EDITOR'S PICKS
The Pac-12 should just stop playing football (except Oregon)
Let's look back at what transpired in the first three weeks on the West Coast: The league's most visible program, USC, fired its coach, Clay Helton, after two games. Washington, ranked No. 20 in the preseason, lost to FCS program Montana in its opener. BYU went 3-0 against Pac-12 foes, taking down Arizona, Utah and Arizona State. Half of the league's 12 teams already have two or more losses, and No. 3 Oregon is the lone unbeaten team left and the only hope for the College Football Playoff. The Ducks might want to ask the Big 12 if it still has room.What happened Saturday night was inexcusable, even for a league that has struggled to remain relevant in the CFP era. UCLA, which looked so good against LSU, surrendered two 75-yard touchdown drives in the final 7½ minutes to blow a pair of leads in a 40-37 loss against Fresno State at the Rose Bowl. The Bulldogs needed only 40 seconds within the game's final minute to score the winning touchdown. Meanwhile, Arizona State had four turnovers and 16 penalties in its 27-17 loss at BYU.
And those weren't even the worst performances by Pac-12 schools. Colorado had 63 yards of offense in an ugly 30-0 loss at home to Minnesota. The Buffaloes had 82 passing yards and minus-19 rushing. They had nearly as many three-and-outs (five) as first downs (six). Their leading rusher was backup quarterback Drew Carter, who had 9 yards on two carries.
"Offensively, we're struggling in a number of areas," Buffaloes coach Karl Dorrell said. "And it's not just the quarterback. It's protection, it's the run game, it's receivers, it's backs, it's everything."
Arizona dropped its 15th straight game, the longest losing streak in the FBS, this time against FCS program Northern Arizona, 21-19 at home. Afterward, according to The Associated Press, a Lumberjacks coach in the press box shouted, "We [expletive] run this state!" Hard to argue with that.
Article from ESPN!
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