5 Thoughts on PAC-12 Football Week 8

1. USC-ND: There's a lot on the line in this game as both teams have one loss and it's assumed that a second loss would keep the loser of this game out of the CFP. But that might not exactly be the case with either team. Both teams will have an opportunity to win out and end the season without a "bad" loss. But I think USC wins this one in a blowout (or a last-minute come-from-behind shocker). USC-ND is a mismatch of strengths. USC's strength on offense is the passing game (296.4 ypg) which lines up to ND's weakness on defense (231.2 ypg). ND's strength on offense is the rushing game (308.0 ypg) which is USC's stronger half of the defense (146.7 ypg). If you force a modest passing quarterback to pass a lot, he will throw a lot of interceptions and miss his receivers. If the game is tight, USC's passing offense has the ability to race down the field in under a minute. The oddsmakers have ND as a 3 1/2 point favorite, which is a fairly tight game. A tight game favors USC's passing offense.
2. The State of Washington: Woe is the state, whose two ranked power-five teams lost to unheralded teams. Road games are harder to win than home matches, but seeing Washington lose to Arizona State is curious. They can't be accused of looking ahead -- they have a bye week this week -- yet they came out flat and stayed flat. Perhaps they're not good enough to make it to the playoffs after all. WSU was always a streaky, uneven team, and it showed at Cal. Yes, they're a good team, but they're not a great team just yet. This week, they'll get all of their frustrations out by blowing up Colorado in Pullman.
3. What Happened to Colorado?: I'm dumbfounded at how bad Colorado is this year. They're on the razor's edge between finishing 6-6 and 5-7. Last year, they finished the regular season at 10-2 before losing in the PAC-12 Championship and the Alamo Bowl. Oh wait, I see it now. They were always pretenders, as opposed to contenders, as evidenced from last year's finish. I was fooled!
4. Oregon's Physical Game: Is nonexistent. So much for all that talk and fall camp push for a more physical team, eh? They got manhandled by Stanford. And as I said before, their secondary is questionable, getting ripped by Keller Chryst. They're not a bad team, but they're still firmly stuck in the middle tier of the PAC-12, especially without Justin Hebert. They're favored against UCLA, but do you really pick the Ducks secondary to beat Josh Rosen on the road? When Rosen is on fire, he's tough to beat, especially when he throws to Caleb Wilson. Until the Ducks show that they can win without Hebert, I'm having trouble seeing them reach a bowl game.
5. Power Rank: From best to worst, going into week 8, USC, UW, Stanford, WSU, Utah, Cal, ASU, Arizona, UCLA, Oregon, Colorado....
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   ....Oregon State.