Week four of the college football season is over for the Pac-12, which was a bit of a letdown for some teams that impressed in week three. The Inscriber Magazine will now reflect here on what happened on Saturday.
USC
The 7th ranked Trojans did not impress against the Oregon State Beavers.
USC somehow survived with a three point win. Quarterback Caleb Williams was ineffective, throwing for 180 yards, yet completing on 16 passes on 36 attempts. Running Back Travis Dye continued his hot stretch with 17 carries for 133 yards and a touchdown. The defense led the way with four interceptions of Beavers quarterback Chance Nolan.
Utah
Arizona State made the headlines with head coach Herm Edwards getting fired. There were also reports that information was leaked to opponents as well. Either way it did not have any affect on the Utes, who took care of business against the Sun Devils.
Quarterback Cameron Rising threw for 260 yards and two touchdowns, his only blemish was an interception. For Arizona State, Emory Jones threw for 258 yards, yet threw two interceptions, was sacked five times, and he threw only one touchdown pass.
Oregon
Over the years one of the biggest criticisms of the Ducks has been taking a bad loss during Pac-12 play. It nearly happened yesterday, as the unranked Washington State Cougars, nearly did the improbable.
Bo Nix led the way with his arm as he threw for 428 yards, three touchdowns and an interception. Cougars quarterback Cameron Ward was equally impressive, throwing for 375 yards, yet he did throw two interceptions and got sacked four times.
The Ducks were able to run the football successfully as Bucky Irving and Noah Whittington combined for 22 carries for 150 yards. For the Cougars it was tough to run the football as Nakia Watson and Jaylen Jenkins combined for 16 carries for 49 yards and a touchdown.
Washington
Michael Penix Jr continues his dark horse heisman candidacy with another impressive performance, this time against the Stanford Cardinal. He threw for 309 yards and two touchdowns. On the season he now has thrown for 1,388 yards, completed 64.3 percent of his pass, and thrown 12 touchdowns to 1 interception.
Running back Wayne Tualapapa also impressed with 120 yards on only 13 carries and he also scored a touchdown.
As for Stanford, quarterback Tanner McKee threw three touchdowns and an interception, he wound up with 286 yards passing. Most of them came after trailing 30-7 at the end of the third quarter.
California
Freshman Cal running back Jaydn Ott is in line to win another Pac-12 Freshman of the Week Award. On Saturday he had his most impressive performance and the third most rushing total in a game in Bears history. Ott carried the ball 19 times for 274 yards and three touchdowns against the Arizona Wildcats.
Yet, for much of the game the Wildcats kept the game close, yet had no answer when it came to stopping the run.
Arizona’s Quarterback Jayden de Laura threw for 401 yards, two touchdowns and two interceptions. Jacob Cowing and Dorian Singer each went over the century mark in receiving yards. As for California, Jack Plummer threw for 245 yards and three touchdowns.
UCLA
UCLA eked out a win against South Alabama last Saturday.
Facing the Colorado Buffaloes was not a problem for the Bruins. Running back Zach Charbonnet ran for three touchdowns on nine carries and finished with 104 yards rushing. Dorian Thompson-Robinson was efficient completing 19 of 23 passes for 234 yards and two touchdown.
The Buffaloes at least put a few more points on the board, yet were not able to protect quarterback Owen McCown who got sacked five times and threw an interception. He ended up with 258 yards passing with only one touchdown pass thrown.
UCLA did an outstanding job stopping the run as Charlie Offerdahl carried the ball 14 times for 37 yards.