I don’t normally throw around the phrase, “made a
deal with the devil,” without referring to the 1997 Florida
Marlins or to my buddy Ben landing on Boardwalk the first trip
around every freaking time, but this devil-opment (wow, could I get
any lamer?) is worthy.
Arizona State, a team Bud Selig might have contracted last year
if he were Pac-10 commissioner, is sitting atop the conference
standings. The 6-2, 3-0 Sun Devils came back from down 21-0 to pull
a 45-42 stunner over Oregon in Eugene and have an offense
that’s gone for 35 points or more in six games.
Holy Jake Plummer, Batman!
“To go in there with our team and to win the game is one
thing, but to come from 21 points down and win it like we did when
we had a lot of chances to quit, we couldn’t be prouder of
our guys,” ASU head coach Dirk Koetter said.
No word on whether or not Koetter had the Joe Torre 2002
what-the-hell-just-happened-here face as he was uttering this, but
either way, you’ve got to like the way ASU is trying to
out-Pac-10 the Pac-10, and with a sophomore quarterback, no
less.
Gunslinger Andrew Walter hawked 53 balls in the air and set a
single-game conference record for passing yardage with 536. Walter
is eighth in the nation in pass efficiency.
As always in the Pac-10, though, you’ve got to take every
winning streak with the proverbial grain of NaCl. ASU has
Washington at home Saturday and then goes up to Wazzu the following
week.
Lose those two games, and the Sun Devils’ possible
flash-in-the-pan season might go the way of the 1998 Marlins, Sisqo
and Gary Hart in the 1988 Democratic primaries.
Maybe next year … again
Thrilling as it was to see Oregon beaten at home, the loss
knocked the Ducks from the ranks of the unbeaten and in doing so,
once again killed almost any hope of a Pac-10 team landing in the
BCS Championship game.
With eight teams across the nation still undefeated and polling
traditionally skewed (to put it kindly) against the Pac-10,
it’ll be a tough task climbing anywhere near the top two
spots in the BCS standings.
The best hopes are the two teams with only one loss, Washington
State (No. 7 in the first BCS ranking release) and Oregon (No. 15),
and they play each other Nov. 9.
Our Game of the Week
No. 15 USC (5-2, 3-1) at No. 14 Oregon (6-1, 2-1), 12:30 p.m.,
ABC (regional). The Trojans bounced Washington out of the
conference race last week and now unthinkably could do the same
thing to the Ducks, who are still reeling after their 11-game
winning streak was snapped.
Elsewhere in the Pac-10
No. 9 Washington State (6-1, 3-0) at Arizona (3-4, 0-3), 6:15
p.m., FSN (national)
Stanford (2-4, 1-2) at UCLA (4-3, 1-2), 3:30 p.m., FSN
(national)
Cal (5-3, 2-2) at Oregon State (4-3, 0-3), 1:00 p.m.
Before you go …
Cal tied a Pac-10 record for penalty yards in a game Saturday
with 195 and still won.
I didn’t think this was humanly possible, outside of
intentionally roughing the passer over and over again to mock a
friend who you’re beating 49-7 in Madden ’93.