(This is the fourth in a series of columns that will look at Pac-10 football teams
- primarily by picking out elements that stood out from the previous week's box scores,
play-by-play and statistics of both the team involved and its prospective opponent. Also
included is a mention that stood out from the previous weekend in college football.)
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California (1-2) |
This Week: vs. Illinois (1-2), ESPN
GamePlan - 9:00 a.m. |
| Last Week: L, 31-24 vs. Utah (2-1) |
| Key Facts: In the first quarter this
year, the Bears have been outscored 36-14. |
| The Golden Bears have had a
habit of waking up in the second half (outscoring the opposition 59-31), but in each of
the past two games have watched the opposition grind out long scoring drives. After taking
a 24-21 lead against Utah near the end of the third quarter, the Utes had the ball for 25
of the 4th quarter's 33 plays while scoring a touchdown and a field goal. The previous
week, after Cal took a 21-20 lead, Colorado State had the ball for 13 of the last 15 plays
while driving for a game-winning field goal. The Bear defense figures to get a
measure of relief this week; after giving up 60 yards running to Colorado State's QB
Bradlee Van Pelt and 71 yards running to Utah's QB Alex Smith in consecutive weeks, Cal
faces Jon Beutjer, who's only running plays this year have been sacks (5 for -31 yards). Cal will be starting QB Aaron Rodgers (15-for-25, 223 yards vs Utah) this
week. Prior to the Golden Bears' last possession which ended up in a fumble, Rodgers
led the Cal offense deep into Utah territory in all eight of the possessions that he
played. |
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Illinois (1-2) |
This Week: vs. California (1-3), ESPN
GamePlan- 9:00 a.m. |
| Last Week: L, 6-3 at UCLA 3-6 (1-1) |
| Key Stat: Out of 13 possessions last
week, Illinois crossed the UCLA 30-yard line only twice. |
| Setting aside the game
against Illinois State, Illinois has had 24 offensive possessions and has scored 1
touchdown. They've had the ball inside the opponents' 30-yard line on nine of those
possessions with six of those ending up in FG attempts, 1 TD, 1 turnover and once the ball
went over on downs. The Illini defense has been a little hard to figure out as they
held both Missouri and Illinois to less than 225 yards, but then gave up a whopping 511
yards to Illinois State. Against UCLA, Illinois had no plays longer than 30 yards, with
their longest play being 27 yards. However, against Southern Illinois, the Illini had four
offensive TDs longer than 40 yards. |
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Arizona (1-2, 0-1 in
Pac-10) |
This Week: at Purdue (1-1) |
| Last Week: L, 48-10 vs. Oregon
(3-0) |
| Key fact: In the last minute of the
first half, Arizona ran its first play in Oregon territory. |
| The phones will be quiet at
the Arizona ticket office this week - few things will kill sales greater than consecutive
blowout losses at home early in the season- except for consecutive blowout losses at home
that are televised. Much of the fight that Arizona put up showed up in the form of
penalties - for the second straight week, they exceeded 90 yards in penalties. The
Wildcats have let QBs Nic Costa and Ryan O'Hara both seen time in all three games this
year. In the past two games, Costa's 8-of-20 for 54 yards and O'Hara's 18-of-43 for 183
yards. By scoring a late touchdown, Arizona avoided the fourth-biggest home loss in school
history. The LSU loss was the third-biggest home loss in school history. Last week, Purdue beat a ranked Wake Forest which beat a ranked North Carolina State which gave top-five Ohio State the scare of its life. What will all
of this mean when Purdue travels to Ohio State in November 15th? Probably as much as
Purdue's opening week loss to Bowling Green. |
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Arizona State (2-0) |
This Week: at Iowa(3-0) ESPN 2 - 3:00
p.m. |
| Last Week: W, 26-16 vs. Utah State |
| Key stat: ASU had seven sacks for
-57 yards. |
| Last Saturday's game was a
testy affair (223 yards total penalties), where the Sun Devils had to overcome 4 turnovers
to stave off a Utah State team that took the ball deep into ASU territory twice in the
fourth quarter after having closed to within 10 points. Out of 104 opponent pass
plays, ASU's had 10 sacks. Iowa's
managed to get a #14 ranking despite not beating anyone particularly good - wins against
Miami (Ohio) and Buffalo preceded a victory against Iowa State. Iowa's average starting
field position was the Iowa State 47; while Iowa State's starting field position was their
own 25. Taken over the course of 15 possessions, this represented a difference of 420
yards, which more than offset Iowa State's 147-yard total offense advantage. |
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Oregon (3-0, 1-0 in Pac-10) |
This Week: vs. #5 Michigan (3-0), ABC -
12:30 p.m. |
| Last Week: W, 48-10 at Arizona
(1-2) |
| Key stat: Going into the 3rd
quarter, Oregon led 41-3 and outgained Arizona 406 to 73. |
| Three games into the season
and Oregon's a) still undefeated and b) still committed to their QB rotation which is
designed to get Kellen Clemens most of the snaps. The rotation seems to be working -
Clemens and Jason Fife have combined for 11 TDs, 0 interceptions and 284 yards a game. In
the first quarter this year, Oregon's outscored their opponents 44-0. Oregon embarks on its toughest two-game stretch of the season, with
back-to-back home games against Michigan and Washington State. Michigan is fresh off
of a 38-0 clobbering of Notre Dame, holding the Irish to 140 yards of total offense and
8-of-24 passing, but given their performances in their first two games, it's likely they
may not finish the season anywhere near the Top 25. So far the Wolverines have
clobbered the opposition by a combined 133-10, although two of the wins were against
hapless Central Michigan and Houston. The last two times that Michigan came out west to
play a Pac-10 team in September they lost - in 2000 to UCLA and 2001 to Washington. |
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Oregon State (2-1) |
This Week: vs. Boise State (2-0), FSNW - 4:00
p.m. |
| Last Week: W, 28-19 vs. New Mexico State
(1-2) |
| Key fact: 445 yards total offense;
penalty yardage cut in half to 51 yards. |
| After trailing 13-0, the
Beavers scored 28 unanswered points to coast to a fairly easy win. The Beavers showed
balance in passing for 233 yards and running for 221 yards. Steven Jackson, who suffered a
knee strain last in last week's game but is cleared to play this week, ran for 49, 33, 52,
and 31 yards in each quarter, averaging 4.3 yards per carry in the first half and 5.1
yards per carry in the second half. Boise State's continuing to live up to their rep as one of the nation's
wilder offensive teams. Last year, they were held under 34 points just once, and
this year they've opened up with wins against Idaho State (62-0) and Idaho (24-10) gaining
more than 1000 yards in the process. The defense hasn't been bad either as they've allowed
just over 2 yards a carry per run and allowed 396 yards (including sack yardage) on 109
pass plays. |
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Stanford (1-1) |
This Week: at Brigham Young (2-1), KRON -
3:30 p.m. |
| Last Week: IDLE |
| Key stat:Lost last road game after a bye week to ASU, 65-24. |
| Saturday's game will be key
in determining whether Stanford will be a surprise team this year or if their next best
shot at a win will come in early November. Stanford hasn't won a road game since December
2001 against San Jose State. Last year, they were 0-6 and were outscored to 229 to
97. Brigham Young's played well this season in beating Georgia Tech and playing USC
reasonably competitively. The Cougars running statistics are a little unusual with Rey
Brathwaite having 40 carries for 281 yards and a 7.0 average, and all of the other RBs,
QBs and WRs running for -31 yards in 47 carries. |
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UCLA (1-1) |
This Week: at Oklahoma (3-0), ESPN
GamePlan - 12:30 p.m. |
| Last Week: L, 6-3 vs. Illinois (1-2) |
| Key stat: Including sacks, against
Illinois UCLA netted 59 yards on 36 pass plays. |
| You know it's site a bad week
for the offense when the game report sub-headline on the school website mentions that the
kicker made two field goals. UCLA's passing game struggled badly against an Illinois
pass defense that was considered run-of-the-mill coming into the season, although much of
that was due to dropped passes as opposed to erratic throwing by QB Drew Olson. Out
of 14 possessions, UCLA advanced it inside Illinois' 30-yard line once. For the season,
out of 26 possessions, UCLA's advanced it inside the opponents' 30 on four occasions. UCLA's rushing defense once again held the opponent's running backs to a
shade over three yards a carry - and will be facing an Oklahoma team that hasn't run
especially well this year - it's two leading running backs are averaging a combined 102.7
yards a game with a 3.6 average. However, the Sooners are averaging more than 300 yards a
game passing. Out of 117 pass plays, Oklahoma QBs have only been sacked twice. |
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USC (3-0) |
This Week: IDLE |
| Last Week: W, 61-32 vs. Hawaii
(1-1) |
| Key Stat: Hawaii's first half
passing - 18-of-33 for 161 yards; 4 completions longer than 10 yards |
| USC's defense did a better
job of shutting down Hawaii's defense than 399 passing yards allowed and 32 points would
suggest. Although the Trojans only managed two sacks out of 67 attempts; most of Hawaii's
completions were short passes, and 233 of those passing yards came in the fourth quarter -
which began with USC leading 52-13. Of USC's eight touchdowns, 7 came on plays of 20 yards
or more. This season 23 of USC's 96 points have been scored by its defense. |
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Washington (1-1) |
This Week: vs. Idaho (0-3) |
| Last Week: IDLE |
| Key Stat: 1, the number of
touchdowns scored by Idaho all season |
| Former California offensive
line coach and current Idaho head coach Tom Cable will have his hands full in keeping
Idaho from having its third consecutive 10-loss season. Even though the Vandals are
returning their top three QBs who threw for a total of 3475 yards last year, Idaho's
averaging less than 200 yards a game this year against the likes of Washington State,
Eastern Washington and Boise State. Idaho's lost its last three games at Washington:
44-20, 55-3, and 41-27. Last year, Washington QB Cody Pickett was 32-of-44 for 438
yards - yet WR Reggie Williams had one of his least productive games of the year with 4
catches for 23 yards. |
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Washington State (2-1) |
Next Week: vs. New Mexico (1-2) |
| Last Week: W, 47-26 at Colorado
(2-1) |
| Key Stat: Four TDs were longer than
40 yards (two passes, one kickoff return, one interception return) |
| By following up a near-upset
at Notre Dame with a surprisingly easy rout of Colorado in Boulder, the Cougars now have
to be a contender for the Pac-10 title. With two TDs in an 84-second span late in the
first quarter and three TDs in the first five minutes of the third quarter, Washington
State showed an explosiveness worthy of the recent Mike Price era. In the first quarter,
Matt Kegel (33a/17c/310yds/3td) was 7-of-8 for 183 yards with 1 run for 10 yards. For the
second straight week, WSU had more than 100 yards in penalties, compiling 123 yards in
penalties - 79 on offense, 44 on defense; 84 of those coming in the first half. New Mexico State, another one of those pesky Mountain West teams, was held
under 550 yards for the first time in last week's loss to BYU. While the Lobos offense was
shut down by BYU - aside from a 66-yard gain, they gained 265 yards in 71 plays -- the
defense managed to shut out the Cougars in the second half. The running back tandem
of DonTrell Moore and D.D. Cox has combined for 533 yards in three games. |
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Great Googly Moogly #2 |
N.C. State QB Phillip Rivers |
| 16-23 for 169 yards, 3 TD, 2 QB sneaks |
| Great Googly Moogly is an expression used
by Grady (played by Whitman Mayo) on Sanford and Son, when he couldn't find any other
words to describe a situation. |
| Prior to The Sequence in last
Saturday's 44-38 3-overtime loss to Ohio State, North Carolina State had called passes on
24 of the previous 26 plays, going 16-of-22 for 169 yards (with two sacks) and had given
the Buckeyes fits with their short passing game. In rallying back from a 17-point 4th
quarter deficit, the Wolfpack eschewed what up to that point had been a 50/50 mix of
running and passing.
It's hard to know what's more unthinkable - that the N.C. State
braintrust chose three running plays during the final sequence, that two of those plays
were sneaks when the Wolfpack were 4 and 2 yards from the end zone, or the N.C. State
coach defending his play calling by saying that everything would have been fine if
Rivers ran in the right hole. But even if N.C. State had scored on that play, a win by no
means a certainty. Ohio State QB Craig Krentzel was 11-of-13 for 70 yards and 3 TDs and
accounted for the offense's other five yards by running...A non-football honorable mention
Great Googly Moogly goes to Barry Bonds. In the past three years he's reached base more
than 950 times and has an outside shot at reaching 1000 before the year's out. That's
staggering. |
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