had some very electric moments. I have said all along, sooner or later the country will catch up to Chip Kelly's offense. These things go in phases. No one could stop Tony Sparano and the Dolphins when they first unveiled their Wildcat attack. Now look. I thought maybe this was the year when teams began to slow down the Ducks, and still could be. But, from the looks of last week, Darron Thomas and company will be high flying once again.
- Arizona Continues The Horrible Out of Conference Play For The League, Then ASU (kind of) Makes it Better: On Thursday night, on national television, Arizona was man-handled by #9 Oklahoma State, 37-14. From the very beginning, it looked as if it were going to be a lot worse than the final score indicates. Arizona threw for 398 yards, which was actually 1 more yard than the spread attack of OK State produced. It was a lot of dinking and dunking, which is what they do best, but they were not able to produce much inside the redzone. The surprise here was that the Cowboys were able to run for 197 yards on the Wildcat D. If that is a sign of things to come, it could be a long winter, and a lot of crazy faces from Coach Stoops, in the desert this year. On Friday night, ASU tried to maintain some sense of national respect for the Pac, once again on ESPN, facing #21 Missouri. In a wild, back and forth battle, the Sun Devils were able to fight off the Tigers in overtime to improve to 2-0. Quarterback Brock Osweiler continued his torrid start, throwing for 353 yards and 3 touchdowns. He also ran for another score. With a stingy defense and a big play offense, The Pac-12 better be on alert; this Sun Devil team looks to be talented and dangerous.
- Washington State QB Marshall Lobbestael. Having to replace the very talented, annointed program savior Jeff Tuel should not be and will not be easy. Especially for a guy who already had his chance, never showed any promise, and eventually lost his job to Tuel. Can you say, full circle? Lobbestael had no problem on Saturday, albeit against UNLV. He threw for 361 yards, 5 touchdowns, and 0 INT's. And in case you were wondering, Andrew Luck has a career high 4 TD passes. I'm not saying WSU should be sending out Heisman candidate postcards...YET. Wait until week 3 at least.
- Oregon RB De'Anthony Thomas. After losing a couple of big fumbles in the week 1 loss to LSU, the highly-touted recruit from LA, who spurned his backyard Trojans at the last minute to go to Eugene, came up big in his first Autzen appearance. He rushed for 81 yards on 8 carries, and had 93 yards receiving on 2 catches. Both of those wound up in the endzone. Another year, another dangerous weapon out of the backfield for Chip Kelly's gang.
- Oregon State Beavers. After losing in week 1, week 2 was no better for the Beav's, getting shutout 35-0 on the road to #8 Wisconsin. I hate to be the bearer of bad news here, but I think the over-achieving, compete with anyone party in Corvallis might finally be over. It worked for a while under Mike Riley, they competed every weekend and surprised a lot of folks in the process. I just don't think they have the talent right now, and the rest of the conference has quickly caught up to them, and those who have not passed them yet soon will. Yes, even the Cougars will have a better football team over the next 5 years than the Beavers. Sorry people.
- The Entire PAC-12 Conference. Despite ASU pulling out the upset in overtime against Missouri on Friday, the conference has not looked good in out of league games to begin the year. As we have already touched on, Oregon St. got crushed by Wisconsin, and Arizona did the same against Oklahoma State. Even the teams that pulled out victories didn't look so hot, with Washington having to cling on against Hawaii after storming the gates for an early 21-0 lead. And San Jose st. almost escaped with a victory over the Bruins. This conference expanded in the off-season, has a record television deal, and wants to be recognized as one of the best major conferences in the country. Well, they need to start earning that respectability where it really counts, and that is between the lines.
- Washington Heads to Lincoln For The Rubber Game. After throttling the Dawgs 56-21 in Seattle last September, it almost seemed as if it were a joke that the Holiday Bowl committee selected the Cornhuskers to go up against UW a mere 3 months later. The University of Washington had the last laugh on that one, as they came to San Diego and shutdown the same Husker offense that torched them the previous game, winning 19-7. Some say Nebraska didn't show up to that 2nd game, and Husky coach Steve Sarkisian will tell you his team didn't show up for the 1st game. This weekend, hopefully both teams show up and we can finally conclude who is better. My guess, rooting interests aside, is that once again the Husky defense stacks up and stops the run, has an efficient enough day on offense, and takes the best out of three series. What we will come to find out though, is that more than the Huskies being that good, this Nebraska squad has been over rated since the first rankings came out. They are just not that good this year.
- Is WAZZU For Real? The talk in Pullman before the season began was that this team had a chance to come out and have a quick start, with the easy schedule they faced. Then, Jeff Tuel broke his collarbone. Things seemed to still be on track last weekend against UNLV. Now comes the first real test, a road game against San Diego State, and their very talented QB Ryan Lindley. It isn't super superior competition, but SDSU will be favored. If Washington St. comes out and dominates, it would be safe to say this team has improved dramatically. If they get dominated, questions of Paul Wulff and his future will begin to be asked once again. But for now, the Cougars are 2-0 and have an offense that looks dangerous. Oh, and did I mention, leads the nation in scoring?!? I know, I had to confirm that a couple of times myself. I would love for the Cougars to lose just to shut my Cougar friends up, but they will get the win. Let the National title talk begin on the Palousse.
- Is Arizona a Has-Been? The past few years, the Wildcats were a team that always showed up for big games, and always surprised people. With a nasty defense, and a quick-throwing offensive attack, they have been a perennial Pac-10 contender. Times have changed, it is now the Pac-12, and this team seems to have maybe taken a step back. This weekend, fair or not, will tell us a lot. They host #6 Stanford at home in what will be a very tough test against Mr. Luck and his Cardinal. But, if Arizona can pull off the major upset, things will be back on track in Tuscon just like that. The way I see it though, that doesn't happen. Luck does what Heisman Quarterbacks do, and shreds the Zona' defense for 400 yards passing.
- The Seattle Seahawk offense is bad. Really bad. If I was in Vegas, it wouldn't be too far fetched to put my money on the aforementioned Luck (no pun intended) to be wearing the Seahawks blue and green come next year. Although, he will have to switch numbers. 12 belongs to the fans. It is the least we can have through these tough times.
- Floyd Mayweather will knock Victor Ortiz out on Saturday. And Sunday morning, Pacman will have no choice but to take the damn tests and schedule the fight of the century.
- Manny Ramirez; Roid Rage at it's finest.
- The NBA season is not going to happen. And to be honest, I really don't give a crap.
- Here is a thought for when Major League Baseball renegotiates their CBA; if a team is more than 15 games out when football season begins, they should pack up their things and go home. I went to my buddies house the other day, during the ASU-Mizzou game, and was shocked to see him watching the Mariners and Royals battle it out for draft position. That shouldn't even be allowed. I would rather watch Central Michigan State play Georgia Eastern. And I don't even think those are real schools.
- "Worst2First" is 1-0, and leading the league after week 1 in total points. Not a real shocker, really. We expect to win. Props to Cedric Benson for getting out of the can and cleaning up right away. And props to my fellow league members who were all too stupid to pick up Mario Williams on defense. I call that a STEAL.
So a guy said a swear word while sitting around with his buddies talking about football. Big deal. I loved it!
Follow me on Twitter @SeaTownsFinest1
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