The Weekly Rehash

On a serious note, just want to say congratulations to New Orleans for getting back on their feet. Now onto some football.

What a great weekend. The Pac-10 season started. Colorado almost took down Georgia. Stanford gave up another 800 rushing yards. Michigan State almost killed Touchdown Jesus. Surprisingly, only what happened in the Colorado game was unexpected. The Pac-10 only had one out of conference game on Saturday and boy was it exciting.

It was the much heralded return of Dennis Erickson to Corvallis with his Idaho Vandals. They put up almost 200 yards of offense on one of the Pac-10s poorer defenses and lost 38-0. Mr. Erickson has a lot of work to do if he expects Idaho to be competitive in the next few years. Matt Moore didn't do anything to assuage Beaver fan's quarterback fears, as he barely completed 50% of his passes. Sean Canfield came in and completed all of his passes and ran for a touchdown. A quarterback controversy is brewing, and you probably would have heard about it if anyone outside of Benton County cared about the Beavers.

Speaking of a game people did care about, Cal annihilated Arizona State. Nate Longshore found open receivers all day and Marshawn Lynch ran through the Sun Devil defense like Rosie O'Donnell through a pack of Ho-Hos. While Ryan Torain had an even better day than Lynch, Rudy Carpenter looked terrible. He threw four picks and only completed 45% of his passes. I don't know why I have to keep saying this, but if you play Cal, do not throw at Daymeion Hughes!! He had two more interceptions on Saturday and returned one for a touchdown. He is the best cornerback in the Pac-10 and absolutely shuts down his side of the field. Every Pac-10 QB take notice: if you don't want to turn the ball over, his side of the field should be off limits! In other good news for Cal, Nate Longshore has been on fire ever since leaving Knoxville and it looks like the Bears have completely put that game out of their minds. They look like the team everyone was expecting them to be and Longshore, Lynch and Jackson have become the best "Big Three" in the Pac-10.

Man, how is Stanford so terrible? Last year they were only one win away from making a bowl game and this year they'll be lucky if they get one win. They haven't even held a lead in three of their four losses. They started off the WSU game by giving up a safety and it all went downhill from there. They gave up 238 rushing yards to the Cougars and made Alex Brink look as good as Halle Berry. The Cardinal have let every one of their opponents score at least 35 points this season. It is going to be a long season in Palo Alto. WSU has now won three in a row and gets a chance to prove themselves in the Pac-10 this week as an average looking USC team visits Pullman.

Speaking of USC, they took care of Arizona. While it wasn't pretty, their defense was dominant and looks like one of the best units the Pac-10 has seen in years. Dwayne Jarrett tied the Pac-10 record for career TD catches, even though he may have pushed off a little from Antoine Cason. The Trojans kept their 20 point streak intact, but just barely. They just looked sluggish all night. Maybe if they could stop getting hurt all the time, they may look a little better. This Is Spinal Tap is my favorite movie, so seeing an article correlating the fate of Spinal Tap drummers to USC fullbacks is one of the most original and enjoyable articles I have seen in quite a while. Since that article was written, Stanley Havili went down with a fractured leg. If you're keeping score at home, that's three fullbacks USC has lost to serious leg injuries. Luckily, Havili is expected to miss only 6-8 weeks, not the season like Hancock and Powdrell. But USC keeps getting hammered by injuries. Not only the fullbacks, Sedrick Ellis and Josh Pinkard, but we also learned that Jarrett sprained his shoulder and will miss a couple of games. Given the way the Cougars have been playing, it makes the visit to WSU a little more interesting.

And finally, as I predicted, Isaiah Stanback's performance was the reason UW beat UCLA. The Huskies had 254 yards of total offense and Stanback accounted for 248 of them. The guy is a monster to matchup with and he has proven to be the most dynamic QB in the Pac-10 this season. Southpaw Jesus on the other hand, had his worst game of the season. He averaged four yards per pass and threw a pair of interceptions. The Bruins are in total disarry and Bruins Nation is looking for a new coach. On the bright side, they get Cardinal at home on Saturday. Watch out for some Bruin fireworks if Harris and Company miraculously pull out a victory.

And finally, the Pac-10 power rankings after four weeks:

Rank	Team	Blurb
1.	Cal	Back on their feet with a deadly offense
2.	USC	Offense is sloppy, defense is amazing
3.	Oregon	Bye
4.	Washington	Only managed 52 rushing yards vs UCLA
5.	Washington State	Held stanford to .8 yards per rush
6.	Oregon State	Trounced Erickson and the Vandals
7.	Arizona State	Looks like both the O and the D need help
8.	UCLA	Forced four turnovers and still lost by 10
9.	Arizona	Another loss, but the D held USC to 20
10.	Stanford	Looked about as good as Courtney Love