David Marsh

And I think Bassa is a much better coverage back than Flowe and that is where we are really hurting right now. The secondary is improving but out soft underbelly is the coverage by our linebackers.

Oregon plays both in the regular season this year... that alone is a boon to USC who dodges us. I don't care who wins to be honest but I think it is important that it is a close game so that the loser stays ranked. Wins over ranked opponents is key for Oregon and having teams ranked is also key for the Pac-12. As UCLA is leaving the Pac in a few years I feel their being ranked is less important than Utah in the long run for the conference. But the loser of Utah-UCLA could very well be the knock out blow for them for the Conference Championship game. Of course assuming Oregon will beat them both.

He has been dinged up the past couple of weeks and has been working on recovering. I feel Flowe is a bit of a glass cannon as an athlete. For those who don't know the gaming reference a glass cannon is high damage but also fragile. Flowe is an absolute wrecking ball but he seems to get himself injured to varying degrees all the time. He also isn't the most controlled when on the field which is part of him getting injured I suspect. He can find himself out of his assignment rather easily... but he usually makes up for it by flying to the ball and demolishing the ball carrier.

If the USC offensive line wasn't so porus I would agree... it will give Williams the chance to take some shots and score some points. USC has watched Oregon pick apart Washington State in the open field and watched Oregon take some successful shots down field. So USC will score some points. However, if you watch Nix take his shots down field, watch the offensive line. Nix was clean and had loads of time to set his feet and make his throw. Washington State will be aggressive and bust through that USC offensive line that is a far cry from Oregon's line. Williams will not consistently have the time he needs to make those passes. He is going to take some hits and he may even throw a pick or two because he forces a throw when his feet aren't set or he is rushed into a throw. If USC's offensive line can give Williams' time then it does bend towards USC winning... but I'm not convinced they will give him the time he needs.

I'm in agreement here. USC survived Oregon State because the Beavers threw 4 picks. Washington State has a better quarterback and just as disruptive of a defense. ASU even posed USC some problems last week and USC didn't pull away until the 4th quarter really. Washington State is well coached and hungry for a big win over a ranked opponent. Oregon was able to claw back into the game because Oregon has probably the most talented and complete roster in the Pac-12, Utah might have just as a complete roster but is not as talented on paper. USC has vulnerable offensive and defensive lines and Washington State will gleefully exploit. Expect to see Caleb Williams with grass stains on his jersey with this game.

Its a crazy metrics game. Some of the top six would be five-stars but there is not a set number. Height, weight, performance and any other measurement you can think of goes into creating these rankings. Even then all these rankings vary from recruiting service. In any given year there is usually a coupe five stars at any position but that isn't guaranteed by any stretch. Some years can have more five-stars than others... same goes for four-stars. Three-stars are more nebulous as there are usually a ton of three-star recruits so I assume there is a minimum for being ranked. There are two-star recruits but usually when you start to get into two-star recruit status it is by chance a player is even ranked as a two-star at all and not just considered unranked. This year is also pretty thin in terms of quality offensive line talent so there are a few five-stars but no where near as many as there are in a "normal" year. This year there are fewer ready-made linemen and a lot more lower ranked linemen who would be considered projects for coaches.

It's all down to that Beaver quarterback. If they had a high quality quarterback they would probably be in my top 4, if not top 3. They are a solid team otherwise, but a quarterback is too important. The crazy thing is that of all the teams that rank above the Beavers only UCLA has a non-transfer quarterback. Utah's quarterback is not a transfer this year but he was last year so he did not start his career at Utah. It feels telling how the quarterback position is so important that outsourcing the development to other schools and bringing in quarterbacks as transfers has become super effective. It makes you think what if Oregon State went quarterback shopping like the majority of the conference....

It would take a rule change at the highest level but the ramification for sitting out with the intention of transferring should be able to result in a loss of scholarship immediately. Coaches can't make them play but it's not fair on the team if players want to sit out to transfer. The transfer port needs windows and can't just always be open. There are a lot of rule changes that need to take effect.

Or maybe a deeper hatred of USC because I really feel they are going to get exposed this weekend. I might be wrong.

These rankings are subjective and a team's record only plays part of what goes into where I place them in my ranking, some teams are just better or worse than what their record suggests. This is also a snapshot look at where I feel these teams are at this moment, as if these teams were to play tomorrow they should beat those below them and lose to those ahead of them but nothing is obviously set in stone, teams grow as the season goes on. See Week 4's rankings here. Please disagree or comment on these rankings because that is where so much of the fun is with these rankings. 12. Colorado (0-5) - Colorado is bad, so bad they have finally fired their head coach and this is now a bad team that is truly lacking leadership. It will be a shock if they win any games this year. So good news to teams playing Colorado, this is almost a bye week. 11. Arizona State (1-4) - Arizona State has more talent that Colorado but they are in a coaching search and have written off this season. Unlikely ASU will beat anyone outright but if a team sleeps on them they might make things scary as this team still has some play makers. 10. Stanford (1-4) - Stanford is bad, the transfer portal era will keep the Cardinal from being good, even if the refs seem to do everything they can to keep them in the game. It is possible this team steals a win or two in conference but they are not looking at a bowl game for the second consecutive year in a row. 9. Arizona (3-2) - Arizona has life and if they get hot they could make a bowl game, but the problem is that there aren't many teams ranked below them for "easy" wins, as they have already dismantled Colorado and they have ASU at the end of the year but they skip Stanford this year. So I see Arizona getting to 4 maybe 5 wins total. 8. Oregon State (3-2) - This is really the first change from last week's rankings. The Beavers are almost a complete team, except for quarterback where they are woefully lacking right now. They should have beaten USC but for their 4 interceptions and they weren't even supposed to beat Utah but they took far more of a beating than they should have because they couldn't take care of the ball. Their defense and run game both look solid, they just need to work out their quarterback problem. 7. Cal (3-2) - Cal has defense and their offense is better than last year with a new quarterback and runningback but they really do seem to lack some of the firepower needed to hold down some of the more prolific offenses in the Pac-12 this year. 6. USC (5-0) - USC has had an easy schedule so far but that is going to come to an end soon enough. USC gets Washington State this week, though at home. Washington State has an agressive defense and an offense that can score quickly. USC does have a good secondary but their offense has struggled with pressure. Both Oregon State and Arizona State have given USC a pretty good scare over the past couple of weeks. Washington State may be more than they can handle, but if they survive then it is worth bumping USC up at that point. Right now they feel overrated by the National media. 5. Washington (4-1) - Washington was finally challenged and they lost. They also lost on the road which will probably be a continuing trend this year. Washington has had to travel much the past two years and that will be something that will be a struggle. 4. UCLA (5-0) - UCLA beat Washington which was a meaningful win and got themselves a ranking in the top 25 of the AP poll. So UCLA moves up a spot though we will get a better sense of what UCLA is made of in the next month as they will have to play Oregon and Utah. 3. Washington State (4-1) - Washington State couged it against Oregon and survived Cal. This is an aggressive team that should stay in the top half of the Pac-12 this year, barring any critical injuries. They square off against USC this week and WSU is probably the more complete team, the only downside is that WSU has to go to USC but WSU has proved they can win in a hostile away environment this year. 2. Oregon (4-1) - Beating Stanford is a big deal for the Ducks. It has felt the past few years that Oregon plays Stanfod and the refs. Oregon was clearly the better team, even when shooting itself in the foot and getting some truly baffling calls from the refs. Oregon is still the most talented team in the Pac-12 and they are growing week to week but they still have yet to put together a solid four quarters of play. Oregon has Arizona this week which has its own risks, then a bye week, then they host UCLA. The good news for Oregon is that all their toughest games will be at home this year. 1. Utah (4-1) - Utah hasn't given much reason to doubt their top spot. However, Utah does hit one of the hardest sections of its schedule this year with UCLA, USC, and Washington State all on deck before they hit an easier part where they have Arizona and Stanford. Then they get Oregon. Utah will get truly tested starting this week and we will see where they end up. Do you agree or disagree with these rankings? Who is too high or too low?

It has become abundantly clear now to anyone that I think Helfrich gets a bad rap by a lot of Ducks fans. Was he perfect? Of course not. Was he given time to truly address some of the problems that emerged? Nope. Would he have worked out in the end... probably not to the goal of a National Championship in honest truth without some major changes along the way. But I also have no sympathies for anyone crying about Oregon needs coaches to be loyal to the program and are lifers when Helfrich was going to be a lifer in the mold of Bellotti and the fan base was calling for his head after one really really bad bowl game and a bad season. Fans want loyalty from their coaches but show their coaches no loyalty when things get tough, within reason.

In fairness that was what was said about Mariota ... And to a slightly lesser extent Herbert. But they also played at a much much higher level so they got away with it.

The standard is way to high these daya to win. Cryst had a 72% win rate. Though... As ducks fans we tossed Helfrich out on his butt after one really bad season. He had a 70% win rate. The win now culture is brutal.

I don't know if he progressed enough to regress at this point.

Knew this was coming sooner or later. I think that is 2 for 2 on coaches on the hot seat. I think all the other coaches in the PAC are actually safe at this point. Shaw is staying at Stanford, there are way too many factors going on there that have led to Stanford's problems. Zona has to be happy with Fisch as he has the program pointed in the right direction. Then Kelly and Wilcox both got extensions last year and those were perhaps the only other two who might have been on a hot seat this year and their teams don't look anywhere near bad enough for that.

It needed a yellow helmet to go with it and it would have looked better.

Refs can always throw flags at both teams. There is a heirarchy of penalties that can get applied. The refs could very easily thrown a flag or two at Stanford for unsportsmanlike conduct. And they choose not to. I don't think a flag was ever headed to Stanford for that incident.

I think it is important for backups to get reps in garbage time. What really concerns me about TT was how lost he looked out there. He didn't seem to know where he wanted to go with the ball. A few of his passes seemed more to a part of the field than actually to a player.

The refs also ignored a whole lot of holding calls against USCs online against Oregon state that had Beaver fans salty. It seems to be a trend where California schools are getting ref's protection. The lack of holding calls against USC definitely played a major role in USCs win... Granted... 4 interceptions from OSU didn't help.

There will be times when the coaches and players need to focus for the fourth quarter so I see why Lanning is trying to reel this in. Oregon was on the door knocking on another touchdown and let's face it the red zone hasn't been good to them.

I look at a bunch of non-calla by the officials when Stanford not only played through the whistle, which is fine and what is coached, but we'll behind the whistle. Seven shouldn't have done what he did but he was driven back long after the whistle was over and then slammed to the ground. Then the Stanford players still thought live ball and that led to Nix torpedoing them... Which was all apart of the side line problem. Then towards the end of the gma Stanford figured out that they werent going to get flagged for playing extra rough so they did. Then there was that Whittington slam Stanford did where yet again they played through the whistle but after the whistle they kept going and picked Whittington up and threw him in the ground for... No flag? The refs really let Stanford beat up the ducks. I had a good laugh when the refs threw a flag at Gonzo for unnecessary roughness when all he did was tackle the Stanford players to the ground through the whistle... Thankfully the refs picked that flag up but it really did feel like they were just trying to punish Oregon.

Thompson looks lost out there. He isn't even hitting his recievers terribly well. Some of those passes feel like they were more to an area of the field than an actual recievers.

Donte Moore will surpass him if that's the case.

Stanford knows they can get away with beating up in the ducks a bit and they are playing pretty rough now. Refs are happy to look the other way for the most part.

There's the reffing problem again... No flag for that? The whistle was blown and they picked up wittington and threw hint it he ground? I'm sorry that's a flag for unnecessary roughness.