Cincinnati crushes Oregon State

D'oh! Bearcats 34, Beavers 3: "As great a day as it was for the Pac-10 when Cal beat Tennessee last Saturday, this one was a big black eye for the conference."

So... 'twas a bad Thursday for the Pac-10. But what will Saturday bring? Assuming Cal, Arizona State, Arizona and Washington State hold serve (against Colorado State, Colorado, Northern Arizona and San Diego State, respectively), the big games tomorrow for the Pac-10 are Boise State at Washington (a reasonably close loss by the Huskies would suffice, for conference-pride purposes), BYU at UCLA (though you'll forgive me if I don't start up a chorus of "Goooo Bruins, Beeeeat Mormons"), and of course, the big game in the Big House, Oregon at Michigan.

Will the Wolverines circle the wagons, come out of the tunnel angry and eager, and start their long, slow climb back to respectability after the Appy State debacle? Or will they pull a Michigan State, curl up into a ball after a demoralizing loss and watch their season die? The Ducks (and the Domers, who play 'em next) would love it if it's the latter. Vegas, however, thinks it will be the former. Personally, I think the Curse of Bo Schembechler might be the tiebreaker. The Wolverines are 0-3 since the legendary coach died on the eve of the Ohio State game last year.

USC, by the way, is idle this week. Notre Dame, which doesn't want to hear anything about "0-3" right now, travels to Happy Valley to face Penn State at 6:00 PM EDT tomorrow. GOOOO IRISH, BEEEEAT JOE PA!

Incidentally, here's a handy list of nationally televised games (though if people would stop pretending that games on ESPNU, ESPN360, "the mtn." and the Big Ten Network are "televised," that would be great).

Comments

[Gardner]

The Irish can beat Joe Pa, he is 70. They just won't be able to beat Penn State.

[David K.]

Given how they played last week are you SURE they can beat a 70 year old man ;-)

[Andrew]

Oregon State has MAJOR problems at QB. They are going to sink like a rock in the Pac-10 if they can't get that straightened out soon.

[Andrew]

I do think this will be an ugly weekend for the Pac-10. I expect Oregon to lose to a very pissed off Michigan team, I would not be at all surprised if BYU upsets fUTLA, and U-Dub is going to be very lucky to hold off Boise State. I do expect Cal, ASU, WSU, and Arizona to all win.

[Patrick]

FWIW, I've been saying all summer that Cincinnati is going to cause major headaches in the Big East this year. They have a solid team, led by QB-transfer Ben Mauk. I fully expect that, at some point this season, the Bearcats will be ranked for the first time in 57 years.

I say this, and I HATE the University of Cincinnati.

[Jon]

Oregon State beat themselves, Without the beavs handing the bearcats the ball every 5 seconds of the second half, and their special teams looking like special olympians, it might have been a close game.