After a week in which everyone was in action, and two games went down to the wire before being decided by two points each, four teams have the week off.
Though there are only three games, all of them, plus future Pac-12 member Utah, are all available nationally.
#24 Oregon St. Beavers (3-2, 2-0) at Washington Huskies (2-3, 1-1) at 7:15 PM. It's one of the road-trip in the region games, in the matchup that consistently draws the biggest cross-program following of the northwest games.
The Beavers upset then #9 Arizona 29-27 in Tucson, as Ryan Katz threw for 393 yards and two touchdowns, and ran for another score. It earned Katz the Pac-10 Offensive Player of the Week honor. But the Beavers must go the rest of the way without James Rodgers, who suffered a season ending knee injury in the process. Oregon St. has taken six straight from the Dogs, and have won four in a row in Seattle. Continuing that streak depends on multiple players stepping up to fill in for now assistant coach James.
It's Homecoming for the Huskies, who have been alternating between impressive wins and disappointing losses all season, including last week's 24-14 home loss to the Arizona St. Sun Devils. The Husky Honks are hoping the pattern of their season holds up this week, which would be due to be an impressive one. How well Jake Locker has recovered from playing in a downpour when he already had the flu is key to whether the pattern holds.
California Golden Bears (3-2, 1-1) at USC Trojans (4-2, 1-2) at 12:30 on the Fox Sports national network of regional stations. The Bears tore up the UCLA Bruins, taking a 28-0 halftime lead, on their way to a 35-7 win, as they solved both their offensive problems from the Arizona game, and their issues against the Pistol offense that showed up at Nevada.
Cal had both the defensive and special teams Pac-10 Players of the Week, as cornerback Darian Hagan had two sacks and an interception, in addition to leading the Bears in tackles, while punter Bryan Anger pinned the Bruins inside their 20 three times, and averaged over 50 yards per punt.
The Trojans lost their second straight game on a game ending field goal, suffering a 37-35 loss at Stanford, after Andrew Luck countered a go-ahead touchdown with 1:12 left by Allen Bradford by driving the Cardinal into position for the game winner by Nate Whitaker as the clock ran out.
USC's Matt Barkley rivaled Katz's performance, throwing for 390 yards and three touchdowns, but left too much time for Luck, who completed 20 of 24 throws in addition to directing the game winning drive. By taking Stanford to the wire on the road, USC, who is literally a couple of seconds away from still being unbeaten, and leading the conference, dispelled any hope that they would just go away after their first loss.
#17 Arizona Wildcats (4-1, 1-1) at Washington St. Cougars (1-5, 0-3) at 4:30 on Versus. Washington St. wouldn't let their Homecoming "crowd" (fewer than 25,000 were on hand, many visiting Ducks) tailgate another couple of hours, but they were ok with it against Arizona, for the sake of a Versus broadcast.
The ‘Cats won't lose often when Nick Foles has a night like he did against Oregon St., completing 35 of 46 throws, for 440 yards, and Juron Criner pulls in a dozen of those tosses, for 179 yards.
The Cougs came much closer than most expected against Oregon, as Jeff Tuel threw for 245 yards. Two big plays broke the game open, as Darron Thomas found LaMichael James for an 84 yard catch and run touchdown for the Ducks, and Cliff Harris got loose for his nation-leading third punt return for a touchdown, this one a 67 yarder. Both were critical, as Kenjon Barner has already been knocked out, and Thomas would later leave the game with an elbow injury.
#2 Oregon (6-0, 3-0), #14 Stanford (5-1, 2-1), Arizona St. (3-3, 1-2), and UCLA (3-3, 1-2) all have the week off. It's quite timely for the Ducks, who should get both Thomas and Barner back after the break week.
#11 Utah Utes (5-0, 2-0) at Wyoming Cowboys (2-4, 0-2) at 4 PM MDT (3 PDT) on The Mountain.
The future Pac-12 Utes destroyed Iowa St., who came into the game with a winning record, 68-27 in Iowa City, and still fell from #10 to #11 in the polls. Utah blew the game open with a 31-0 second quarter, and Jordan Wynn threw for 325 yards, and eight Utes ran multiple times for a total of 239 yards.
The Cowboys were run out of Ft. Worth 45-0 by the then fifth ranked (now #4) TCU Horned Frogs.
Baylor Bears (4-2, 1-1) at Colorado Buffalos (3-2, 0-1) at 5 PM MDT (4 PDT) on Fox College Sports in the central part of the country. The Bears comeback came up short in the Cotton Bowl, as Baylor fell to Texas Tech 45-38. The Buffalos never made a move to come back, falling 26-0 at Missouri, as the Tigers were in control all the way.
