by | September 26, 2012 · 10:10 am

Around the Pac-12 – Week 5

After last weeks brief hiatus, ‘Around the Pac-12’ is back with a vengeance!  Since Matthew already laid out how the Pac-12 teams are doing this week, I can devote this whole post to mascots.  Just kidding.  Sort of.  Now that we’re in Pac-12 play, I’ll use a little bit of a different format that won’t be as organized and won’t be in alphabetical order.  Hooray for changes that make things worse!  Well, if you still want to read this after me telling you all of this I don’t know what will stop you.  Here we go!

This Week: Arizona (Lost to Oregon 49-0) vs. Oregon State (Beat UCLA 27-20)

Before last week, these were two of the surprise teams in the Pac-12.  Arizona’s shine has worn off since the shellacking they were served at Auzten.  Arizona’s offense couldn’t convert in the red-zone and then the Ducks turned it on in the second half, like they usually do.  The Wildcats are now 3-1, which is nothing to sneeze at if you look at their schedule thus far.  Unless you’re allergic to the teams that they’ve played.  Oregon State went in to Pasadena and continued to surprise.  This is the first week in which they haven’t had 2 weeks to prepare for a team, which is really odd but their first game was postponed.  The Beavers are unquestionably better but I don’t know if they have the staying power or the strength to stay at the top of the conference.  This game will tell more about the Beavers than it will the Wildcats.  Winning in Arizona is difficult and Oregon State pulls it off it may be time to take them seriously.  Arizona has their quarterback, Matt Scott, a little bit banged up and needs to rebound from their blowout loss.  This is probably the most interesting Saturday game in the Pac-12.

This Week: Arizona State (Beat Utah 37-7) at California (Lost to USC 27-9)

This game is a story of two programs going in different directions.  The Sun Devils looked impressive for most of the out of conference schedule and then walloped Utah in the conference opener.  The level of opponent is fair to question in all of their victories, but they have won emphatically.  I’m not sure why more of us didn’t see this coming though.  Yes, they lost a lot of seniors last year but they were a decent team who probably should have won the Pac-12 South.  They got off to a hot start but then collapsed and gave up as the year went on.  Maybe they’ll do that again this year, but the program is in better shape than many people gave it credit for.  California is an absolute mystery.  They are one of the most talented teams in the conference but look terrible.  They have lost to Nevada, Ohio State and USC.  Except for Nevada they aren’t bad losses and were expected before the year.  They struggled against an FCS school and just don’t seem to be well coached or execute very well.  The Golden Bears have the talent to turn it around but I don’t think that they will.  If they are going to turn it around, it needs to happen this week with a strong showing against the Sun Devils.  Unfortunately, a golden bear probably isn’t able to move or do much of anything aside from looking majestic and expensive as a statue.  Assuming a Sun Devil is just a devil in the sun (?) I don’t think they should have an easy edge.  Unless it’s raining.

This Week: Colorado (Beat WSU 35-34) vs. UCLA (Lost to Oregon State 20-27)

Last week, Colorado inexplicably earned what will be their lone victory of the year against the team who plays in the ugly part of Washington state.    Yes, a win was good for them but they are bad.  Watch the highlights of that game and then watch the highlights of any other Pac-12 game last week.  You’ll notice quite a difference.  It would be a shock if the Buffaloes won another game this season.  They’ll probably be double-digit underdogs in every game left on their schedule.  UCLA showed people that they still are UCLA.  The Bruins have to be inconsistent or something is wrong with the universe.  Oregon State could turn out to be a good team and the loss will look fine but people were anointing the Bruins to be USC’s competition in the south.  I heard pundits say that they would go undefeated through 8 or 10 games.  Haha.  They have talent and an impressive victory over Nebraska, otherwise they haven’t done much yet.  We’ll see going forward.  With that being said, UCLA won’t have a problem this week.  This is my favorite mascot match-up of the week.  A Bruin fighting a Buffalo would probably be more entertaining than this game will be.

This Week:  Oregon (beat Arizona 49-0) at WSU (lost to Colorado 35-34)

Maybe I shouldn’t say this game is at WSU because it’s in Seattle.  There will probably be close to as many Duck fans as there are Cougar fans in the stands.  The WSU players who spoke to the media this week weren’t exactly happy that this game is in Seattle.  One of them said they ‘deserve to play at Martin Stadium’.  That quote is laughable and undeniably true, although it’s not true for the reason he meant it to be.  The Cougars lost in amazing fashion last week.  Oregon won easily last week.  This should be a blow-out, although WSU has kept it close against the Ducks in recent years.  I worry about Mike Leach throwing his players under the bus after too many losses.  I think it will happen at some point this season and I wouldn’t be surprised to see some of the team quit on him.

Utah (Lost to Arizona State 37-7) This Week: Bye

What happened to Utah?  They were supposed to be USC’s only competition in the south and now they look like the second to worst team in that division.  Their quarterback is bad, their running back is hurt, and their defense is over-rated.  This team could turn it around but, right now, they aren’t close to pre-season expectations.

USC (Beat California 27-9) This Week: Bye

The Trojans won but it wasn’t extremely impressive.  Their passing game is lacking for some reason and they were carried by their running game this week.  I still think they could turn it around and make the Rose Bowl but they aren’t the team that we saw at the end of last year.

As always, we’ll be previewing the Stanford-Washington game in a while.  In fact, I’m working on an extra post on the Huskies for later today.  Stay tuned!

Thanks for reading!

Andrew

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by | September 23, 2012 · 12:06 pm

Pac-12 Power Rankings

The college football season is roughly a third of the way over, and nearly everyone has played a conference game or two (the Huskies are the only team without one, strangely).  There have already been quite a few surprises, so let’s take a second to step back and see where everyone stands.

I don’t claim these power rankings to be any better than anyone else’s.  I watch a good number of games and read a lot more, but there are plenty of teams I haven’t seen much of.  Still, everyone loves a power ranking, so I’ll throw one up here.  I’m ranking teams based almost entirely on what they’ve done so far, both in terms of record and how they’ve looked.  If two teams are close or if there are significant outside circumstances, I’ll look at who is most likely to be successful in the future.  That’s secondary though, and this will mainly be a ranking of how good teams have been thus far.  Here goes nothing:

1. Oregon

Oregon is the second ranked team in the country and has demolished everyone it’s faced.  That’s not saying a lot though, as Arizona is the only decent team they’ve played.  The Wildcats hung with them for a while last night, but eventually the Ducks pitched a shutout and won 49-0.  To me, they don’t look as good as they have in the last couple of years, but it’s hard to say for sure until they play someone who will test them offensively and defensively.

2. Stanford

The Cardinal has the best win in the conference, over USC, a pounding defense, and plenty of power in the running game with Stepfan Taylor and a big offensive line.  What they also have is a rookie quarterback and a couple of unimpressive wins before the USC game.  That’s just to say that we’re not positive where they’ll go from here, especially when they hit the road, but they certainly looked the part against USC.

3. USC

This is where the rankings get a little difficult, as 3-5 could all be argued as interchangeable.  We’ll go with USC because of pedigree, talent and the quality of their loss, but they have questions.  They need to dramatically improve on the offensive line and hope they don’t lose any more players to injury.  More interestingly, what will Lane Kiffin do the rest of the year?  He seems on the verge of melting down and is starting to show the attitude that got him in trouble in Oakland and Tennessee.

4. Oregon State

OSU has two impressive wins and a stifling defense.  I seriously considered them at #3.  In the end, they’re here because they’ve only played two games (through no fault of their own) and had an extra week to prepare for each of them, as Andrew pointed out to me last night. It’s too early to call them a definite contender, but they look the most legitimate of all the surprise teams thus far.

5. Arizona State

The Sun Devils have had plenty of talent recently.  Last year they were the popular pick to win the South before imploding completely.  This year they look like they’ve ironed out the attitude problems and are playing great football.  They have a bunch of playmakers, a decent defense, and a surprisingly efficient and effective quarterback in Taylor Kelly.  It may not last, but they look tough at the moment.

6. Arizona

Arizona might have been #4 before last night, but Oregon brought them back to reality quickly.  One could argue that UA held the Ducks down for a bit, but that’s often how Oregon wins games.  The Wildcats are definitely improved, but it’s hard to know how much or if it will last.

7. UCLA

This might be too low, but I’ll be a skeptic on UCLA until they do something for a full season or two.  The Nebraska win was good, but they’ve had big early wins before falling apart in the past.  They have a great young QB in Brett Hundley, but will he hit the freshman wall at some point?  Maybe the biggest question is whether Jim Mora’s toughness campaign has had any effect.

8. Washington

UW is the hardest team to call in the conference.  They have blowouts going both directions that were completely unsurprising.  The San Diego State win is decent, but they’ve looked fairly mediocre on both sides of the ball.  Really, the Huskies have done exactly what they were supposed to do, so the only thing to do is see if they can pull off an upset in the next month.

9. Utah

Utah has a decent win against BYU, but otherwise they look nothing like a team expected to be the biggest South challenger to USC.  The offense is a big question, with a hole at quarterback and their only real star, RB John White, hampered with injury so far.  I would bet that Utah pulls it together to win a few more, but I’d be surprised if they break .500.

10. California

I don’t have a clue what to make of the Golden Bears.  Talent-wise, they should be at least middle of the pack, and they looked that way against Ohio State.  Otherwise, it’s not happening on the field.  The only thing that seems clear is that QB Zach Maynard and the offensive line have to be consistently effective, and that isn’t happening right now.

11. Colorado

Congratulations to the Buffs, who stampeded their way out of the cellar yesterday.  Colorado showed good resolve and fight to pull out the win over WSU, but the talent doesn’t look to be there for many more wins.  I would imagine if they get to three or four, fans will feel moderately hopeful for the future after a dreadful start.

12. Washington State

And here are the Cougars, back in their familiar resting place.  Other than possibly USC, I don’t think any team has had a more disappointing start to the season than the Cougs.  With all of the hope from the Mike Leach hire, a 4-0 start and a bowl game seemed like a solid possibility.  Instead, they’re 2-2, with neither of the wins looking impressive and one of the losses to a team that was being talked of as potentially going 0-12.  The defense looks untalented and mistake-prone, a bad combination.  The offense has talent, but the Air Raid is taking longer to click than most expected.  At this point, the quarterbacks are a bit of a question.  Jeff Tuel is hurt and looked unsure of himself when he did play.  Connor Halliday has been better than Tuel, but he’s a gambler type prone to interceptions.  Even more concerning is the psyche/attitude of the team.  Leach didn’t seem to bring the reset they needed.  It’s hard not to wonder whether this group of players will ever understand what it takes to win football games.  I’d expect a little bit of improvement, but a shot at a bowl game seems out the window.

-Matthew

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by | September 21, 2012 · 12:02 pm

Good Guys Pac-12 Picks: Week 4

As is usually the case, when the Huskies have a week off the Good Guys take a week off.  We’ll be back with our usual posts and maybe more next week.

Last week was another pretty good week as far as picks go.  Dan and I came in with a 9-1 record.  Joe was 8-2 and Matthew was 7-3.  Pretty crappy picking from Matthew.  This week there are only conference games, with Stanford and U-Dub having the week off.  Anyway, on to the picks!

Arizona at Oregon

The Good Guys:  Oregon 😦

Utah at Arizona State

Matthew, Joe, Dan:  Arizona State

Andrew:  Utah

Colorado at Washington State

The Good Guys:  Washington State

California at USC

The Good Guys:  USC

Oregon State at UCLA

Joe, Dan, Andrew:  UCLA

Matthew:  Oregon State

Picking Standings:

Andrew, Dan 27-7

Joe 26-8

Matthew 25-9

Have a great weekend, everyone!  We’ll see you next week.

Andrew

 

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by | September 14, 2012 · 9:54 pm

UW vs. PSU Predictions

It’s late and I’m tired, so we’ll jump right into the predictions this week. Nothing from Danny. Too bad.

Danny

The Huskies will get a win tomorrow so long as they show up and remember their uniforms and cleats. Could they win tomorrow without cleats? Something to ponder. I question if this team can run the ball, play consistent defense, and most of all, stay healthy. I don’t know that enough can happen in this game to put all my concerns to rest, but a blowout win would be a start. Im sure this is Portland State’s super bowl and they will be fired up, however, in games like this you just have to look at the talent divide. The gap is enormous in this matchup, so even if UW plays a sloppy game, they should cruise.

UW 40 – PSU 13

Joe

This is a pretty simple prediction. UW will win, and win big. Sark is in no mood to struggle in this game and I do believe this team will respond. The LSU debacle is behind them. What to learn from that game? LSU is elite, UW is not. We all knew that. I think we all expected UW to play better, but they didn’t and LSU rolled. Ok. The Huskies in most areas beat up San Diego State, which I think was encouraging. So if they blow out PSU, I think all we have is the SDSU game because LSU and PSU really don’t tell us anything we didn’t already know. Get by the Vikings and focus on the most important game of the year, Stanford on a Thursday night! I am confident the Dawgs will get it done this weekend and gear up for the Cardinal.

UW 41 – PSU 10

Matthew

This shouldn’t be a game with which the Huskies struggle, even in their beleaguered state. I’m kind of tired of reading so much into how the Huskies play. They’re going to win or they’re going to lose. They looked bad last week and mediocre the week before, but what do we really know about them? They’re much worse than LSU in Death Valley. Big surprise. I’ll just be happy with a win at this point, but I expect a blowout. This is a chance for the Huskies to get a little momentum. Ideally, they’d win big, get the offense into gear, demonstrate some tackling ability, and then get healed up going into Stanford. That’d be great, but like I said, any win is good with me.

UW 45 – PSU 13

Andrew

(These first two paragraphs aren’t supposed to be included, but I get them every week and it makes me laugh, so I’m putting them in.)
What up, big boi? How about this weather! I’m sweating because I’m sitting in a leather chair and the sun is shining on me. Call it bad planning if you will but I call it a chance to lose some weight!
Does Portland State even know that pilots don’t really do anything. I take that back. Pilots fly planes and that’s more than I can do. But, take away a pilot’s plane and all you have is a guy in a weird hat, wearing some big goggles. They should rethink the name. Maybe the Portland State Losers because that’s what they’ll be tomorrow! Ooooooohhh! Here’s my prediction:

It’s been an interesting week at U-Dub. It was one of those weeks where I kind of wished that I wasn’t a hardcore fan and would just show up on Saturday’s for the games. But, because I’m not that, I get sucked into the talk radio and infinite blog posts out there. All the talk has been about the new practice policy. While I’m not for the policy, it really doesn’t affect my life if I know that Colin Tanigawa is starting this week or not. So, tomorrow I’m going to go to the game and enjoy a Husky victory. I don’t expect it to be close and I’ll be a little bit disappointed if it is. Here are three things I’ll be watching for:

1. The offense needs to look unstoppable. I want Keith Price to have a huge game and the receivers need to get open. A 3rd receiver needs to emerge behind Kasen and Kevin Smith. Perhaps most importantly of all, the running game has to look dominant.
2. The defense needs to prevent long drives. I’m okay with the Dawgs giving up a few big plays because Portland State’s offense seems to be decent. What I don’t want to see is Portland State gaining 7 or 8 yards every play on a drive.
3. The Backups. I want to see the backups in the game by midway through the fourth quarter. This would mean a Husky blowout and it would also mean some valuable time for our young guys. The Dawgs don’t usually have that optioin and it’s about time we see it.

I want a dominating performance tomorrow. I think Portland State will put up a few points but that should be after the Huskies jump out to a big lead. Go Dawgs!

Huskies – 52 Portland State – 17

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by | September 13, 2012 · 8:57 pm

The Good Guys Pac-12 Picks – Week 3

These posts always seems a little empty to me, so before I jump into the predictions I wanted to recap the posts that were put up this week, just in case you missed them. I had the joyous task of recapping the UW-LSU debacle. I also looked ahead to what the Huskies need to accomplish in that game. We had our weekly preview of other Pac-12 games, as well. My favorite post of the week was written by Matthew. The post is about Arizona State Sun Devil, Deantre Lewis.

Now, for the predictions. We weren’t great last week, but with all the upsets all of us turned in with a record of 8-4. We still all have the same record (18-6), which is interesting since there have been a few different picks throughout these first 2 weeks. There are some interesting games this week, but expect quite a few games where we all predict the same team to win. Here we go!

Arizona vs. South Carolina State

The Good Guys: Arizona

Arizona State at Missouri

Matthew: Arizona State

Andrew, Dan, Joe: Missouri

California at Ohio State

The Good Guys: Ohio State

Colorado at Fresno State

The Good Guys: Fresno State

Oregon vs. Tennessee Tech

The Good Guys: Oregon 😦

Stanford vs. USC

The Good Guys: USC

UCLA vs. Houston

The Good Guys: UCLA

Utah vs. BYU

Andrew, Dan: Utah

Matthew, Joe: BYU

WSU at UNLV (Friday)

The Good Guys: WSU

Standings:

Everyone is tied at 18-6

As always, Washington Husky predictions will come tomorrow with a bit more analysis to them. Thanks for reading!

Andrew

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by | September 13, 2012 · 6:46 pm

Waiting for Deantre Lewis to Shine

Deantre Lewis is probably not a name familiar to most Pac-12 football fans, but it very easily could have been.  Lewis, an Arizona State Sun Devil, was a stray bullet away from being a star.

Lewis first started to make a name for himself in 2010 as a true freshman.  The running back burst on the scene as a major playmaker, the proverbial flash to Cameron Marshall’s thunder.  In his first game he scored three touchdowns and ended the year with over 500 rushing yards and another 370 yards receiving.  He looked like a potential star in the conference and was poised to form a dangerous duo with Marshall on a potentially great ASU team in 2011.

That offseason, Lewis made a short trip home to visit his sister and her new baby.  After commuting to a high school well out of his home neighborhood and earning his scholarship, Lewis thought he had avoided the trouble that surrounded him growing up.  That short two day trip was long enough for it to find him, though, as he was shot by a stray bullet.  He wasn’t involved in any kind of altercation and deserved no part of the blame.  It was just terrible luck.

Lewis escaped probable death when the bullet missed an artery by three centimeters, and somehow rejoined the football team with hopes of playing in 2011.  The bullet damaged his hamstring, however, and he never made it onto the field.  This year, he suffered through a few injuries in training camp and found himself behind not only Marshall but also true freshman D.J. Foster on the depth chart.

I’ve been a fan of the guy since his career started, beyond just feeling bad for him and hoping he could make it back.  I probably wouldn’t have known about him except for a Pac-12 fantasy league we Good Guys do.  I grabbed him early in 2010 and he helped me win the league, but my enduring memory of him came before ASU’s 2010 game at UW.  We have seats in the open end zone bleachers, which feel like they are almost in the end zone.  The Sun Devils were warming up right in front of us, and the running backs were getting ready to go through drills when some song came on.  All of the backs started dancing, which made Andrew and I crack up.  Most stopped after a couple of bars, but Deantre danced for a good couple of minutes, all by himself.  The guy could dance.  Every time we thought he would stop, he’d bust out a new move.  It was great, one of those meaningless moments that give you an idea of what type of person a player is and sets them apart as a little bit special.  I don’t have any recollection of that game except for Deantre Lewis dancing.  He seemed like a star.

This week news broke that he’s moving to the defensive side of the ball.  Evidently, he was really pounding people on special teams, and considering his spot on the depth chart, the coaches asked if he wanted to move to defense, in a hybrid DB/LB role.  He immediately said yes.  He went on to tell reporters that he still has a lot of anger and that he felt playing defense would help him let some of that anger out in a positive way.  I want to make clear that he didn’t sound like an angry guy.  It’s easy to stereotype a football player who grew up in a bad neighborhood and think he’s just an angry guy who only wants to hit people.  Deantre Lewis was shot, and it wasn’t in an altercation; it was while he was visiting his family after a life of trying to make good and stay out of trouble.  He has every right to be angry.

Position changes frequently amount to nothing, but I’m hoping this one turns Lewis into the star he always looked like.  We’re always in need of good stories, no matter which team they play for.  I’ll be cheering for Deantre Lewis every Saturday this fall, and if the Huskies get ASU at home in the next two years, I’m hoping Deantre still feels like dancing.

-Matthew

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by | September 12, 2012 · 5:31 pm

Around the Pac-12 – Week 3

Before we get to the other teams in the Pac-12, I’ll get to the Husky news of the day.  If you haven’t heard by now, Steve Sarkisian has decided that the U-Dub will not talk about injuries anymore.  Also, reporters who are at practice can’t report on who sat out of practice or about any strategy being used.  In the long-term, this isn’t a big deal.  Sooner or later the NCAA will force teams to put out injury lists, like the NFL.  Until then we’ll have to deal with this.  In the short-term, it is irritating.  No, the Huskies aren’t the first team in the conference to do this (the Ducks and Trojans came first) but I don’t support the program limiting access to reporters or fans.  Tyrone Willingham treated the media poorly and the fans were closed off from the program.  Closed programs are reminiscent of bad times to recent Husky fans.  Anytime we hear about the football team limiting access, we shudder now.  If we were Oregon, this would be okay because we’d be winning.  When you aren’t a top-10 program though, the little things add up to be annoyances.  Anyway, I don’t think any less of Sark but I don’t agree with him on this issue.  Also, it’s bad when reporters aren’t allowed to report.  It hurts what is already a declining industry.  Coaching and quality players win games, not keeping injuries secret until the other team can see them during warm-ups.Anyway, on to the real point of this post!  Last week was a great week for the Pac-12, even considering some terrible losses.  The Pac-12 upsets outweighed the Pac-12 getting upset.  This week sports a few challenging games, but also some cupcakes.  Not real cupcakes, because what do cupcakes have to do with football.  Also, the cupcakes have been much better across the country this year.  They are banana cupcakes instead of vanilla.  Away we go!

Arizona – Beat Oklahoma State 59-38 – Coming Up: vs. South Carolina State

The last of the upsets came last Saturday night when the Wildcats beat the Cowboys.  I guess the cowboys weren’t very quick on their draw.  In their defense, wildcats sound like a hard thing to deal with.  Oh yeah, football.  Arizona’s offense obviously looks explosive and they are looking like a much tougher opponent.  Their defense is still in question but I wouldn’t want to face this team right now.  Unfortunately for South Carolina State (something I never thought I’d type), they don’t have that luxury.  Bulldogs are awesome and that is South Carolina State’s mascot.  These weekly blog posts are just turning into a study on mascots.

Arizona State – Beat Illinois 45-14 – Coming Up: at Missouri

ASU winning last weekend wasn’t an upset but the way in which they won was very impressive.  Then again, it was the Sun Devils against the Illini.  It was sunny.  What chance did Illinois really have?  So far, Arizona State has been the surprise of the conference (along with Arizona and UCLA).  I didn’t think their offense would put up this many points against anyone, much less against BCS conferences.  This week they face a much tougher task in Missouri.  While Missouri isn’t at the top of the SEC, they are a good road test for the Sun Devils.  Expect a shootout and hopefully the Pac-12 can come out with another upset.

California – Beat Southern Utah 50-31 – Coming Up: at Ohio State

The Golden Bears are off to a shaky start.  Cal was able to pull away from Southern Utah late in the fourth quarter last week.  They had fallen behind for a while but they did rally back.  This was a week after losing to Nevada.  This week they play Ohio State and, while I’m usually hopeful that a Pac-12 team can pull an upset, I wouldn’t bet on Cal in this one.

Colorado – Lost to Sacramento State 30-28 – Coming Up: at Fresno State

The Buffalo have upstaged Cal in getting off to a bad start.  They lost to Pac-12 killers Sacramento State and are now 0-2.  Colorado had one of the easier non-conference schedules in the conference but could easily start 0-3 this week.  If they don’t take advantage of playing the Bulldogs this week, it could be tough for them to find a win this season.  Also, I think buffalo and bulldogs would be good friends in the wild.

Oregon – Beat Fresno State 42-25 – Coming Up: vs. Tennessee Tech

Oregon again jumped out to a large lead and then let Fresno add-on some points against their backup defense.  The Ducks are surely very good but we won’t be able to see how good for a few weeks when they actually play a quality opponent.  On Tennessee Tech’s home website they have a virtual admissions adviser.  They named this virtual adviser ‘Awesome’.  Also, this match-up is the Ducks vs. the Golden Eagles.   We’ve seen golden things struggle this year in our conference but I have a hard time seeing a duck ever beating an eagle in a brawl.  Too bad this is a football game that doesn’t have to do with mascots.

Oregon State – Beat Wisconsin 10-7 – Coming Up: Bye

The Beavers beat the Badgers.  Again, I don’t know why everyone was so surprised.  Oregon State’s defense was fast and ferocious in this game.  I was thoroughly impressed and if they keep playing like that, they’ll be one of the best teams in the conference.  Their offense needs to improve though.  Everyone will have played 3 games after this weekend except the Beavers, who will have only played one.

Stanford – Beat Duke 50-13 – Coming Up: vs. USC

Stanford probably got sick of hearing about how close their game with San Jose State was and then thoroughly dominated Duke.  Of course, Duke isn’t good and their true test comes this week against USC.  Stanford probably isn’t what they used to be, but they have been playing well against USC of late.  This is a game to keep an eye on.

UCLA – Beat Nebraska 36-30 – Coming Up: vs. Houston

UCLA is the darling of college football right now.  They deserve it with their hot start but I’d advise people to ease off their enthusiasm.  This start is reminiscent of the start Rick Neuheisal had there.  This week they should improve to 3-0 though and will remain the dark horse in the Pac-12 South.

USC – Beat Syracuse 42-29 – Coming Up: at Stanford

USC let Syracuse hang around for a while before putting them away in the second half.  The game had a weather delay and not a lot of rhythm if you’re looking for an excuse for the Trojans. I prefer to just wait until this week before I decide whether they are overrated.  Trojans vs. Cardinal seems like a no contest because cardinal is a color and can’t fight.

Utah – Lost to Utah State 27-20 (OT) – Coming Up: vs. BYU

In my opinion, Utah had the worst loss of last week.  Colorado’s was terrible but no one really cares about Colorado.  The Huskies was ugly, but a loss was expected.  Utah was supposed to challenge for the Pac-12 South but losing to a below-average team isn’t something champions do.  Utah could rebound, they remind me of those mid-2000’s Mike Riley Beaver teams that always started slow but this is definitely a bump in the road.  Utah plays an interesting game this week

Hey Reb!

and could really help themselves with a victory.  BYU proved to be a pretty good team against the Cougars.  Then again, Cougars.

WSU – Beat Eastern Washington 28-24 – Coming Up: at UNLV (Friday)

Wazzu got a victory, and that’s about all you can say.  Eastern is a fine program (as Husky fans found out last year) but WSU should have won this game easily.  It was fairly similar to the Washington-Eastern game last year.  Now the Cougars go on the road to face those rebels of UNLV.  This should be an easy win as well but who knows.  The Cougars vs. Rebels?  I’d probably choose a cougar in that fight.  But, it does depend on what kind of rebel we’re talking about.

Thanks for reading!

Andrew

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by | September 11, 2012 · 11:12 am

UW – LSU Recap

I’m a few days late on this but I was a bit busy and don’t have much to say about this game.  I’ll keep it short and then talk about the rest of the Pac-12 tomorrow.

Before I recap the disaster that was Saturday night, I’d be remiss to not mention the announcement that the Sonics Arena Deal will be passed.  Chris Hansen has bent over backwards to get this deal done and now, we’re only a few steps away from getting an NBA team here.  Hansen seems to be one of the most likeable guys around and the whole city needs to send him a few thank you cards.  Our city will be better because of this deal, not just because of the enhancement of the NBA being here but also because of the traffic problems being taken care of and the cleaning up of the Sodo District.  It’s a great day to be living in Seattle.

Also, I’d like to thank any veterans and members of the military on this day we remember.  Our thoughts and prayers are with the families who have lost someone on this day 11 years ago.

So, on to Saturday night.  There’s not much to say, because I generally try to stay positive.  The Dawgs were beaten, stepped on, beaten, and then curb-stomped a few times.  Sure, the game started well on the first play and the Huskies took an early lead, but the game was over once the Huskies had to settle for a field goal.  Who knows what happens if Bishop Sankey or Jaydon Mickens holds on to the ball and the Dawgs get a quick 7 on the board.  They still would have lost, but an early bit of confidence could do a young team wonders.   It was like LSU was going to play rope-a-dope with the Dawgs, then felt their measly jab to the ribs, and decided to just K.O. them sooner rather than later.

Thomas Tutogi and Danny Shelton had good games.  Otherwise, can you point to anyone who had a good game?  I can’t.  If you can, let me know in the comments.  Erik Kohler was lost to another injury.  Travis Feeney might be out for a few weeks.  The team was just dominated physically.

My general feeling is that I’m tired of watching that happen.  I thought this team would compete with the best this year and they definitely didn’t.  They’ve been bit by the injury bug, but that’s not an excuse for getting beat 41-3.  It’s one game, but for the first time in the Sark era, you have to worry about progress a little bit.  He’s done a great job with this program and by no means is in the hot seat but the team can’t keep getting blown  out in these games.

This week they need to throttle Portland State.  They need to beat them the way Oregon would.  It will put everyone’s mind at ease.  They need to average 5 or 6 yards a carry.  Keith Price needs to have a high completion percentage, look efficient and then get out of the game by the 4th quarter.  The defense needs to score a touchdown (they have in both games so far, unless you count that blown call by SEC officials) and limit yardage.  No, they don’t need to do these things to win but they need to do them for their own confidence and to keep the fan base patient.  Stanford comes in a few weeks later and the Huskies need to have shown that they’ll be ready.

Shane Brostek will play in his first game on Saturday.  He is a true freshman who will see time at right guard.  I wish he could have red-shirted but the offensive line needs help and if he can make them improve then I’m all for it.  This week is a chance for the Dawgs to get healthy and dominate in all aspects of the game.  Let’s hope they get that done.  After Saturday, they could use something that goes according to plan.

Andrew

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