Pac-12 football roundup: Week 7

Both division leaders dropped games

After the Utah Utes eviscerated the Arizona Wildcats on Friday night, the Pac-12 still had three exciting games on the slate for Saturday. As it happened, all three featured the team with the worse conference record winning, and provided good football throughout the day.

Here are the results from those exciting Pac-12 games in Week 7:

Oregon 30, Washington 27 (OT)

The most thrilling game of the day, and one of four Top 10 upsets on the day, the Oregon Ducks and Washington Hustles puton a show in Eugene, with the Ducks claiming their first victory over UW since 2015.

With both Jake Browning and Justin Herbert on the field in Autzen, everyone was expecting some stellar quarterback play. Both lived up to the hype, with Browning going 15 of 25 for 243 yards and Herbert completing 18 of 32 passes for 202 yards.

After trading blows all day, Washington looked to have taken control after a huge 43-yard touchdown catchfrom Ty Jones and possession in field goal range with just a few seconds left on the clock. Thanks to an icing timeout by Oregon coach MarioCristobal, Peyton Henry missed a potential game-winning kick, and the game went to overtime.

In OT, Henry was able to partially redeem himself with a 22-yarder in the top of the first frame. With its chance to win though, Oregon won on a walk-off touchdown run by CJ Verdell.

The victory over their bitter rival was made even sweeter for the Ducks (5-1) by the fact they let an overtime victory against Stanford slip through their fingers in September. CJ Verdell’s late fumble helped cause that loss, so being able to redeem himself against the Huskies (5-2) was surely a high point of his college career.

With the victory, Oregon is tied with Washington, the Washington State Cougars and Stanford Cardinal are all tied atop the North Division. Oregon heads to WSU for a huge matchup and ESPN College Gameday’s first visit to the Palouse, while UW defends it's hometurf against the Colorado Buffaloes next Saturday.

UCLA 37, California 7

After five weeks of steady improvement and bad breaks, the UCLA Bruins finally broke through against their UC rival and claimed their first win of the season.

Freshman Dorian Thompson-Robinson has garnered far fewer headlines than his fellow LA freshman starter, USC's J.T. Daniels, but he has continued to develop in coach Chip Kelly’s offense. For the first time everything clicked, as DTR went 13 of 15 for 141 yards, adding 27 yards on the ground.

The real star of the game was undoubtedly running back Joshua Kelley, who ran for 157 yards and three scores, accounting for all of UCLA’s offensive touchdowns.

Kelley didn’t account for all of UCLA’s touchdowns though, thanks to a Bruin scoop n’ score off a strip sack in the fourth quarter. For the California Golden Brats, the offense didn’t struggle as much as the score indicates. However, the Bears had an abysmal five turnovers, with QB Brandon McIlwain accounting for four of them.

Only three weeks after appearing in the AP Poll, Cal (3-3) seems to have no road to a bowl berth with five good opponents among their six remaining opponents. UCLA also has little to no hope of making a bowl at 1-5, but if it keeps getting better the excitement around the team could seriously build into 2019.

USC 31, Colorado 20

After a rough start to their season, the Trojans (4-2) took control of the South Division with a solid victory over previously-undefeated Colorado.

Speaking of rough starts, J.T. Daniels had one against the Buffaloes, throwing two interceptions in the first quarter, including one on his first pass attempt. Nevertheless, Daniels found his stride quickly in the second, throwing three impressive touchdown passes in that quarter with two coming off incredible catches from Michael Pittman. USC finished off it's latelead with an Ajene Harris pick-six in the third quarter.

For CU, this game was a hard slap in face. With a pitiful strength of schedule counteracting their 5-0 record, many were watching to see if the Buffs were legit. The answer was definitely no. Steven Montez looked mortal for the first time since last season, and both running back Travon McMillian and receiver Laviska Shenault had limited success and suffered injuries.

The one bright spot might have been a wildcat formation play in the second quarter that resulted in a 49-yard score from Shenault.

Thanks to this game, USC and Colorado sit atop the Pac-12 South, with the Trojans having the tiebreaker. USC plays their other main competitor for the divison, Utah, next week in Salt Lake City. The Buffs head to Seattle for a tricky matchup next week, and face Utah in Week 12.

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