Pac-12 Notes: Ducks hit stride before Stanford game

Oregon has joined the college football season, already in progress.

The Ducks really looked like themselves for the first time this season, beating Cal 44-28 while rockin’ and rollin’ to a heavenly 777 yards of total offense, a school record.

“I think we can pick the tempo up a little bit more,” quarterback Vernon Adams was quoted as saying in the Eugene Register-Guard. “But we’re feeling good and we’re on a roll.”

Meanwhile, the maligned-for-good-reason defense held the Bears to a respectable point total and 432 yards.

“Not our perfect game,” defensive back Tyree Robinson said of the secondary, but we are close to being perfect. I’d give us an A- or a B. But like I said we still have room to improve.”

The Ducks have muddled along for most of the season, with a rebuilt defense being one of the worst in the league and the offense suffering from unusually modest quarterback play — at least until Vernon Adams has gotten healthy in the past few weeks after his return from a broken finger.

Oregon (6-3 overall, 4-2 Pac-12) has won three games in a row — at Washington, in triple-overtime at Arizona State and against Cal. It might be too late for the Ducks to do anything about winning the Pac-12 North, but they can deal with that issue Saturday at Stanford, which is 7-0 in the league.

Oregon has to beat the Cardinal and then hope Cal can knock off Stanford.

“I think we could go to Stanford and give them a run for their money,” said Oregon receiver Darren Carrington.

While the Ducks just have long-shot hopes for a repeat Pac-12 title, their resurgence is good for the league. Stanford is in danger of being shut out of the four-team College Football Playoff even if it wins out. But a quality win over Oregon will further raise eyebrows, while even bigger tests await — Notre Dame and, presumably, the Pac-12 South champ.

ARIZONA (5-5, 2-5)

Game: USC 38, Arizona 30. The Wildcats grabbed a 14-0 lead and held the advantage until the first snap of the fourth quarter, when USC RB Justin Davis scored on a 9-yard run for a 24-20 lead. That score came after the Cats gave USC good field position when they were stuffed on a run up the middle on fourth-and-2 from midfield. After Arizona closed within 24-23 on Casey Skowron’s third field goal of the game, USC RB Ronald Jones II shredded the defense for a 74-yard score. Davis scored another TD with 2:36 to go for a 38-23 lead, and Arizona answered with a touchdown pass with 11 seconds left, but its hopes died when the ensuing onside kick went out of bounds.

Takeaway: Arizona had no business keeping this close, but USC stumbled at the start and the Wildcats played with a fire that was lacking a week earlier in a 49-3 loss at Washington. Earlier in the week, coach Rich Rodriguez told his guys they would do one of three things: Fight, flee or freeze. Arizona chose to fight the far-more-talented Trojans, which is good, but Rodriguez was in absolutely no mood for moral victories. “Ain’t nobody feeling good in our locker room. I don’t,” he said. “You’re supposed to play hard; you’re supposed to play well.” At least now, though, it seems possible Arizona can win one of its final two games — home vs. Utah and at Arizona State.

Next: vs. Utah, Nov. 14

ARIZONA STATE (4-5, 2-4)

Game: Washington State 38, Arizona State 24. The Sun Devils scored on their first two possessions and led 14-0, and then WSU took control. Cougars quarterback Luke Falk passed for 497 yards and five touchdowns, including a late 75-yard score to wide receiver Dom Williams, while completing 36-of-55 passes. Arizona State pulled within 31-24 on a 22-yard field goal with 4:13 left, but Washington State scored on the next snap as Williams took a short pass and raced into the end zone. ASU quarterback Mike Bercovici, who completed 27-of-44 passes for 229 yards, was intercepted by defensive back Darrien Molton with 1:21 to go to seal the win.

Takeaway: ASU can’t seem to catch a break. In a triple-overtime loss to Oregon a week earlier, the Ducks scored the go-ahead points on a controversial catch in the back of the end zone. This week, WSU closed within 14-10 with 5:26 to go before halftime when it got a chance to replay a failed fourth-and-5 attempt from the ASU 11 because of an inadvertent whistle. Falk then connected with Williams for a touchdown. The league admitted Sunday that WSU should not have been allowed another snap because forward progress had been stopped on the previous play. In any case, it’s hard to put a finger on what is wrong with ASU, which will struggle just to get bowl eligible. The personnel seems to be fine but it just hasn’t all come together.

Next: vs. Washington, Nov. 14

CAL (5-4, 2-4)

Game: Oregon 44, Cal 28. The Bears suffered their fourth straight loss as QB Jared Goff threw for 329 yards, with two touchdowns and one interception. The Cal defense, which had shown improvement earlier in the season, gave up 777 total yards, which was the most ever for Oregon. The Bears led 10-0, helped by a blocked punt that set up a touchdown, but then the Ducks reeled off 31 consecutive points. Cal even blocked a second punt as it rallied in the second half to get within 31-21 in the third quarter. Cal made it 41-28 with 7:27 left in the game, but that was as close as it got.

Takeaway: This might have been the most disappointing loss in the four-game losing streak, as Cal failed to take advantage of a Ducks’ defense that has been horrible most of the season. Yeah, Goff threw for 329 yards but he was just 18-of-41 while the running game produced just 103 yards. So, the Bears went 0-4 against Utah, UCLA, USC and Oregon — with all but the USC game coming on the road — and there’s no shame in losing any of those matchups. But if Cal was to trumpet true improvement, it needed to win at least one. Oh, well, there’s always Oregon State this week to get bowl eligible.

Next: vs. Oregon State, Nov. 14.

COLORADO (4-6, 1-5)

Game: Stanford 42, Colorado 10. The Buffs, one week after a narrow 35-31 loss to UCLA, couldn’t hang with powerful Stanford. The Cardinal held a 275-83 edge in rushing and dominated time of possession as it began to pull away at the end of the first half with another time-consuming drive. QB Kevin Hogan hit wide-open TE Dalton Schultz on fourth-and-2 from the Colorado 6 that made it 21-7 with 1:51 left before the break. The Buffs tried to answer quickly, but QB Sefo Liufau was picked off at the Cardinal 43, and Hogan led Stanford for another touchdown with one second left in the half.

Takeaway: How much did Stanford control the action? A week after running 114 offensive plays against UCLA, the Buffs managed a season-low 53 on Saturday. Still, Stanford coach David Shaw offered an endorsement of third-year coach Mike MacIntyre. “First of all, I have to say this: not enough credit is given to Mike MacIntyre and the job he’s done here at Colorado,” Shaw said. “They’re fighting everybody. They’re really close. You can see it by the way we played offense today. They made a lot of things very difficult. … The score doesn’t look like it, but we had to come with reverses and trick plays because we thought they were very sound, fought very hard and were very physical.” So, there’s that.

Next: vs. USC, Nov. 13

OREGON (6-3, 4-2)

Game: Oregon 44, Cal 28. Senior QB Vernon Adams Jr. threw four touchdown passes and ran for another, as the Ducks put up a school-record 777 yards of total offense. Adams completed 17-of-29 passes for 300 yards and he also ran for 43 yards. WR Darren Carrington had four catches for 112 yards. WR Bralon Addison had two touchdown receptions. RB Royce Freeman had 180 yards on 28 carries to lead a rushing effort that produced a staggering 477 yards.

Takeaway: The Ducks liked what they saw from their secondary after giving their young defensive backs an expanded playbook and more coverages. Oregon coaches had simplified things earlier in the season, but teams had been taken advantage of the lack of variation. Oregon had allowed ASU to pass for 398 yards a week earlier. On Saturday, the Ducks held Cal QB Jared Goff to 18-of-41 passing, although he did have 329 yards. “We changed up a few things,” said CB Arrion Springs. “We didn’t run the same call as much as did against Arizona State, to get exposed like that. I think that helped a lot. We had no choice but to add it in. We couldn’t keep getting exposed like that.”

Next: at Stanford, Nov. 14

OREGON STATE (2-7, 0-6)

Game: UCLA 41, Oregon State 0. The game was scoreless after the first quarter, but then a fumble by Oregon State QB Nick Mitchell and an interception from Mitchell set up the Bruins for a 10-0 lead, and they rolled from there. UCLA led 24-0 at halftime and 41-0 after three quarters. For the Beavers, senior RB Storm Barrs-Woods gained 87 yards on 14 carries, and he moved to fifth on the school’s career rushing list with 2,643.

Takeaway: As a sign of how troubled the season has been, when Oregon State held UCLA to a three-and-out on its first possession, it marked the first time since Sept. 12 against Michigan that an opponent did not score on its initial drive. Growing pains were expected in the first season under coach Gary Andersen, and that’s most evident at quarterback. Mitchell, a redshirt freshman filling in for injured Seth Collins for the second consecutive game, was just 9-of-19 with three interceptions. He was pulled in favor of redshirt freshman Marcus McMaryion.

Next: at Cal, Nov. 14

SOUTHERN CAL (6-3, 4-2)

Game: USC 38, Arizona 30. True freshman running back Ronald Jones II broke off a 74-yard touchdown run in the fourth quarter, ran for a career-high 177 yards and also scored on a reception to help rescue USC. The Trojans were sluggish at the start — 12 yards in the first quarter — but then rallied from a 14-0 deficit. They took their first lead at 24-20 on the first snap of the fourth quarter as RB Justin Davis scored on a 9-yard run. After Arizona got within 24-23, Jones had his long touchdown run and Davis added another score before the Wildcats’ had a last-gasp TD with 11 seconds to go.

Takeaway: This was hardly the dominating effort it could have been, but the win did move the Trojans to 3-0 in the second half of the season and they remain alive in the Pac-12 South race, while needing someone to deliver another loss to Utah. USC’s crazy-good young skill on offense was on display Saturday night, not only with Jones, but with sophomore WR JuJu Smith-Schuster — eight catches for 138 yards and a touchdown while playing with a soft case on his right hand. Some lucky coach is going to inherit a ton of talent.

Next: at Colorado, Nov. 13

STANFORD (8-1, 7-0)

Game: Stanford 42, Colorado 10. The Cardinal took another step toward the Pac-12 North title — and, by extension, the College Football Playoff — as QB Kevin Hogan threw for 169 yards and two touchdowns and became the winningest quarterback in school history. Hogan has 32 wins as a starter, one more than Andrew Luck. RB Christian McCaffrey stayed in the Heisman discussion with 175 yards of offense and 220 all-purpose yards; he added to his resume with a touchdown pass to TE Austin Hooper on a 28-yard play on the first snap of the fourth quarter.

Takeaway: Stanford was clicking in every gear a week after its close call at Washington State. The Cardinal ran for 275 yards, was efficient with its passing game and the defense came up with 10 tackles for loss and two turnovers. When Stanford plays like this it can beat anybody. All that’s left for Stanford to do to win the North is win one of its final two conference games (Oregon, Cal), but the Cardinal has eyes on the bigger college football prize, which would require a home win over Notre Dame to end the regular season.

Next: vs. Oregon, Nov. 14

UCLA (7-2, 4-2)

Game: UCLA 41, Oregon State 0. True freshman QB Josh Rosen threw two touchdown passes to Thomas Duarte and passed for 333 yards before sitting out the fourth quarter because of the big lead. The Bruins, who did all their scoring in the second and third quarters, pumped out 676 yards of offense while holding the Beavers to only 246 and forcing four turnovers. UCLA scored 17 of its 24 first-half points after turnovers. Duarte finished with six receptions for 116 yards.

Takeaway: Rosen continues to get better and better, and it’s scary how good he could be in the next couple of years, especially because coach Jim Mora figures to keep a high level of talent around him, such as true freshman RB Soso Jamabo, who had 90 yards on nine carries against the Beavers. As for Rosen, he posted his fourth 300-yard game of the season. “He has full control,” receiver Jordan Payton said after the game. “He’s seen a lot of pressures, a lot of different schemes. Now, he has the reins. He’s playing outstanding.” UCLA still controls its destiny in the Pac-12 South as it has games remaining vs. Utah and USC. First, though, is a tough matchup with Washington State, so this season could still go either direction.

Next: vs. Washington State, Nov. 14

UTAH (8-1, 5-1)

Game: Utah 34, Washington 23. Senior QB Travis Wilson threw for 155 yards and a touchdown and added 42 yards and a pair of scores on the ground in a solid victory in Seattle. RB Devontae Booker did his usual yeoman’s work — 34 carries for 150 yards and a touchdown — and the defense came up with four turnovers. That was huge because Utah gave the ball away three times. The Utes led 24-13 at halftime, but the Huskies cut the lead to 24-23 early in the fourth quarter before Utah slammed the door shut on a comeback. Wilson dragged a defender into the end zone on a 2-yard run to extend the lead to 31-23 with 3:27 remaining. After a Huskies’ fumble, Andy Phillips made a 36-yard field goal with 57 seconds to go.

Takeaway: LB Gionni Paul is likely to be your Pac-12 Defensive Player of the Week. He had nine tackles, including two sacks, an interception and a 54-yard fumble recovery for a touchdown in the second quarter. Utah has built its success on turnover margin, and a performance like Paul’s was huge after the Utes didn’t have any takeaways in their previous two games. “Four, that was big,” coach Kyle Whittingham said of the turnovers. “If you get four takeaways and a score off one of them directly, you’re not going to lose many football games.” Utah wasn’t the most popular one-loss team in the College Football Playoff selection committee’s initial rankings, but is still playing for a berth in the semifinals.

Next: at Arizona, Nov. 14

WASHINGTON (4-5, 2-4)

Game: Utah 34, Washington 23. QB Jake Browning threw for 257 yards and a touchdown to lead the Huskies, who committed four turnovers that were part of their undoing. The Huskies trailed 24-13 at halftime but cut the lead to 24-23 after a 10-yard touchdown run from RB Myles Gaskin and a season-long 49-yard field goal from Cameron Van Winkle early in the fourth quarter. But Utah QB Travis Wilson scored on a 2-yard run with 3:27 to go, and then Browning lost a fumbled snap at the UW 35, leading to a late Utah field goal.

Takeaway: The Huskies have been a tough out all season, despite some big-time rebuilding in coach Chris Petersen’s second season. In this game, there was just too much sloppiness on offense — three lost fumbles and an interception. The future is bright and getting bowl eligible would be a nice short-term accomplishment. UW still has ASU, Oregon State and Washington State left. The Beavers should provide one win, and the other two matchups aren’t far from being toss-ups.

Next: at Arizona State, Nov. 14

WASHINGTON STATE (6-3, 4-2)

Game: Washington State 38, Arizona State 24. Sophomore quarterback Luke Falk passed for 497 yards and five touchdowns, including a late 75-yard score to wide receiver Dom Williams, as the Cougars became bowl eligible for the second time in coach Mike Leach’s four seasons. Falk completed 36-of-55 passes with one interception. Williams’ catch-and-run came one snap after ASU closed to 31-24 with 4:13 to go. WSU defensive back Darrien Molton intercepted a pass from QB Mike Bercovici with 1:21 to go to seal the comeback win, as the Cougars rallied from an early 14-0 hole.

Takeaway: We could talk about Falk, but we want to talk about the WSU defense. Holding ASU to 10 points in its final 10 possessions is a heck of an accomplishment. The Cougars came within a last-play field goal of beating Stanford a week earlier when it held the Cardinal to 30 points, its lowest total since a season-opening loss at Northwestern. Washington State has an active front (defensive line coach Joe Salave’a knows what he’s doing) and the back end is getting healthy, as S Issac Dotson and CB Darrien Molton returned Saturday after each missed multiple games. WSU has more balance than it gets credit for.

Next: at UCLA, Nov. 14

NOTES, QUOTES

–The Pac-12 admitted to an officiating error in Saturday’s game between Arizona State and Washington State, a mistake that led to a Cougars touchdown in the second quarter. WSU had completed a fourth-down pass from the ASU 11 but the receiver was short of the chains

The line judge ruled there was an inadvertent whistle to end the play and, in such a case, Washington State had the option to replay the down. It did, and then quarterback Luke Falk connected with receiver Dom Williams for a touchdown.

But a Pac-12 review of the play determined that the play really should have been stopped when the whistle blew as forward progress was stopped short of the first down. The ball should have been turned over to Arizona State on downs. The whistle was not inadvertent.

The league announced that the entire officiating crew “has been downgraded” while the line judge has been suspended for the next game.

–USC sophomore wide receiver JuJu Smith-Schuster underwent surgery to repair a fracture in his right hand Monday, but he was out there playing against Arizona five days later, wearing a soft cast on the hand.

Good thing, too. He wasn’t expected to be needed as much as he was, but he was vital to the 38-30 victory, catching eight passes for 138 yards, including a 72-yard touchdown.

He left the game with 8:50 to go in the third quarter because of cramps but returned to make a key third-down catch as the Trojans drove to take a 38-23 lead with 2:36 left.

“He is Superman,” said interim head coach Clay Helton. “We gave him a standing ovation in the locker room. He’s the ultimate warrior.”

Said Smith-Schuster: “It’s a miracle I played today. I was in a lot of pain. My whole mindset was to come back and play in this game. I knew that when it was time to play, I didn’t care about the pain.”

–UCLA’s offensive line was called for seven false starts against Oregon State, and true freshman QB Josh Rosen thinks he knows why.

“It was kind of B.S. what they were doing on the defensive line,” Rosen was quoted as saying in the L.A. Daily News.

“They were calling cadences, saying ‘set, hut.’ All these false starts and stuff on our offensive linemen, it wasn’t on them. They were trying as hard as they could.”

It is illegal for defensive players to simulate sounds that mimic offensive calls. Rosen said he pointed it out to the officials, but they did nothing.

“They said it was grunting as they shifted,” he said. “It was ridiculous. … It should be illegal, but they didn’t call it.”

–Here’s a weird stat: When Arizona scored with 11 seconds left to make the final score 38-30 against USC, it marked the ninth consecutive meeting between the teams that has been decided by one possession.

QUOTE TO NOTE: “He’s doing what I’ve been seeing him do since my sophomore year (in high school). His job is to lead us and he is taking us to places where we need to go.” — UCLA S Jaleel Wadood, who played with true freshman QB Josh Rosen at St. John Bosco High in Bellflower, Calif.

STRATEGY AND PERSONNEL

FIVE BIGGEST TAKEAWAYS FROM WEEK 10 IN THE PAC-12:

1. WSU coach Mike Leach had the quote of the year. Leach was asked after the win over Arizona State about any adjustments he made in the second half. He answered with a friendly (we think) nod to ASU’s sign-stealing kerfuffle earlier in the week: “The first half we stole a bunch of their signals, and those helped us a bunch the second half,” Leach said.

2. USC needs to give Clay Helton a good look. Helton, the interim head coach, likely needs to get to the Rose Bowl to have a chance of keeping the Trojans’ job, but don’t rule that out. If he does that, USC shouldn’t over-think it. Just hire him. Players love him and he’s the kind of adult the program needs at the top. “I’m having the time of my life,” Helton said. “You can’t have any more fun than I’m having.”

3. The coaching rumors are swirling. Various media reports have tabbed Arizona’s Rich Rodriguez as a likely front-runner for the Virginia Tech job, replacing retiring Frank Beamer. Meanwhile, ESPN.com reports that Cal coach Sonny Dykes is likely to have a wandering eye, perhaps watching for a job in the state of Texas to open up.

4. The next great USC back is here. Trojan coaches are trusting true freshman Ronald Jones II more each week, and he responded with 177 yards on the ground vs. Arizona. Said Wildcats coach Rich Rodriguez: “Big, fast and strong; has great vision. He’s special.”

5. Stanford needs a little help. The Cardinal is the league’s top hope for a CFP playoff berth but it could be shut out if the ACC, Big Ten and Big 12 produced an undefeated champion, while one-loss Alabama wins the SEC. But strange things always seem to happen, so what are the odds of all that happening? Stanford does need some help, but it could all take care of itself if it just keeps winning.