Did you enjoy your weekend off? I know lots of other people did in Palo Alto. Coach Shaw originally didn't like that Stanford had a bye week so early in the season, yet apparently he's singing a different tune now. A week off to get rest from the injuries in Tucson as well as allowing freshmen to take part in New Student Orientation events, a somewhat rare occurance.
With that said, Stanford has probably one of the best schedules remaining in the nation. Save for the games in Pullman, LA, and Corvallis, Stanford has every game remaining at home. I'd say that's a great way to introduce the freshmen to Stanford football, with the only game they missed being the San Jose State game. The only downer of the weekend is that Stanford volleyball got swept by the LA schools down in SoCal, so bleh.
With that said, how did the Pac-12 do?
California 23, Washington 31 -- Yet again, Cal rolled into Seattle and laid down in Husky Stadium while Washington ran roughshod over them. Cal's offense couldn't get going in the fourth quarter when they were still within a single point of the Huskies while Washington's defense finally lived up to its billing under Nick Holt. It's a bittersweet loss, though, as the Pac-12 loses another undefeated team, leaving Stanford as the lone team unblemished.
UCLA 27, Oregon State 19 -- If you read Bruins Nation, it sounds like the hate they have for Neuheisal and his staff supercedes a win, which is unfortunate. Richard Brehaut firmly established himself as the starter for the Bruins, but the running game took a step back. Meanwhile, for the Beavers, it's a bad omen when you've lost two home games against a FCS team and middling UCLA. The pain doesn't look to let up as they head to Tempe to play a ranked (again) Sun Devil team.
USC 22, Arizona State 43 -- Speaking of the Sun Devils, ASU clobbered USC in a game that I'm not sure how to interpret. The game was back-and-forth for three quarters, but then all of a sudden, USC must have thought ASU would lay down for them and extend the Sun Devils' winless streak against the Trojans to 12 years. Instead, the men of Troy coughed up four turnovers in the second half. Golden Boy Matt Barkley looked anything but as he fumbled a ball on the ASU side of the field and threw a pick-6. It was perhaps Barkley's worst game of his collegiate career.
Oregon 56, Arizona 31 -- Oregon fans will tell you that Arizona put up more passing yards per attempt against Stanford, that they scored more than the Cardinal, and that they rushed for almost 200 more yards. Stanford counters that they allowed 150 less yards of offense, kept the Wildcats to only 10 points (including a scoreless second half), and didn't allow Arizona to score 21 unanswered points over the course of 12 minutes to come back from 35-3. In all instances, Arizona loses. The plus side for them is that they face a USC team with many problems. The downside is that it's in Los Angeles.