The Oregon Ducks made an impressive statement on Saturday, as they beat the Michigan State Spartans by a score of 46-27 in Autzen Stadium.
Both teams struggled offensively in the first quarter, as the first five drives of the game resulted in punts. Oregon ended up scoring the first points of the game on a one-yard Thomas Tyner run; the Ducks also successfully converted the two-point conversion to give them an 8-0 lead.
Michigan State dominated the second quarter as they scored 24-points, Oregon only scored 10 in the same quarter, and the Spartans took a nine point lead into halftime. The familiar narrative of Oregon being unable to beat physical teams became prominent throughout the media’s halftime shows and on Twitter.
Oregon ended up proving everyone wrong as they outscored the Spartans 28-3 in the second half, thus giving the Ducks a blow-out victory over No. 7 Michigan State.
1) Oregon Ducks: The Ducks blow out victory, at home, over Michigan State was easily the highlight of the Pac-12’s day. Oregon’s romp improves the Ducks record to 2-0 (2-0 at home), and is going to look really good in the eyes of the playoff committee.
2) UCLA Bruins: The Bruins didn’t play well, or clean, in their seven-point victory over Memphis, but the bottom line is that the Bruins were (again) able to find off the upset bid by a supposedly over-matched appointment. Head coach Jim Mora is going to need to figure out why his team is struggling to earn wins against teams that the Bruins should be beating handily, before UCLA loses a game that it shouldn’t.
3) Stanford Cardinal: Stanford’s loss to USC on the Farm is disappointing for a squad that many expected to be able to contend for a playoff spot. Head coach David Shaw’s questionable play calling, plus terrible on-field execution by the players, left points out on the field for the Cardinal and it resulted in the team’s first loss of the 2014 season.
4) USC Trojans: The Trojans had a rough week PR wise prior to their game against Stanford, but the squad managed to pull off the upset on the road. While USC’s defense played a crucial part in the squad’s upset over the Cardinal, Steve Sarkisian’s squad benefited from some questionable decisions coming from the opposing sideline — and barely overcame bad decisions on its own — for the victory.
5) Arizona State: It’s good to see one of the Pac-12’s top teams blow out a team it’s supposed to blow out. The No. 17 Sun Devils 58-23 victory over the New Mexico Lobos was probably relaxing for ASU fans.
6) Washington Huskies: Eastern Washington quarterback Vernon Davis is one heck of a QB, but even he probably didn’t expect to toss seven touchdowns, and no interceptions, against the Washington defense. Yet that’s exactly what he did in Eastern’s seven point loss to the Huskies in UW’s home opener. Next up for the Huskies is a home game against Illinois, which actually might be an easier match-up for the Dawgs.
7) Oregon State Beavers: Oregon State became the second straight Pac-12 squad to make the trip to Honolulu, Hawaii and barely hang on for the win. The Rainbow Warriors scored 23 unanswered points in the fourth quarter to pull within eight of the Beavers. Fortunately for OSU, the Beavers won both games and are 2-0 on the season.
8) Arizona Wildcats: The UTSA Roadrunners are easily the most experienced team that the Wildcats will face all season — the Roadrunners have 38 seniors on their roster. So it wasn’t too surprising that the Wildcats found themselves in a close game against UTSA; what was surprising was the fact that it was a defensive struggle between the squads. But a win is a win, especially when it means your team is still undefeated.
9) Utah Utes: Utah blew out Fresno State 59-27 in the team’s second game of the season. The Utes offense have scored 115-points, and the defense has only allowed 41 in that time span.
10) California Golden Bears: The Golden Bears offense scored 50-points for the first time during the Sonny Dykes era, as they smashed in-state opponent Sacramento State 55-14. Cal’s offense seems to have made a lot of progress in its second season under Dykes’s leadership.
11) Washington State Cougars: The Cougars trip to Reno, Nev. resulted in WSU’s second loss of the season. But his time, it wasn’t the run defense’s fault.
12) Colorado Buffaloes: The Buffs struggled to beat U-Mass. While Colorado did end up getting the win — the final score was 41-38 Buffs — the game was a lot closer than it probably should have been. Colorado had more total yards, but averaged .1 yards less per play than U-Mass did…that’s not a way to consistently win ball games.
Hey coach, what do you think about the last four teams in our power rankings?
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Categories: NCAA Football, Pac-12 Power Rankings
just horrible
How so?
I think SC should leapfrog Stanford to take the #3 spot. Even if Stanford is the better team, a win is still a win and they should be rewarded for that.
A win that Stanford gift wrapped for Sarkisian’s squad because of poor play calling. The Cardinal left a lot of points out on the field and it USC was barely able to take advantage of that.
I agree with most of your rankings. Where I disagree is UCLA . Even though Shaws play calling and Stanford’s lack of execution in the red zone was horrendous, UCLAS’s performance thus far has raised huge questions about how good this football team really is. USC’s defense did have a little bit to do with that win and Stanford’s lack of execution. It seems you base UCLA ‘s performance as a result of an underrated Memphis but Stanford’s performance solely as shooting themselves in the foot with not much credence to USC. That performance at home against Memphis whether they’re underrated as you say or not, is not how a team that some picked to be in the Four Team Playoff at seasons end shows up on the field to defend its turf. Certainly not the number 2 power team in the PAC 12. I would have them at 3 or 4
I feel like USC and Stanford have earned the fourth the third and fourth spot and UCLA is just kind of hanging around at No. 2 because I didn’t have a better option.
and ucla looks like shit , zona barely beats utsa and ffs washington gives up 7 passing tds ???? just wow, Meanwhile utah hands fresno their ass does a better job on defense than usc did ,Utah gave up 55 rush yards compared to what 168 usc gave up , Even Schramm said utah was a more physical team.the you got osu who barely beat a mwc team that is one of the worst in cfb , oh and by the way utah has the second rated qb in cfb
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Anyways, Arizona took on the most experienced football squad at the FBS level…it was expected they would struggle to beat UTSA, no need to punish them for taking on a good football squad.
The Utes took on a Fresno State squad that lot a lot of talent to graduation during the spring, and the guys playing in their place for the Bulldogs still have to learn on the go…so I didn’t see that blow out win as anything special.
ohh so when usc took on fresno they were the defending mwc champs but when Utah did its they lost alot of talent blah blah blah dont give me the usc bias you penalize utah fine then penalize usc the same from havin the same shit opponent
USC didn’t move up last because of the way it manhandled Fresno State. The Trojans moved up because Washington played like crap against Hawaii and dropped in the rankings as a result.
Also if you are going to use the ucla won even tho ugly as an ecuse to keep them #2 then your usc barely take advantage comment is garbage as much as i hate to say this usc right now is ahead of stanford and ucla
UCLA was kept their because of two reasons:
1) Memphis is an underrated football program because of its conference and location.
2) I honestly had no clue what to do with UCLA, the Cardinal had played like crap against the Trojans and didn’t deserve to still be in the top-2; and (in my opinion) USC didn’t deserve to be in the top-3 yet. Basically, the Bruins stayed because they beat an okay squad…while Stanford beat Stanford
you are still ignoring the fact that washington was horrible and so was osu vs a very mediocre hawaii.. and lets face it utsa altho very good should have been blown out but anu was horrible stanford was undisciplined and lost usc undisciplined but won so that should put usc up top …. ill give you a pass till michigan on the utes but pay attention to what the utes are doing the last two games all starters were out at the half kessler was in for over 3 quarters vs fresno as was most of the first team ,,,, big diff
How am I ignoring the fact that Washington was horrible? They’ve dropped from fourth to sixth in my power rankings over the last two weeks…
As for Utah, I am paying attention to what each conference team is doing…and am more than willing to move teams that are deserving up. The Ute’s back-to-back thrashings of over-matched foes are impressive (hence why they’ve moved up from one spot since the preseason). The Michigan game will be very interesting….
The Utes will lose that Michigan game and this Travis guy can argue why Utah isn’t #10 in the conference instead of 11th.