PAC-10: Grading Week 3

Week 3 was a bad one for the Pac-10. The conference lost its national title contender when #3 USC limped out of Seattle, and then hours later the Beavers clammed up against #17 Cincinnati. Sure, you can point to Cal with a nice win on the road, and Oregon took care of business at home, but the national perception this week is a bad one.

1. Cal–Impressive road win. Granted, versus a low to mid level Big-1o school, but the rushing and passing game were balanced, and the defense played well. What else is there?

2. Washington–Huge win that will accelerate their renaissance. Am I sold on the Huskies? No. Am I sold on them being a tough out. Yeah. But that happened after the LSU game.

3. UCLA–This Kansas State squad doesn’t look vintage, but 3-0 with an SEC road win is a nice start.

4. Oregon–You could argue they had the 3rd best game this week since they took down a ranked team, but the problem is they looked horrible doing it. And I’m not only talking about the uniforms.

5. Stanford–People are going to say, “Big deal, San Jose State.” And they’re right. San Jose State lost 56-3 to USC, and Stanford got 14 points off special teams and 7 from their defense–that’s not going to happen in PAC-1o play. Celebrate while you can, boys.

6. Arizona State–Took care of business. A PAC school should win this game by four scores and they did–Honest Abe would be proud. We’ll know if this team is for real on Saturday. My guess is they’re not, but I’ll always root PAC-10 over SEC.

7. Oregon State–Weak performance all around, and the words “east coast bias” should not be muttered again this season. At least not by Beaver fans.

8. Arizona–This team has a really nice running game that kept them in the game on the road. Unfortunately, the defense couldn’t make a stand at opportune times.

9. Washington State–Go Cougs. Can’t help but wonder if someone slipped the Mustangs a dozen corn dogs to take the dive.

10. USC–When your conference doesn’t have a national title contender, your conference is officially irrelevant. That’s the magnitude of this loss.