And down go the Irish! After dispatching its earlier Pac-10 opponents, the Cardinal and Bruins, Notre Dame had to visit the Coliseum.
USC 44, Notre Dame 24
Perhaps not surprisingly, Notre Dame got destroyed by the conference’s best team. After struggling at home against UCLA, the Irish let the Trojans jump out to an early lead and never look back. John David Booty was solid, CJ Gable had another excellent game and Dwayne Jarrett embarrassed the Irish secondary. Brady Quinn didn’t look very Heisman-like until his 60 yard scamper (which was aided by some bizarre USC half field coverage) in the second quarter and ended up with 3 TDs against a good USC defense. The Irish won the turnover battle, the time of possession battle and equaled USC’s offensive yardage output, but scored 20 less points. So why did Notre Dame lose? Fourth down conversions. The Irish were thwarted on four(!) fourth down attempts, which must be some kind of 21st century record. Add to the fact that this game was for the Jeweled Shillelagh and likely decided the national championship aspirations for both teams and you can see how huge this game ended up being for the Trojans. Since this win was enough to move USC into 2nd in the BCS, this weekend’s showdown in Pasadena will cement the Trojans’ status for Glendale.
MVP: Dwayne Jarrett – 7 catches for 132 yards and 3 TDs
Arizona State 28, Arizona 14
Just when it looked like the Wildcats couldn’t lose, they go and blow one at home for the Territorial Cup. After taking a 21 point lead in the first quarter, the Sun Devils added insult to injury by giving Arizona QB Willie Tuitama yet another concussion and knocking him out of the game in the second quarter. Adam Austin added a TD pass in relief, but the Arizona offense was totally inept, gaining only 177 yards. ASU on the other hand, had 432 yards of offense and dominated the game from the first snap. Ryan Torain had 138 rushing yards and Rudy Carpenter spread the ball around for 3 touchdowns in an attempt to keep Dirk Koetter around. But even the rivalry win wasn’t enough to save Koetter’s job. Now that he’s been fired, the new coach watch should at least be more interesting than the Sun Devil’s season.
MVP: Rudy Carpenter – 17 of 25 for 218 yards and 3 TDs
Oregon State 30, Oregon 28
What a great game. It looked like victory was well in the Beavers’ hands in the third quarter, when an Yvenson Bernard touchdown run opened up a 13 point OSU lead. But the Ducks showed some resiliency and scored twice in the final frame to take a one point lead with only a couple minutes left in the game. Alexis Serna countered with a huge field goal to give the Beavers back the lead, only to see the Ducks get into field goal range in the final minute. Thanks to Ben Siegert though, the score stayed the same as he blocked the field goal to win the Civil War for the North. That also secured a spot in the Sun Bowl for the Beavs. Coming into this game, OSU had only won one of the five games that Bernard had rushed for less than 100 yards in. He only had 68 yards on the ground on Saturday, but Matt Moore had another solid day at quarterback and Sammie Stroughter was the biggest benefactor with 114 receiving yards. For the Ducks, it means they tie for fourth place with four other teams, as long as UCLA loses to USC next week. I don’t know how they’ll work the tiebreaker out, but it has to be a disappointment for Oregon. After finishing 10-1 last season and only losing a couple of starters, expectations were high. But Dennis Dixon tanked down the stretch and the Ducks offense and defense were both terrible in their last three games. Even though it looks like they’ll end up in Vegas, it’s not the bowl that Duck fan was hoping for.
MVPs: Alexis Serna – 3 field goals from 40+ yards, including the game winner and Ben Siegert for blocking Matt Evensen’s potential game winner
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