Pac-12 The Good, The Bad & The Unknown week 12: Oregon State comes alive and changes the landscape

The Good

Oregon State's zombie performance - It's the good and bad thing about college football if you are a fan... each week almost seems like it is not connected to the other. One week, you can lose a game at home to one of the worst teams in the conference who is starting a walk-on quarterback, the next week you can beat the hottest team in the country. You gotta give the Beavers and Mike Riley a lot of respect for not just folding in the rest of the season (and game Saturday when they were down 24-14) and pulling off a gigantic upset.

Beaver running backs - Storm Woods and Terron Ward came alive against the Sun Devils, combining for more than 250 yards and two touchdowns. They took the pressure off of Sean Mannion and make the Beavers a different team in their final two games if they can keep it up.

Casey Skowron - Skowron ran a fake field in 18 yards for a touchdown where he beat a linebacker to the goal line against Washington and kicked a 47-yard game winner as time expired. Pretty hard to beat that performance as a kicker.

UCLA's path - Things really opened up for the Bruins on Saturday with Arizona State's loss to Oregon State. Crazy to think that a team that seemed dead in the water a month ago now likely controls their own destiny to win the Pac-12. They might have had the best week of anyone in the Pac-12, and they didn't even play.

Travis Wilson's comeback - It looked like Wilson's career in Utah was at risk of fading away a few weeks ago, but he has now reigned things in and doing what he needs to do to get Utah wins. He was efficient and effective when he needed to be against Stanford, accounting for all of the Utes' touchdowns.

Nelson Agholor - Agholor had a ridiculous performance against Cal - 16 receptions for 216 yards and two touchdowns, and it could have been epic had a 70 yard plus reception for a touchdown not been called back on a penalty.

The Bad

Lonely at the top - Just when it looked like Arizona State was ready to join Oregon in national relevancy and make the Pac-12 Championship Game a national must-watch, they fell apart against Oregon State. We are now right back to Oregon and everyone else in the national conversation and that is not a good thing for the conference.

USC's ability to hold on - The Trojans looked poised to make a statement against Cal at home when they were ahead 28-2 early on, but then a couple quarters later and they were a converted onside kick away from Cal taking it down to the wire. The Trojans are talented in explosive, but just continue to look like a team that doesn't have that finishing power.

Arizona State in the run game - The Sun Devils gave up nearly 7 yards a crack to a rush offense that had been really bad all season and barely mustered up 100 yards on 31 carries themselves. The Sun Devils lost their Playoff hopes and maybe the South up front.

Stanford's slide - Those that predicted/hoped for Stanford to come back to Earth when David Shaw had to start coaching his own players can do some celebrating. The Cardinal look like a team doing an impression of a Stanford team that just can't quite pull it off this season and they are now legitimately at risk of not even making a bowl game.

Washington's late game execution - The Huskies were on the way to a much-needed road win against a ranked opponent when their program appeared to be in a major rut in Chris Petersen's first season and then they completely fell apart when they didn't even have to really do anything. Forget giving up a fake field goal for a touchdown, multiple unforced fumbles and 13 penalties the final minutes are where the Huskies Couged it the most. Fumbling on a run when they technically did not have to run anymore actual plays, deciding not to call a time out and give themselves 30 seconds if Arizona made a game-winning field goal and icing a kicker only to give him warm up miss should put Petersen and his staff under major scrutiny.

The Unknown

Who will win the South? The South is right back to being a complete jumble on top. Arizona, Arizona State and the LA schools are going to duke it out in exciting fashion the next couple of weeks and don't be surprised if we see a crazy tie-breaker situation.

Will Stanford make a bowl game and are they broken? Stanford finishes with two games on the road against Cal and UCLA and while neither are impossible for them to win and they should be favored against Cal, you have to wonder if the Cardinal are going to be able to win one and get to a bowl game. On top of that, I have long been skeptical of Stanford's scheme working every year in the modern landscape of college football which makes me wonder if we are seeing the end of the bullying Stanford scheme succeeding in the Pac-12.

Will Oregon be challenged? The Civil War certainly looks like it could be more challenging for the Ducks, but the Pac-12 Championship Game maybe not as much with Arizona State looking much more flawed than everyone thought. Will it be easy sailing for the Ducks to the Playoff?