Finishing Week Three

Wow, 2am on a Friday and I finally have some time to post. Just to finish the recap of last week before starting on this week, I’ll talk about this quick. ASU easily beat Colorado, holding them to a mere 219 yards. Rudy did throw 2 interceptions though, and he wasn’t nearly as sharp as has been the last few weeks. But, it was on the road against a Big 12 school, so keeping them scoreless after an opening drive field goal is pretty impressive. The Sun Devils continue to lead the NCAA in sacks after taking Bernard Jackson down four times in Boulder. Looks like ASU might have a little defense to go with that offense.

Arizona barely had to try to beat Stephen F. Austin. Willie Tuitama only threw nine passes for 61 yards, but it was easily his best performance of the season. Chris Jennings also had his best game, rushing for over 200 yards. The Wildcats didn’t come out of the gate with their best game, but they didn’t need anything near that to take down the Lumberjacks. They will need that if they want to compete with USC though.

Speaking of USC, the Trojans looked dominant in taking down the Cornhuskers. John David Booty is the real deal, though having Dwayne Jarrett to throw to sure makes his job look easy. Jarrett is just a force when he is healthy. He broke Mike Williams’ career TD record in the game, and he will likely break the Pac-10 record against Arizona. Losing Ryan Powdrell for the season will really hurt. After losing Brandon Hancock to a knee injury, the last thing USC needed was to see Powdrell dislocate his ankle like that. Major props to Brent Musberger and ABC for slowing down the replay of the injury so everyone could see Powdrell’s ankle snap. Really didn’t need to see that replayed after the commercial break. Twice. Thanks ESPN on ABC. Just for that, you're injury replays are on notice!

Next time leave the injury replays to youtube. As good as the Trojan offense has looked, the defense is what has been really impressive. They are leading the Pac-10 in scoring defense and have held Nebraska and Arkansas to a 3^rd down conversion rate of less than 30 percent. Looks like playing Louisiana Tech and Nicholls State isn’t the best way to warm-up for one of the top teams in the country.