NCAA Football

Pac-12 power rankings after week eight

The Oregon Ducks (6-1, 3-1) beat the Washington Huskies (5-2, 1-2) by 25 points on Saturday, and extended its winning streak over the Huskies to 11 games. Oregon put together its most complete performance of the season in the home win.

Oregon’s offensive line was able to keep quarterback Marcus Mariota upright against the Washington front seven; as a result, the Ducks’ offense was able to score at will. This game was a chance for Mariota to reignite his case for the Heisman Trophy against a weak secondary, he took a blow torch to it. Mariota completed 72.7% of his passes for 336 yards — averaged 10.2 yards per completion — and only lost one yard on seven rushing attempts.

QB Cyler Myles wasn’t ready for this snap, and the Huskies weren’t ready for the Ducks (Courtesy of Mark Sandritter)

Washington’s offense looked inept against the Ducks, as several mental errors killed drives and led to turnovers. The Huskies averaged a pitiful 4.2 yards per play, while running 74 plays. It was a really bad performance by quarterback Cyler Myles, he threw one interception and one touchdown while completing 67.8% of his passes.

The big story line to come out of the game was the fact that the Ducks, once again, control the Pac-12 North and are back in the College Football Playoff discussion.

1) Arizona State Sun Devils: The Sun Devils put together an impressive performance over the Stanford Cardinal. ASU’s win was the result of quarterback Mike Bercovici shredding the Arizona State secondary. Bercovici averaged 7.4 yards per completion and completed 69.6% of his passes.

2) Oregon Ducks: The Ducks put together (arguably) their most complete performance of the season on Saturday. It was good to see a blow out victory after a narrow road victory over UCLA, and a home loss to Arizona.

3) UCLA Bruins: UCLA struggled against a tough Cal squad, and in fact were trailing heading into the fourth quarter. But kicker Ka’imi Fairbairn made his third field goal attempt of the night, with 3:40 left, to give the Bruins the lead for good.

4) Stanford Cardinal: The Cardinal offense was inefficient and struggled to move against ASU’s defense. Stanford quarterback Kevin Hogan looked terrible against the Sun Devils, and it is clear that the Stanford offense is going to drag this team down throughout the season.

5) USC Trojans: Quarterback Cody Kessler had himself one heck of a night on Saturday, as he threw seven touchdown passes in USC’s 28 point win over Colorado. The Trojans scored the first 28 points, in the first quarter, and never looked back.

6) Washington Huskies: The Huskies have more questions than answers on offense, as the entire unit struggled against the Oregon defense.

7) Arizona Wildcats: Bye Week

8) Utah Utes: Utah played better in the fourth quarter and beat Oregon State Saturday. The Utes and beavers were tied at 16 heading into the fourth quarter, and Utah outscored OSU 13-7 to pick up the win.

9) California Golden Bears: The Golden Bears have become one of the most dangerous teams in the conference, as they were in control for the majority of the game against UCLA. But Cal couldn’t hold on, and the Bears suffered a heartbreaking loss instead.

10) Oregon State Beavers: Oregon State hung tough with the Utes, but were unable to figure out Utah’s defense in the overtime.

11) Washington State Cougars: Bye week

12) Colorado Buffaloes: Colorado outscored USC 7-0 in the fourth quarter…that counts for something, right?

Hey coach, did Washington play a good game on Saturday?

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