Pac-12 Football roundup: Colorado takes command of the South

The South now goes through Boulder

In a world where the Pac-12 South is a toss-up every year, not a lot of people saw this year’s division race going through Boulder.

But the Colorado Buffaloes have made that so.

After looking formidable against the Michigan Wolverines back in week two, I started to think that Colorado was going to be a serious contender this year. But they are more than that.

They are the class of the division so far.

The Buffs took down the UCLA Bruins 20-10 on Thursday night with a performance that wasn’t even that impressive to watch, but it still felt like an outright domination. Is that more on UCLA than Colorado? Maybe. But the Buffs are the ones that are now 7-2 overall, and 5-1 in conference, having only lost road games to USC and Michigan.

We will see Colorado in Tucson next weekend, and the Buffs will look to continue to roll through the conference, setting up a huge showdown with Utah in the final week of the regular season. CU finishes the year with two home games after their Tucson trip, so they are in great position.

Here’s a look at the rest of the action around the conference this week:

Oregon State 15 - Stanford 26

There really wasn’t anything that was unexpected that happened in this game. Stanford doesn’t really blow teams out this year, and the Beavs have been keeping things close. For a long, play-by-play take on what happened in this one, check out Rule of Tree. These are just two of the middle-of-the-pack North teams playing a really predictable game.

Oregon 20 - USC 45

Again, not a terribly surprising result. The Trojans have come on strong, like they always do, and are probably the second favorite to win the South behind Colorado right now. They’ve now won five-straight after starting the year 1-3, and Sam Darnold was apparently the key to a successful offense this whole time, even though Ronald Jones did have four touchdowns.

USC has the advantage of already beating Colorado and owning that tiebreaker should it come down to that. A tough game with Washington next week will make or break the Trojans’ season now.

Washington 66 - Cal 27

It was the tenth anniversary of Marshawn Lynch driving a cart wildly around the Memorial Stadium field, so Cal had a bobblehead to commemorate it, and then Beast Mode reenacted it before the game, almost taking out some band members.

When it's @MoneyLynch bobblehead night at Cal, you know only one person can lead the @CalFootball team onto the field! #UWvsCAL #Pac12FB http://pic.twitter.com/WE082DQYIF

— Kate Scott (@katetscott) November 6, 2016

After that, Cal kept it close for a while, but then Washington boatraced them by the tune of 66-27, including a stretch of 38 unanswered points in the second and third quarters. And now GameDay is heading to Seattle for the Huskies’ showdown with the Trojans.

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