What We Learned - Week Eight In Pac-10 Football

Oregon beat UCLA by the score of 60-12 in Eugene. We learned that Oregon is a beast with talent and coaching oozing out out all pours, probably the number one team in the country and that it faces its stiffest test yet vs. USC next week. We learned that UCLA is now, officially, relegated to the bottom of the Pac-10. Not sure how they beat Texas at Texas other than Texas is actually pretty bad. And this too is likely confirmed by the fact that none other than the Iowa State Cyclones went into Austin this weekend and beat Texas too.

Arizona (6-1, 3-1) beat Washington (3-4, 2-2) by the score of 44-14 in Tucson. Some weeks, the Dawgs put it together just enough to eek out a win, and other weeks...well, they just don't put it together. This game was the later, so we learned once again that UW is a streaky team with talent deficits compared to the better teams in the league - including at QB - that, now, is going to have to somehow win three of its final five games just to be considered for a bowl. As for Arizona, we learned that their backup QB is quite good and the rest of the league still on their schedule - my Ducks included - need to be prepared for a stiff challenge.

Stanford (6-1, 3-1) beat WSU (1-7, 0-5) by the score of 38-28 in Palo Alto. We didn't learn much from this game, just repeat lessons from weeks past. WSU has heart, is improving, has some talent at key positions, but none of that is enough to win a football game. Meanwhile, Stanford is a power team with a great QB that - with only one blemish on their record - keeps on winning games.

Cal (4-3, 2-2) beat Arizona State (3-5, 1-3) by the score of 50-17 at Berkley. We learned that Cal is capable of dishing out a beat down to a Pac-10 team. Sure, they beat UCLA 35-7, but this...this was a clubbing. When he's on, the Cal QB is really good and the Golden Bear defense can come to play. If the Ducks can somehow arrive in Berkley undefeated for their match up with Cal in November, it could be a "trap" game for Oregon. We learned that ASU is now fading into irrelevance for the Pac-10 race. They are talented enough to hang a loss on one of the top teams late in the season (Arizona, Stanford), but their own fortunes now seem sealed for the season.


Oregon State and USC had the week off, so we didn't learn anything about them.