Pac-12 Football: Post-Week 10 Power Rankings

It was another action packed Saturday of Pac-12 Football this past weekend. The slate of games featured all schools playing in conference with some very close contests as well as an unexpected blowout in Eugene. Let's start out this week's post with a look at the conference Power Rankings according to this writer's rating system coming into Week 10.

Without further ado, here are the Post-Week 10 Power Rankings for the Pac-12 Conference.

#12 Colorado Buffaloes (2-7, 0-6 Pac-12)

Rating: -2.348

National Rank: 113

Week 10: Lost 38-23 to Washington

Week 11: at Arizona, 8 pm ET on Pac-12 Network

Colorado actually played a very solid game to start against a team like Washington who were still trying to answer a lot of questions. It was the perfect scenario for the Buffaloes as Washington was down to a converted linebacker at running back and attempting to run an up-tempo offense at altitude.

Things were looking good for Colorado late in the first half as a 39-yard field goal form Will Oliver gave them a 20-10 lead with 2:23 remaining. On top of that, they would get the ball to start the second half. Instead of having that comfortable lead though, they allowed a late touchdown on a quick 7-play, 78-yard drive to bring the score within a field goal.

The turning point came in the third quarter right after Washington took the lead at 24-23. Sefo Liufau saw his second down pass on the next drive taken back to the house by linebacker Travis Feeney to extend the Washington lead to eight.

They would allow another in the fourth quarter as freshman Danta Pettis returned a punt 87 yards for the final score.

If there was any positive to take out of the game from the Colorado perspective, it is that Liufau had his highest completion percentage of the season at 69.2%. That is the second highest single-game percentage of his career (70.0% vs. Charleston Southern on October 19, 2013).

The schedule does not get any easier for Colorado with a trip to the desert to face off with the Arizona Wildcats.

#11 Washington State Cougars (2-7, 1-5 Pac-12)

Rating: -1.660

National Rank: 103

Week 10: Lost 44-17 to USC

Week 11: at Oregon State, 4 pm ET on Pac-12 Network

Washington State lost more than just their game this past weekend. Hearts across the Palouse skipped a beat as the school's All-Time leader in Passing Yards stayed down on the field in obvious pain after releasing a throw. He was carted off the field and from the looks of it, his career would be done.

The worst was confirmed today as head coach Mike Leach announced that Halliday broke his ankle and that the timetable for his return is unknown at this time. He mentioned that it was serious enough that he could miss the Washington State Pro Day and maybe even the NFL Scouting Combine early next year.

Now the quarterback duties are in the hands of freshman walk-on Luke Falk. He had a solid game coming off the bench competing 38-of-57 passes for 346 yards with two touchdowns and an interception. Leach was impressed with some of the smart decisions that Falk made while under pressure. He was able to get the ball out before losing yardage on a potential sack.

The loss does mean that Washington State cannot qualify for a bowl game in 2014.

#10 Oregon State Beavers (4-4, 1-4 Pac-12)

Rating: -0.548

National Rank: 84

Week 10: Lost 45-31 to California

Week 11: - Washington State, 4 pm ET on Pac-12 Network

Oregon State's dreams of sending senior quarterback Sean Mannion out with a third consecutive bowl appearance took a massive hit last weekend in Corvallis as the Beavers fell 45-31 to the California Golden Bears. The lost dropped Oregon State to 4-4 and in need of two wins to become bowl eligible.

They do have a very winnable game this weekend against Washington State but their final three games are as brutal of a stretch as you'll ever see. They have home games against Arizona State and Oregon sandwiched by a trip to Seattle to face the Washington Huskies. That game against Washington will be massive for their bowl dreams.

Mannion had another great game completing 30-of-45 passes for 320 yards and two touchdowns. That moved him up to 20th on the all-time list for career passing yards passing Trevor Vittatoe, Kliff Kingsbury, Rakeem Cato and Matt Barkley. He is now also the all-time leader in career passing yards in the history of the Pac-12. If he is able to continue at his pace for the season, he will finish 9th all-time with 13,351 passing yards.

#9 California Golden Bears (5-4, 3-4 Pac-12)

Rating: 0.421

National Rank: 59

Week 10: Won 45-31 over Oregon State

Week 11: BYE

The win over Oregon State snapped a three-game losing streak by California which saw them lose to Washington, UCLA, and Oregon. They are in need of one more win to become bowl eligible. They take this weekend off before playing away to USC on the following Thursday. That is followed by home games against Stanford and BYU.

Jared Goff and the California offense have been having a great season. They are in the top ten in the nation in Passing Yards with 361.0 per game (4th) and Point Scored with 41.9 per game (8th). They have six games in which they have scored 40-plus points. Their record is just 4-2 in those games. It is interesting to note that if California can score 40 points in one more game this season they will match the number of 40 points games they had in the last three seasons combined.

While the offense is clicking, the defense has struggled all season. They are ranked 121st in the nation in points allowed, giving up 39.9 per game. They have games where they have allowed 56, 59, and 59 points. Two of those games were to teams that are worse than them in the standings (Colorado and Washington State). This is something that should be addressed in the offseason.

#8 Washington Huskies (6-3, 2-3 Pac-12)

Rating: 0.932

National Rank: 47

Week 10: Won 38-23 over Colorado

Week 11: - UCLA, 7 pm ET on Fox Sports 1

Washington was in a very precarious position coming into the game in Week 10 as the status of top-two running backs Dwayne Washington and Lavon Coleman were unknown. They both had progressed during the week after missing the Week 9 loss to Arizona State at Husky Stadium but when game-time came, it was Shaq Thompson who got the call at tailback.

Thompson gained 98 yards on 21 carries in Week 9 after being elevated in the tailback spot at the end of the week. The full week of practice at the position showed as Thompson ran for 174 yards on 15 carries with a touchdown. One Washington fan jokingly pointed out on Twitter that was the most single game rushing yards by a Washington linebacker in school history. That great stat earns a helmet sticker for the week.

A positive for Washington in the game was just how well Cyler Miles spread the ball around. He only converted 13-of-19 passes but those 13 passes went to eight different receivers including two big-40 yard completions, one to Dante Pettis and the other to Shaq Thompson.

The defense did not have their best game allowing nearly 500 yards of total offense but part of that was likely due to the absence of Shaq Thompson at linebacker. Linebacker Travis Feeney did come up with a big pick-6 in the third quarter to give Washington the final lead at 31-23.

It is going to be interesting to see how Chris Petersen uses Shaq Thompson this week. He brings a needed spark to the rushing attack but this week brings in a team that is averaging nearly 500 yards per game on total offense. The UCLA Bruins have a very good quarterback in Brett Hundley who is completing 71.0% of his passes this season. Washington did a great job against Hundley last season allowing only 159 yards through the air. That will likely be different this season with the young Huskies secondary.

#7 Stanford Cardinal (5-4, 3-3 Pac-12)

Rating: 1.021

National Rank: 44

Week 10: Lost 45-16 to Oregon

Week 11: BYE

The immovable force that is Stanford's defense faced their biggest test of the season this past week as they faced off with Oregon. Stanford came into the game with one of the top defensive units in the country allowing only 250.6 total yards per game, they had also allowed just 10 offensive touchdowns in their eight games.

Those stats took a hit as Oregon destroyed Stanford 45-16. The Ducks rolled for 525 yards of total offense, more than double the yards that the Cardinal had allowed per game, Oregon also scored six offensive touchdowns in the rout. One of the more interesting stats is that Stanford had only allowed four rushing touchdowns coming into the game, Oregon scored how many touchdowns on the ground? You guessed it, four.

Stanford needs just one more win to become bowl eligible but that may be easier said than done. They have only one home game remaining against Utah on the 15th before finishing on the road to California and UCLA. They have qualified for Bowl Games in each of the last five years including four consecutive BCS Bowl appearances.

#6 Utah Utes (6-2, 3-2 Pac-12)

Rating: 1.916

National Rank: 31

Week 10: Lost 19-16 to Arizona State

Week 11: - Oregon, 10 pm ET on VAVEL USA

Utah was very unlucky to lose this past weekend to Arizona State. It was the Utes second conference loss of the season and put a ton of pressure on them as Oregon comes into Salt Lake City this weekend. They are still alive for the Pac-12 South Title but a loss to Oregon will all but do them in.

It is very interesting to note that the largest margin of victory in any of the five Utah conference games this year has been six points against Oregon State. Every other game was a field goal margin or less. Given the struggles on the both sides of the ball for the Utes, don't expect this game to be too close for too long.

In their five conference games, Utah has allowed 420.0 yards per game while only gaining 317.2 yards per game. They will be depending on junior running back Devontae Booker to keep the chains moving. He has played very well in conference gaining 811 yards on 152 carries with six touchdowns.

Travis Wilson will need to improve his quarterback play which has been suboptimal in conference. He has completed 55-of-105 passes for 466 yards and two touchdowns in the five games. If Oregon is able to shutdown Booker and the running game, Wilson will need to have a career game in order to give Utah a chance.

#5 USC Trojans (6-3, 5-2 Pac-12)

Rating: 1.986

National Rank: 29

Week 10: Won 44-17 over Washington State

Week 11: BYE

The win may have been expected for USC and their fans going into their game at Washington State but it still was very sweet. They kept pace with Arizona State sticking just a half game behind the Sun Devils in the race for the Pac-12 South Division Title. Unfortunately, Arizona State holds the tie-breaker over USC so the Trojans would need to win their final two Conference games against California and UCLA while needing Arizona State to lose two of their final three Conference games against Oregon State, Washington State and Arizona.

Meanwhile, UCLA is sitting just a half-game behind USC and they hold the head-to-head advantage over Arizona State. The right results could make that USC-UCLA game very important in the race for the Pac-12 South.

Junior quarterback Cody Kessler had the second best game of his career on Saturday in Pullman completing 21-of-32 passes for 400 yards and five touchdowns. This coming just a few weeks after a seven touchdown effort against Colorado. Kessler has thrown 14 touchdown passes to only one interception over 90 passes during his last three games. He is definitely playing at a high level at the right time.

The Trojans also saw a huge game from junior wide receiver Nelson Agholor. He had ten combined touches between receiving and returning punts for 291 total yards and two touchdowns. There is no doubt that he could be considered for conference player of the week.

#4 Arizona Wildcats (6-2, 3-2 Pac-12)

Rating: 2.326

National Rank: 24

Week 10: Lost 17-7 to UCLA

Week 11: - Colorado, 8 pm on Pac-12 Network

To say that Saturday night's offensive display was disappointing by Rich Rodriguez standards would be the understatement of the century. Let's take a look at the average offensive stats by Arizona coming into the UCLA game compared to how they performed in that game.

It was just a poor day from freshman quarterback Anu Solomon, who temporarily silenced some critics with his solid performance two weeks ago against Washington State. The road struggles unfortunately showed up again as would be expected for a freshman in a hostile road environment.

The loss was not a death sentence for Arizona in regards to the Pac-12 South Division Title but it did make the road just a little more difficult. They sit in fourth place just 1.5 games behind rival Arizona State. Five teams are within a game and a half of the division title so it really is still anybody game. Arizona will likely beat Colorado this week before they finish off their schedule with home games against Washington and Arizona State with a road trip to Utah sandwiched between those two games.

The scenario is easy for Arizona; they need to win out and hope that both UCLA and USC suffer one more conference loss apiece to put themselves in the Pac-12 Championship Game. UCLA and USC play in two weeks so one will fall there. Arizona will be looking to California, Washington or Stanford to pull out a win in one of their matchups with the Los Angeles Schools. That UCLA-Stanford game on November 28th may be very juicy.

#3 Arizona State Sun Devils (7-1, 5-1 Pac-12)

Rating: 3.096

National Rank: 12

Week 10: Won 19-16 over Utah

Week 11: - Notre Dame (NC), 3:30 pm ET on VAVEL USA

Arizona State escaped in overtime with a 19-16 win over Utah as Zane Gonzalez converted a 36-yard field goal to win the game. It was another average performance for quarterback Taylor Kelly who still looked a bit rusty after returning the previous week from a foot injury. He completed 18-of-32 passes for 205 yards with a touchdown and an interception. He also added 14 carries for 55 yards.

That brings his totals since returning up to completing 32-of-57 passes for 385 yards with three touchdowns and two interceptions. His rushing totals at 29 carries for 62 yards. He seems to be improving with each passing week but his leach may be a little shorter this week in a non-conference game with Notre Dame.

Both teams are ranked in the top ten of the College Football Playoff Rankings and a win will put them into a great position to have a shot at a top-four seed. The loser will likely be eliminated from playoff contention.

With that being said, how long will Todd Graham give Taylor Kelly before considering a switch to Mike Bercovici? With the College Football Playoffs on the line, do not expect the leach to be too long.

#2 UCLA Bruins (7-2, 4-2 Pac-12)

Rating: 3.610

National Rank: 6

Week 10: Won 17-7 over Arizona

Week 11: at Washington, 7 pm ET @ Fox Sports 1

The UCLA Bruins are the Rodney Dangerfield of College Football in 2014. They don't get no respect, no respect at all I tell ya. They did struggle early in the season against some average caliber opponents in Virginia, Memphis and Texas but they followed that up with a dominating performance on the road over Arizona State in a 62-27 win. The same 7-1 Arizona State team that is ranked 9th in the College Football Playoff Rankings.

They were beaten at home twice, once on a last-second field goal by Utah and the other a shellacking from Oregon, but they did beat highly-ranked Arizona 17-7 last week. They head the potent Wildcats offense to just seven points.

So why is the team with the second strongest schedule in the country only ranked 18th in the college football playoff despite controlling their own destiny in the Pac-12 South? Your guess is as good as mine. If they can get by a pesky Washington team this week only USC and Stanford stand between them and their second Pac-12 Championship Game appearance in three seasons.

#1 Oregon Ducks (8-1, 5-1 Pac-12)

Rating: 4.033

National Rank: 5

Week 10: Won 45-16 over Stanford

Week 11: at Utah, 10 pm ET on VAVEL USA

The Oregon Ducks are one win away from clinching the Pac-12 North Division and a spot in the Pac-12 Championship Game on December 5th at Levi's Stadium in Santa Clara after their 45-16 win over Stanford this past weekend. Marcus Mariota threw for 258 yards with two touchdowns and he added two more touchdowns on the ground to bolster his already impressive Heisman resume.

That win lifted Oregon into the top-four of the second College Football Playoff ranking coupled with the loss by Ole Miss. The Ducks join Mississippi State, Florida State and Auburn in the College Football Playoff if the season were to end today.

It also ended a two-game losing streak against Stanford, both of those losses were the first of the season for the Ducks.

Something that you should keep an eye on in their game this weekend will be the 30-point plateau for Oregon. The last time that Oregon scored 30 or more points and lost was on November 19th, 2011 in a 38-35 loss to USC. Since then, they have won 34 consecutive games when scoring more than 30.

In fact, since Chip Kelly took over as head coach, Oregon has scored 30-plus points in 66 games. They have a record of 64-2 in those games.