USC Rises, UCLA Falls in Week 7 Pac 12 Power Rankings
Saturday Blitz Pac 12 Power Rankings Week 7
Just like Cal, it’s very unfair to put Oregon State this low in any power rankings. It’s offensive, honestly. At 4-1, they would be in the Top 5 in any other conference except the SEC. But again, this is the Pac 12, and 4-1 isn’t good enough if you don’t have the quality wins to back it up. That’s exactly the issue facing the Beavers right there, which is why although we respect the team, we can’t move it up over other teams with better bodies of work.
Oregon State has seen incredibly efficient quarterback play from Sean Mannion throughout the year, as he’s completed more than 70 percent of his passes in every game except for Portland State in the opener and the loss to USC. This guy can clearly make plays and lead an offense, and that’s exactly what he has done. However, like the rest of the Pac 12 it seems like, Mannion has no defense or run support. That makes things harder and could spell trouble going forward.
At 4-1, we’ll find out a lot about the Beavers over the next two weeks with Utah and Stanford up, and Arizona State, Washington, and Oregon are down the road. Those are 6 potential losses, so if the Beavers can reach an 8-4 season it’ll be impressive. But they should be able to at least reach 6 wins.
And that expectation is why they are at No. 9 on our Pac-12 power rankings.