Pac-10 3-0 with Oregon, WSU, ASU wins

I watched most of the Oregon game and the second half of the Wazzu game last night. BTW, Tivo is a good thing. Makes watching games so much faster. Thought I’d note a few of my impressions.

Oregon at Houston

The Oregon offense was interesting. It looks a lot like Utah’s offense. Considering Mike Bellotti took a trip to the guru, Urban Meyer, this summer that probably isn't much of a surprise. To me it didn’t seem like many of the new tricks worked for them. What did work was passing the ball. Shotgun or not, they have been doing that fine for the last several years.

Clemens sure ran the ball A LOT. I think there’s a really good chance that he will get hurt sometime this season because he’s going to take a lot of hits. They are in for a long season if that happens because I have no confidence in Dennis Dixon. Even though Dixon is quick and fast, he did not look very good throwing the ball. His throws with power and a spiral so there’s a chance he could be ok, but his accuracy was way off in the Houston game. I don’t think he’s ready to start yet. They would become a one-dimensional team that basically runs the option all the time (Yikes!).

Couple of other notes: James Finley looks good. I’m bummed he’s not a Beaver (he signed with the Beavers out of HS then didn't qualify). Also, Jonathan Stewart is their Steven Jackson. He’s looks scary. The secondary and special teams coverage worries are not over for Oregon. They got burned a couple of times and the second long ball did not look good. The safety and corner ran into each other (they were beat anyway) on a 3 and 15!

Idaho at WSU

OK, so I missed the first half when things really unraveled for Alex Brink. He has a pretty weak arm from what I could see and I have a feeling he’ll get picked off quite a bit this year. His throws seem to float and have no zip. They ran the ball a lot. Plus, maybe it’s early but the Wazzu defense didn’t look that amazing. Unless maybe Idaho is that good. They didn't look like they were doing anything tricky.

All in all WSU looks very beatable.

Temple at ASU

Yikes! Temple isn’t good, but 63 points is a little scary. That makes the Beavers home Pac-10 opener against the Sun Devils a little more in doubt. I’ll wait to make any predictions until after they play LSU. Assuming they can play LSU. Apparently the Federal Government may not allow them to play at LSU’s stadium because much of the relief effort is being handled there.