The Pac-12 is at it again. They are eating there own and it may cost them a spot in the football playoff at the end of the year. Arizona/Oregon, USC/Arizona State, UCLA/Utah. Three games that changed the landscape of both divisions in the Pac-12 Conference.
With Arizona going into Eugene on Thursday and beating the Ducks. The Ducks were probably the best shot the Pac-12 had at landing a spot in the football playoff. No matter how good the Ducks are, they have flaws that may have caught up to them at some point before the playoff or during the playoff. Arizona took a physical approach to the Ducks and it paid off tremendously. They rushed three down linemen, dropped everybody else, or blitzed up the middle to make Marcus Mariotta feel very uncomfortable. Once the Wildcats walked off the field with the win, the landscape of the playoff changed immediately.
People around the country were down on the Big 10 for their lack of having a team that could crack the top four to get into the playoff. At the same time the Pac-12 were winning big non-conference games, i.e. UCLA/Texas, Oregon/Michigan State. The press was falling in love with the Pac-12. I was looking at these wins as impressive and great for the Pac-12, but at the same time I was telling myself "just wait for league play to start, they will eat their own." They have begun to cannibalize themselves after this past weekend.
Once the Duck game was over, I started looking at UCLA or even USC to gain some ground and propel themselves into the top 10 or even top 5 in the polls. Not that polls mean anything to the people that decide the playoff.
USC had the game in their control. They had shut the run down, DJ Foster was not getting anything on the ground. The Trojans were having an issue covering Jaelen Strong though. He had close to 100 yards receiving by halftime. He is arguably the best player that ASU has and the Trojans could not cover his shadow, let along him. We have all seen what happened at the end of that game. Trojan defense made bad decisions and then the defense decides not to go attack the ball at its highest point and Strong goes up and gets the ball at its pinnacle. He steals a victory away from the Trojans. The win would have propelled USC higher in the rankings and given them a good shot at winning the Pac-12 South division. Now they face an Arizona team that will be feeling very good and wanting to take control of the south and the Wildcats will be in front of the home fans.
UCLA had control of things in the Pac-12 South after destroying Arizona State. I looked at them as the team to beat in the south division. Well, so much for thinking. Utah comes to town and ruins that thought. The Utes get out to a quick two touchdown lead and then hang on to watch the Bruins miss a last second field goal to win the game. This win by Utah showed me that maybe the Bruin flaws may be like the Oregon flaws and it finally caught up with them and that UCLA may not be as good as advertised. The jury is obviously still out on the Bruins.
The jury may be out on the whole Pac-12 as well. It may be the second best conference in the country, but the parity that it shows may be just the thing that keeps it from the playoff. Some how, some way a team needs to emerge from either division and show some dominance. Time will tell what team, if any, will come to the forefront and show they belong in the playoff with a chance to play for the title.
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