The Beavers were resting comfortably in their dams this week, but some Pac-10 teams were duking it out for a shot at the Pac-10 title. Like... Cal.
The Bears, having already lost to the Beavers, couldn't afford another loss if they wanted a chance at the Pac-10 title. But UCLA, led by Karl Dorell, had other ideas. The decided it would be more fun to blow a conference championship later in the season than it would be to sink into mediocrity this early in the season. However, the match-up between Karl Dorell and Jeff Tedford provided other interesting things to talk about:
Yes, Dorell made some bonehead moves, (Calling a timeout to NOT run a play, then taking a delay of game penalty, then punting from Cal territory, then punting the ball into the end zone for a touchback) but in the end it was Alterraun Verner who took an interception for six with a minute and a half left to seal the deal for the Bruins.
But the Beavers have already dealt with both those teams. For two teams we haven't played yet, we take a look at the Oregon/ Washington game. The Ducks couldn't pull away from the Huskies until the fourth quarter, when the Ducks turned a 31-31 tie into a 55-34 win. Jonathan Stewart went for 251, Andre Crenshaw went for 113, and Dennis Dixon rushed for 99. He wound up passing for 196 more. Add it all up, the Ducks put up 661 yards of total offense, racking up 39 first downs along the way.
The Huskies offense wasn't bad either. They put up 421 yards of total offense. Those kind of numbers ususally win games, but not against the Ducks, who are just gaudy on offense. Jake Locker threw for 257 yards on four touchdowns, and ran for 78 more. Most of those yards came on a 47 yard run that tied Washington's longest rush of the year. With the win, the Ducks move to 3-1 in the conference, and the Huskies fall to 0-4. Next week the Ducks play host to USC, and the Huskies play host to Willie Tuitama and the Arizona Wildcats.
Speaking of the Arizona Wildcats, they got beat by Stanford to the tune of 21-20. Stanford quarterback Tavita Pritchard threw for 181 yards, but Arizona QB Willie Tuitama threw for 238. The Cardinal came out on top because of a costly turnover near the end of the game by the Wildcats. As a result, Pritchard won his second game in three tires. The other win came against the USC Trojans.
USC, Arizona, now Oregon State?
AP Photo/ John Miller (via ESPN)
In other news, USC beat Notre Dame 38-0.
The only undefeated teams now in the Pac-10 are UCLA, and Arizona State. The Sun Devils are undefeated, with a 7-0 overall record. The toughest part of their schedule is coming up, starting with California this week.
GO BEAVERS!
--JB--