Pac-12 Week 10 Review

It was a rather quiet Saturday in the Pac-12 as the conference's top two teams both had bye weeks and two of its four games came during the week.

Oregon State came into Friday night following a close loss to Stanford. After only scoring 12 points against the solid Cardinal defense, the Beavers hoped to get back to their usual high powered offensive attack, led my the nations leading passer, Sean Mannion. USC had other plans for the Beavers who are now 6-3 (4-2) and are on the outside looking in at the other conference contenders. USC has been playing really good football since they got a new head coach, and have now won three of their last four games, with those three opponents having a combined record of 16-9. USC is tied with UCLA and Arizona for second place in the Pac-12 South just behind Arizona State. USC already beat Arizona and still has yet to face UCLA, but they lost earlier in the year to the Sun Devils, so they would need two Arizona State losses to get into the conference championship.

Arizona State's offense is looking a lot like their conference foe from the north, as they have now scored over 50 points in three straight games, this time winning 55-21 over Washington State. Arizona State is now 6-2 (4-1) and is alone at the top of the Pac-12 South. They still have a long road to the top, as they have yet to face Utah, Oregon State, UCLA, and Arizona. Washington State is now starting to struggle to find offense after starting the year so well. After starting the year winning four of its first six games, the Cougars have now lost three in a row, all of which came by three or more touchdowns. Their record stands at 4-5 (2-4) and they are now hoping that they can at least get to a bowl game. In order to do that, they would need to win two of their last three games against Arizona, Utah, and Washington.

Arizona and UCLA both notched big conference wins against inferior opponents in the Pac-12's two games on Saturday. UCLA bounced back from its losses to Stanford and Oregon to beat Colorado 45-23. They started slow, but were able to overcome it and win big. Arizona faced a tough battle with CAL, who is now just 1-8 (0-6), winning just 33-28. Arizona and UCLA are both major contenders in the south and they now share the same record at 6-2 (3-2). The two will now play each other in a big game this Saturday night.