The top team in the conference gets pushed by an 0-5 squad, a top 15 team falls and Arizona gets 2 defensive touchdowns in the 2nd half as a wild week 6 of Pac 12 concludes and the conference continues to shape up.
#10 Washington 31, UCLA 24
In what was expected to be a comfortable UW win, UCLA showed something they haven’t showed all season. Some life on Offense. DTR had his best game so far as he was 27/38 for 272 yards and 2 touchdowns. Defensively, UCLA was able to limit Washington, only giving up 7 points as they were led by Adarius Pickett who finished with an astounding 16 total tackles.. For a safety. Krys Barnes also had a very nice game, totaling 9 tackles, 3 for loss, and a sack. Ben Burr-Kirven continues to show his dominance as a tackling machine as he racked up 15 more as he is the favorite to win defensive player of the year and potentially the Dick Butkus Award. Myles Gaskin ran for 116 yards and added a couple touchdowns including the last one to give Washington enough room to pull it out.
Utah 40, #14 Stanford 21
Utah showed that they can play with anybody in the Pac 12. After back to back losses to the state of Washington, and then coming into Palo Alto, they came in with a statement win in their mind. Utah did it with the running game as Zach Moss rushed for a buck sixty and 2 touchdowns as the Utes in total rushed for 222 yards. Tyrone Huntley didnt have an amazing game, but it wasn’t needed. He found Samson Nacua for a 57 yard touchdown halfway in the 4th to put any chance of a comeback to rest. KJ Costello threw for 341 yards and found someone in the end zone twice. Unfortunately, one of those was to someone in a white jersey as Jaylon Johnson had a 100 yard pick 6 that changed the momentum in this game. JJ Arcega Whiteside, Kaden Smith, and Trenton Irwin all finished with 100 recieving yards. Stanford’s rushing game was their achillies heel as they mustered 1.5 ypc and 42 yards. Utah wpn in all 3 aspects of this game and put the rest of the conference on note with this win.
#21 Colorado 28, Arizona State 21
Laviska Shenault Jr. has come from out of no where it seems like as he scored every touchdown for the Buffaloes as they improve to 5-0 in beating their best competition they’ve yet to face. Shenault Jr. had 13 catches for 127 yards and 2 touchdowns, while also rushing for 13 yards and 2 touchdowns. Eno Benjamin continues to show why he is one of the best in the conference rushing for 120 yards and 2 touchdowns. Trayvon Mcmillian also had a pretty good day rushing for 136 yards as Arizona State continues to slide down after a strong start to the season. Colorado travels to the Coliseum to face USC. ASU looks to bounce back at home against Stanford.
Washington State 56, Oregon State 37
Another week, another 400+ yard and 5 touchdown performance for Gardner Minshew. He spread the ball around as 10 different players caught a pass as Davontavean Martin caught 8 for 119 yards and 2 touchdowns. Oregon State once again came away with alot of points, but cannot seem to stop anybody’s offense It also didn’t help that when they did force a punt, Jermar Jefferson muffed one that would be recovered in the end zone for a Washington State touchdown. Speaking of Jefferson, outside of that he showed he’s just as good as Benjamin, rushing for 138 yards and amassing 4 touchdowns. It’s a Mike Leach tradition to air it out and he’s found Luke Falk’s replacement that is just as good if not better than Falk. 5-1 Washington State has a bye week before going back to Pullman to face Oregon. Oregon State has the week off, before they meet up with Cal.
Arizona 24, Cal 17
Arizona’s defense came to play and they played very aggressive throughout. They picked off Brandon Mcilwain 3 times and forced 4 total turnovers. 2 of the interceptions came from Scottie Young Jr., including a pick 6 late in the 4th quarter to give the Wildcats a 10 point lead with 3:13 left in the game. Arizona didn’t muster a ton of offense (265 total yards), but with a defense that gives up 17 points and nearly outscores the opposing team’s offense, UA was able to relax on offense. When Mcilwain wasn’t throwing to the team in red, he was 32/40 for 315 yards. This was a big time performance for a Arizona team that is picking up some momentum but with a tough slate still to go. After a promising 3-0 start, Cal has slipped up a bit and it is looking for a win at home against winless UCLA team, that showed some promise last week against a top 10 team.
