Falling behind: The Pac

Week three certainly delivered a few lessons. One of these was not the fact that I'm frequently WRONG when making predictions. You already knew that. Instead, the most important development of the week was the disastrous performance of the Pac 10 Conference.

Fairly or not, the Pac 10 in recent years has been thought of by much of the country as "USC and the Nine Dwarfs." This week served to further that notion. USC lived up to its reputation by delivering a high-profile beating to Ohio State. The rest of the league lived down to its rep by delivering performances ranging from lukewarm and uninspired to abysmal.

Here's a recap of each team's week three, listed in order of last year's conference standings:

USC: The Trojans dominated Ohio State 35-3, rendering all the preseason hype about this game as just that. When the Buckeyes faltered -- a touchdown called back due to a holding penalty and a subsequent missed field goal while down just 14-3 -- USC responded by swiftly and mercilously crushing any hope of an Ohio State victory. Capitalizing on opponent's miscues in such a fashion is a trait championship teams must have, and the Trojans showed it on Saturday. If this team keeps up that kind of intensity throughout Pac 10 play -- which for the record it hasn't done throughout pretty much the entire Pete Carroll era -- then no one in the conference will come close to catching this giant.

Arizona State: Lost at home to UNLV, 23-20 in overtime. Forget whether the Sun Devils were looking ahead to Georgia. Even with a sluggish performance they should have dominated the Rebels. As SMQ -- er, Dr. Saturday -- put it, nothing jumps out in the box score. It looks like ASU simply lost to UNLV. That's scary enough in itself, but with big, bad Georgia coming to town next week, the Sun Devils now must fight and claw to stave off a tailspin.

Oregon State: The only team other than USC to handle its business this week, the Beavers rudely dispatched Hawaii 45-7. Of course, this victory would have been much more impressive but for two things. First, these are not your slightly older brother's Hawaii Warriors, as evidenced by a mere 53 points through three games. Second, Oregon State entered the week 0-2 and off of embarassing defeats at Stanford and Penn State. Still, the Beavers get credit for performing to expectations.

Oregon: Won -- barely -- at Purdue, 32-26 in overtime. Assuming the Ducks can keep winning (and based on their health and experience at quarterback that is very much an assumption) this may end up being a mere footnote in an otherwise solid season. This was, after all, a win on the road against a BCS opponent. But the Ducks didn't assert themselves as the head of the Pac 10's upper middle class. Sure, they gashed the Boilermakers for 307 yards on the ground, but they gave up 180 rushing yards to Purdue's Kory Sheets and needed a missed field goal at the end of regulation to even make it to overtime.

UCLA: The most embarassing Pac 10 defeat this week -- and that's saying something -- was reserved for UCLA. Certainly there's no shame in losing to a tough BYU team in Provo. But 59-0?!? There's little more to be said beyond that. Except for those unfortunate Bruins who trekked to the Beehive state to watch this debacle, most UCLA fans probably sighed, turned off the TV in the second quarter and wandered to the beach. Fans in Tennessee, on the other hand...

Arizona: If ever there were a week for Arizona to gain some momentum under Mike Stoops, this was it. The setup was so good: Every other conference team (except USC) suffers varrying degrees of FAIL while the Wildcats quietly improve to 3-0. But Peter Bean knows what he's talking about: Mike Stoops loses football games -- this one at New Mexico, 36-28. It doesn't help that Albuquerque at night is a weird place. The Lobos used a halfback pass in the first quarter to seize momentum and, for much of the second half, this one wasn't as close as the final score indicates. More of the same so far for the Wildcats.

Cal: Blame the start time, blame the heat, blame whatever you want. Cal rolled up 400+ yards in the passing game yet somehow still managed to be dominated by Maryland. Again, the final score of 35-27 doesn't indicate how badly the Bears were outplayed. Quite frankly, Maryland looked like the better team -- and not just on that particular day. That's a credit to the Terps but a most disconcerting thought for Berkely. Going into this game, the ACC's 2008 credibility looked to be on its last legs. This game helped put the Pac 10's rep in a similar position -- at least in my eyes.

Washington State: We knew the Cougs were going to be bad this season, but I had Baylor pegged as an automatic win going into this season. Instead, Wazzu was bulldozed 45-17 and gave up 217 rushing yards on just 11 carries to Baylor's freshman quarterback, Robert Griffin. Not that it impacts the league's image overall -- the Cougars were widely expected to be a last-place team -- but Wazzu is now in jeopardy of going winless if it can't beat I-AA Portland State.

Stanford: Lost 31-14 at TCU. This is about right. In fact, this loss would probably have gone unnoticed had it not been for the league-wide week three disaster. The Cardinal kept it close for awhile and went into halftime tied 14-14, but all the second-half points belonged to the Horned Frogs. Stanford managed just 193 total yards. TCU is a tough non-conference opponent and the Cardinal were not expected to win this game. But if Stanford is to capitalize on any residual momentum from its surprising opening-night victory over Oregon State, it will have to make hay in the upcomming weeks against San Jose State and...

Washington: After UW's 55-14 loss to Oklahoma, it, as they say, is all over but the crying for the Huskies. Questions of "if" have become questions of "when." Ty Willingham will be fired. The team will finish below .500. Tyee Club boosters will sit on their private docks, sip Merlot and gently shed tears into Lake Washington. It didn't have to be this way. Washington could have scheduled Idaho, San Jose State and Northwestern Montana Technical College in non-conference play and had a prayer at bowl eligibility -- particularly with the aforementioned state of the Pac 10. But Washington was stuck playing world beaters like Oklahoma, who on Saturday looked every bit as good as USC (at least when playing UW). Just another reason, that the Pac 10 is in trouble.