Hi, I’m a Muse. Get it???
Hello Followers. Hope you had a great weekend.
As for me, well, I had the great fortune of having just about NOTHING on the docket or honey-do list all weekend. And that meant that I had lots and lots of opportunities to sit on the couch and watch some football!!!!!!
So, if you care to check out a few Monday thoughts and reflections in quasi-dot.dot.dot. format, then click on the jump.
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Followers, in case you don’t follow me on Twitter, lets quickly re-cap how I spent the weekend…. Friday night started and ended with the Cougs. Then, after watching the tail end of College Gameday, I watched the CAL-Ohio State game. Following that game, I watched a great deal of the Oregon-Tennessee Tech game as well as good portions of the Huskies’ massacre of Portland State. Then once day turned to dusk, it was time to watch USC-Stanford, while clicking back-and-forth to watch the end of the Arizona State-Mizzou match-up as well. Then, on Sunday, I watched the Arizona, UCLA, and Utah games on rewind. (I almost feel like Ted Miller!)
Anyhow, my primary conclusion after watching those games: The Pac-12 is up. WAY up. And so, if we have any chance of exceeding last year’s 4-8 season, then we need to figure things out in a HURRY—starting this weekend against Colorado. What is particularly important is to reverse two disturbing trends: (a) Our offense’s inability to score points in the second half; and (b) Our defense’s ability to hold teams down (with respect to points) in the first half. Beyond that, we can all circle that Oregon State game as THE KEY game in our season. Win that one, and we need to only steal one game before the Apple Cup in order for the AC to have bowl implications.
Onto the notes:
- The Defensive performance put on by Stanford on Saturday night was one for the ages. In my mind, their performance ranked right up there with the SC and UW National Championship teams of 2004 and 1991, respectively, as well as the Desert Swarm and Palouse Posse defenses of the 1990’s. Of course, their performance was NOT good news for the University of Washington who play the Trees a week from Thursday—a game that is about 5 days too late for any let down to occur. If UW’s performance against LSU was any indication of how they perform against a run-first, defense-heavy outfit, next weekend’s C-Link double header (UW-Stanford; Oregon-WSU) figures to be a battle of what Washington team can suffer the least embarrassment on National T. V. My bet as of now: The Cougs.
- I am very interested to see what happens in the “Heartbreak Hotel” bowl this Saturday, when CAL faces USC in Los Angeles. Winner of that game has a lot to play for moving forward while the loser will face a BIG uphill climb. Although there are still plenty of opportunities for Tedford to right the ship in the coming weeks, a blow-out loss on Saturday figures to put him right on the deck of the “Hot Tub Hot Seat.” In my mind, he should already be there—as the decision to send his beleaguered kicker out there for a 42 yard field goal on 4th and 1 from the 25, when his team was DOMINATING on the ground, was the type of gutless play calling that costs coaches their jobs. That said, CAL’s ground game looks to be clicking, so if they had someone better than Maynard, I’d like their chances this weekend. But since they don’t, I expect SC to handle them in the second half.
- Want to know who the best quarterback in the Pac-12 is right now? Look no further than Mr. Matt Scott of the University of Arizona Mildcats. The guy is playing out of his mind right now, and with that 3-3-5 defense of Jeff Casteel looking fast and wiley, I am looking for Arizona to have a competitive game with Oregon this weekend. Look for a 51-38 type effort in Eugene this weekend, and if you’re going to Vegas, take the over.
- Finally, I will be watching this weekend’s “Surprise!!!!! We actually might be really good this year” bowl between Oregon State and UCLA with great interest. Although I have Arizona ranked higher than UCLA in my own Pac-12 rankings, UCLA is starting to look like a legit contender in the Pac-12 South to me, and at minimum, looks like a 9 win team. Meanwhile, Oregon State looms as perhaps the biggest unknown in the conference as Wisconsin continues to struggle to score points. We’re going to learn a lot about both teams this weekend, and in so doing, will learn a lot more about our own prospects in the process.
This week’s Pac-12 Rankings:
- Stanford.
- Oregon
- Arizona
- USC
- UCLA
- Arizona State
- Oregon State
- Utah
- California
- Washington
- Washington State
- Colorado
All for now. Go Cougs.
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