Around The Conference Table: Week 11
Only a few more booked
This season we go around our writers for their takes on the other conference games that went on in gameweek.
Colorado @ SC (SC wins 55-17)
TD_24 - A real shame for Travis Dye, we are about to see how USC adapts with tons of talent getting into the fold for their first round of significant playing time
Bk97 - The only notable thing about this game is that the score was 3-2 early on. Am I really going to have to root for USC to make the playoffs if I want Cal to get a big payout? On the other hand, watching them lose 24-73 to Georgia might just be worth it...
Piotr T Le - God, good SC twitter/reddit is the worst.
Christopher_h - USC has lost to a 30+ underdog before, and so I may have gotten too excited as they struggled early in the game, but USC eventually got their act together.
Rob Hwang - Did we expect anything different…
Washington @ Oregon (Washington wins 37-34)
TD_24 - This game was absolute ecstasy from start to finish. My word what a 3rd quarter and what a win for the Dawgs. If Bo Nix isn't healthy, they may lose to Utah and Oregon State.
Bk97 - I still cannot fathom Oregon's decision to try to convert 4th and 1 from their own 34 with a minute left in a tied game. Even if Oregon's defense weren't eye-bleachingly bad, that's already just inside Peyton Henry's field goal range. Utterly baffling and I'm glad they were justly punished for such a dumb decision.
Piotr T Le - Oregon dun Oregoned against UW. Though if Nix wasn't nicked up and the Oregon secondary could find a way to cover dudes they'd win it.
Christopher_h - Oregon's home winning streak started with a missed Peyton Henry FG, only to end on a made Peyton Henry FG. I was really impressed with the play on Michael Penix Jr this game. I guess there's no better motivation than a rivalry game.
Rob Hwang - Well there goes that CFP chance…
Arizona @ UCLA (Arizona wins 34-28)
TD_24 - How UCLA was favored by 19.5 with Arizona's offense I'll never understand. Jayden De Laura is a gamer, mistake prone or not.
Bk97 - Jayden de Laura was an absolute magician out there, repeatedly escaping UCLA's relentless defensive line. Unfortunately, I think this ends the conference's best chance of getting a playoff berth.
Piotr T Le - LMAO YESSSSS schadenfreude to the M A X
Christopher_h - I was hoping it would be Cal to knock UCLA out of the playoff race, but this is acceptable too.
Rob Hwang - Thank god UCLA won’t have a chance at the CFP
Stanford @ Utah (Utah wins 42-7)
TD_24 - Utah vs Oregon is going to be so fun. The Big Game is going to be the Sicko Bowl.
Bk97 - The Lobsterbacks are giving up 300 rushing yards per game on more than 7.5 ypc over the last 3 games. Meanwhile, Cal hasn't managed to tally 300 combined rushing yards over the last 6 games. Who will win Saturday's battle of the negligible force versus the trivially movable object?
Piotr T Le - Furd on their 4th string RB with no run game is like Cal with no OL...
Christopher_h - Stanford had one solid drive the entire game, in which most of the yards came off a single blown coverage. After that, Utah completely dominated Stanford in pretty much every facet of the game.
Rob Hwang - 125th Edition of the Cheez-It Bowl incoming.
Arizona State @ Washington State (Washington State wins 28-18)
TD_24 - Make no mistake, the Cougs beat the brakes off the Sun Devils. Good for them.
Christopher_h - This might just be me, but it looked like ASU was just not made for cold weather. Both quarterbacks were just a bit inaccurate the entire game. I guess this is the flip side to the Arizona desert magic.
Rob Hwang - Wazzu has really surprised me this year. I thought they would be decent but they have been really competitive all season long.
Any other thoughts?
TD_24 - Smiling through the pain (but at least the offensive staff got a shakeup)!
Piotr T Le - The 125th Big Game will be certainly "a game" innit?
Christopher_h - I'm hoping the conference immediately regrets their decision to abolish divisions, so I'm rooting for maximum chaos for the Pac-12 title game. However, I suspect we're headed for another Oregon-Utah matchup.
Rob Hwang - Atleast the new Warzone 2.0 and Pokemon game releases this week.
"Bk97 - I still cannot fathom Oregon's decision to try to convert 4th and 1 from their own 34 with a minute left in a tied game."
Can we also talk about the Oregon's last scoring possession? Aside from being one of the most impressive, clock killing drives I've ever witnessed at 10 minutes 33 seconds, running the ball 16 out of 20 plays, I cannot believe Oregon did not attempt to convert on 4th with 3 to gain at the UW 8-yard line. This made the decision to do so on 4th and 1 at Oregon 34 really wonder what the f**ck Lanning was thinking. Had they converted and scored a TD on that final scoring drive, Oregon would be up by 11 forcing UW to convert a 2-point try and a FG or two TDs. I get the logic of putting Oregon ahead by 7 with a FG. But to try to convert when they were tied up on 4th and 1 at the Oregon 34 made even less sense in the context of the decision not to convert on 4th and 3 at the UW 8.
Go Bears!
Win the futility bowl!
This is the rivalry game where the teams are the most evenly matched. However one lucky contestant will win!
Garlands for the conqueror. Cue up Palms of Victory.