5 Thoughts for September 27, 2015 (all about football)

1. What USC did last weekend against Stanford, was not nearly as bad as what Oregon did against Utah, for two reasons: (1) This was Oregon's second loss making it practically impossible to make it back to the playoffs; (2) The Ducks were blown out of the water by 42 points -- more than the total number of points scored by Stanford against USC. The loss was so bad, they were dropped out of the AP Poll and dropped to 24th in the Coaches Poll. Sagarin's Rating has them at 43 -- a predictor of future outcomes. Conversely, Utah's scary good, especially on the defensive line.
2. Speaking of USC, you could not wish for a better outcome! They didn't just whip the Sun Devils, but they did it in style on all sides of the ball, whether on offense, defense or special teams. Even though Cody Kessler threw his first interception of the season, he's now rocking a 15 TD to 1 INT ratio! This just goes to show that the team and the coaches were capable of dominating Stanford, but fell far short of what they were capable of. Everyone else seems to acknowledge this, by pushing USC back up a couple of spots (16th in the AP, 17th in the Coaches), and the second-highest 1-loss team behind Alabama. Jeff Sagarin has USC 4th. 
3. UCLA, with losses of Eddie Vanderdoes, Fabien Moreau and Myles Jack for the season, showed that they haven't skipped a beat, manhandling Arizona in Tuscon. Why write about the Bruins? Because the fight for the PAC-12 South and potentially for a playoff spot appears to be a tight one between UCLA, USC and Utah. All three of these teams have shown explosive scoring and good defense against decent PAC-12 teams.
4. PAC-12 power rankings from top to bottom: UCLA, Utah, Stanford, USC, Cal, Oregon, Arizona, ASU, Washington, OSU, Colorado, WSU. Sorry Cougars, but until you beat a PAC-12 team, you're in my cellar, as the memory of your loss to Portland State remains.
5. Saturday afternoon, Kam Chancellor was officially added back to the roster and Dion Bailey was waived. On Sunday, the Seahawks shut out Chicago Bears, but the reason for the shutout is the play of the linebackers, not the return of Chancellor. In the first two games, the safeties / secondary made 13 / 21 and 14 / 24 tackles, respectively, against St. Louis and Green Bay; against the Bears they made just 4 / 13 tackles. The game was won near the line, and Jimmy Clausen is a lousy quarterback. On offense, Darrell Bevell figured it out: Jimmy Graham was targeted 8 times, with Graham making 7 catches and a touchdown. Dropping Christine Michael in favor of Thomas Rawls paid off against the Bears, when Marshawn Lynch was pulled from the game due to a hamstring injury, as Rawls assumed the role of Beast Mode 2.0.