Pac-12 Football: One Big Play Saves Washington and Utah
Questions. Questions. Questions.
Can one defensive play in October lead to a national championship?
Washington defensive back Mishael Powell made the play Saturday night that keeps the Huskies as one of the favorites to earn a berth in the College Football Playoff.
Without that play, Washington might well have lost the game.
At home. Against a team that was winless against FBS opponents. After a horrible offensive showing by the Huskies.
With a loss Washington would be left to scramble a CFP spot, dependent on results elsewhere.
This was the situation:
Arizona State, holding a 7-6 lead, had driven 63 yards, eaten up more than four minutes and faced a fourth-and-3 at the Washington 12-yard line with 8:26 left. A first down could have led to a touchdown and an eight-point lead against a Washington team whose offense had struggled the entire second half.
But this happened:
Those 15 seconds changed the game and perhaps the season for Washington. Washington sneaked away with a 15-7 win despite committing four turnovers. The Huskies remained ranked No. 5 in the AP top-25 released Sunday. And Washington might continue to be projected as one of the four teams that will earn CFP berths.
Obviously there is a lot of season left. A lot of things can happen to reshape the College Football Playoff. The first CFP rankings will not be announced for another week, October 31. But keep that play in the back of your mind if the Huskies end up facing Georgia in the national championship game.
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Is Michael Penix Jr. still the favorite to win the Heisman Trophy?
The simple answer is “No.”
Penix had a huge lead in the Heisman race on virtually every betting site after last week’s games. But after going 27-for-42 for 275 yards, no touchdowns and two interceptions at home against the worst team in the Pac-12, Penix fell behind Michigan quarterback J.J. McCarthy on most betting sites. DraftKings, FanDuel, BetMGM, Bet365, BetOnline and PointsBet all list McCarthy with the shortest odds to win the Heisman, with Penix second.
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When is holding not holding?
One final note on Washington’s slim victory: A missed call helped Washington pull out the win,
A few plays before Powell’s game-changing pick-six, Arizona State had a first-and-10 at the Washington 19-yard line. That's when ASU quarterback Trenton Bourguet threw a pass intended for Troy Omeire that fell incomplete near the goal-line. A flag was dropped for defensive holding or pass interference on Washington defensive back Jabbar Muhammad. But the flag was picked up, no penalty was charged, and three plays later, Bourguet tossed the pick-six.
What do you think?
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How is Utah surviving with Bryson Barnes at quarterback?
Kyle Whittingham announced after Saturday’s game that Cam Rising will not play this season, leaving it up to Bryson Barnes to carry the load. And in a conference loaded with elite quarterbacks, Barnes somehow has kept the Utes in contention for a third straight Pac-12 title.
Barnes’ only offers out of high school were from Western Illinois and Benedictine (and if you know Benedictine’s location and its conference you are officially a college football nerd). So he walked on at Utah, and was a non-scholarship player for three years before getting a scholarship before this season.
Only one current Pac-12 starting quarterback (Arizona State’s Trenton Bourguet) has a worse passer rating than Barnes at the moment, but he came up big against USC on the Trojans’ home field Saturday night. He threw three touchdown passes with one interception and ran for 75 yards – and he came up with the play of the game.
After USC scored to take a 32-31 lead with 1:46 left in the game, Barnes drove the Utes 63 yards for the game-winning field goal. The key play came on a second-and-15 play from the USC 45-yard line with 16 seconds left.
And Barnes did this:
That one play essentially won the game. Barnes’ 26-yard scamper, which ended with five seconds left, set up Cole Becker’s game-winning 38-yard field goal on the game’s final play.
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Can Barnes do it at home against No. 8 Oregon?
Barnes won a duel with Caleb Williams, but can he beat Oregon’s Bo Nix next week in Salt Lake City? The Utes have won 18 straight home games, the second-longest active streak in the country, behind only Georgia. But the Ducks have a better defense than USC, rank second in the country in both scoring offense (47.0 points per game) and total offense and have committed just one turnover all season, the fewest in the country.
Nix is third in the country in passer rating and first in completion percentage (78.4%) after another solid performance in the 38-24 win over Washington State, and two Oregon players rushed for more than 100 yards in that game -- Bucky Irving (129) and Jordan James (103).
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Will Ethan Garbers be UCLA’s starting quarterback the rest of the season?
UCLA coach Chip Kelly surprised some folks by replacing Dante Moore with Ethan Garbers as the Bruins starting quarterback against Stanford. And he continued to surprise some people after the game by not declaring that Garbers will be his starter next week against Colorado.
Garbers went 20-for-28 with two touchdowns and no interceptions while rushing for 51 yards in a 42-7 road blowout of Stanford.
Afterward Kelly said Moore’s performance against Oregon State, when he threw three interceptions in the loss, was not a factor in the decision to replace him as a starter. Kelly said Garbers had earned the start against the Cardinal based on his play during practice that week, adding that Moore was “a little banged up.” Nonetheless Moore got some late-game playing time late in Saturday’s game after the outcome had been decided.
In any case, Kelly said that the starter in future games will depend on “who’s healthy and available.”
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Will USC finish the season with four or five losses?
USC’s two-point loss to Utah dropped the Trojans to No. 24 in Sunday’s AP rankings, the fifth straight week USC has slipped in the rankings. Five weeks ago, USC was No. 5, then No. 8 the next week, No. 9 the week after that, No. 10 the following week and No. 18 last week.
After next week’s game against Cal, the Trojans finish with games against No. 5 Washington, No. 8 Oregon and No. 23 UCLA. It seems possible USC could wind up with five losses and finish well outside the top 25.
Remember when folks claimed USC had a good shot at College Football Playoff?
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Pac-12 Player of the Year Standings
--1. Quarterback Bo Nix, Oregon – Next week’s game in Salt Lake City against Utah’s tough defense will tell us plenty.
--2. Quarterback Michael Penix Jr., Washington – Saturday’s poor game knocks him down a peg, but there’s plenty of time to recover.
--3 Quarterback Caleb Williams, USC – His 23 touchdown passes rank second in the country, and he ranks fourth nationally in passer rating for a team still in contention for a conference title.
--4. Defensive end Jonah Elliss, Utah – Elliss is second in the nation in sacks (10.0) and tied for first in tackles for loss (14.0) for a team that relies on defense.
--5. Wide receiver Rome Odunze, Washington, and wide receiver Tony Franklin, Oregon – They rank third and sixth in the nation, respectively, in receiving yards per game. Franklin has more TD catches (eight to Odunze’s six), but Odunze is a better kick returner.
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Top Five Pac-12 Teams
(We rank based on which teams have had the best results, not which teams we believe are the best teams)
--1. Washington (7-0, 4-0 Pac-12) – The Huskies had a lousy game Saturday, but they are the Pac-12’s only unbeaten team.
--2. Oregon (6-1, 3-1) – One statistic sticks out: one turnover for the season. Every other team in the country has at least three turnovers.
--3. Oregon State (6-1, 3-1) – Convincing wins over Utah and UCLA more than offset a three-point road loss to Washington State
--4. Utah (6-1, 3-1) – The Utes rank 10th in the Pac-12 and 96th in the country in scoring, but somehow they are contending for a title.
--5. UCLA (5-2, 2-2) – Yes, we’ve moved USC out of the top five, even though the Trojans are second in the Pac-12 standings.
Cover photo of Bryson Barnes by Kirby Lee, USA TODAY Sports
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