(Written by kencraw)

Here are my thoughts on the competition across the conference:

1. UCLA at Cal:
   • I’d write a lot more, but since I wasn’t at the game and haven’t yet been able to watch it on the Tivo, (when’s the last time THAT happened?) I’ll just give a couple quick thoughts.
   • Looks like this Cal defense is for real. 144 yards and 26 net rushing!?! Unbelievably awesome. This is going to keep the Bears in a lot of games (and will likely get us some more great defensive recruits late in this year’s recruiting game).
   • Sounds like the offense was hit and miss, particularly in the 2nd half. For some reason I find myself surprisingly optimistic that they’ll find their rhythm as the season continues.
   • I’ve got a lot of optimism about USC in LA next week right now that they’ve lost two in a row, are unranked, and probably already realize they’ve officially got nothing to fight for. Plus they look pretty mediocre.
2. USC at Stanford:
   • What did I say last week? (“Let their be no mistake, USC is downright mediocre.”) So the question is, is Stanford similarly mediocre? I mean, Stanford looked great in the 1st half versus Oregon, but they were also gifted a lot and got shutdown in the 2nd half.
   • That’s another way of saying these two team were pretty equally matched.
   • USC for two weeks in a row lost on a last minute field goal drive. That defense is not well conditioned nor all that impressive early.
3. Oregon at WSU:
   • This was somewhat of a letdown game, but it does raise an eyebrow that Oregon’s offense was it’s least potent of the year versus WSU and WSU put up 23 points (3 TD’s and a FG) even though Oregon won convincingly.
   • And that’s all I have to say about that.
4. ASU at UW:
   • Washington really needed this win and didn’t get it.
   • Two weeks in a row ASU has gone on the road and played tough.
   • Looks like my preseason prediction for UW is right (weaker than expected) but that ASU is the positive surprise of the conference. I’m more and more glad this game is in Berkeley.
   • Note that Threet only threw one INT in this game. I think his consistency of play is going to be key to what games ASU wins.
5. OSU at Arizona:
   • Looks like OSU is following their usual trend of coming out of their non-conference schedule far from unscathed but ready to kick everyone’s rear in the conference. That’s a pretty good feat to go down to Tucson and win.
   • As for Arizona, live by the sword (beat Cal in the last minute), die by the sword (lose a close one to OSU).
   • In many ways this is good news for the Bears as they need Arizona to lose a few to help their bowl situation. Of course they still need to beat the Beavers, but that’s still in their control.

Go Bears!