Stanford Rises, Washington and Arizona State Fall in Week 5 Pac 12 Power Rankings
Saturday Blitz Pac 12 Power Rankings Week 5
2. UCLA Bruins, 4-0 (1-0), Defeated Arizona State Sun Devils 62-27 Last Saturday
The Bruins finally had everything come together for them against Arizona State. Against Virginia, the defense had to win the game by itself. Against Memphis, it was the offense. And against Texas, they just had to survive with an injury to quarterback Brett Hundley. But against the Sun Devils, Hundley returned and everybody played as well as we knew they were capable of playing.
But don’t read too much into it just yet. We’re not going to put UCLA at No. 1 in our power rankings simply because they had one blowout win because if you watched that game, it would be very clear that UCLA simply had lots of big plays that turned what should have been a close game into a blowout. The defense also looked questionable, giving up 27 points through three quarters, before the Sun Devils offense shut down in the fourth quarter after allowing too many big plays to turn the game into a blowout loss.
There are still questions about this UCLA team, and we don’t know which players on the Bruins are going to show up from week to week. Because of that, while they’ve earned at least this spot with a quality win and an undefeated record, they still haven’t done enough to earn the top spot in our Pac 12 power rankings.