Top Pac-12 Performances of the Week

Although it was a weekend barring any major upsets on the PAC-12 football scene, there was still plenty of excitement and incredible individual performances to go around during Week 6 of conference play. From the first place Washington Huskies taking care of the Utes on the road to Christian McCaffrey and the Stanford Cardinal seemingly righting the ship, discussion about the outlook of the conference is heating up as the calendar turns to November. But just in case you were too busy between trick-or-treating and Halloween parties to catch everything, here are your Pac-12 football performances of the weekend:

Offensive Performance of the Week

USC’s Sam Darnold: The redshirt freshman continues to impress as the Trojans rolled over a beat-up California Golden Bear squad at the Coliseum on Thursday night. Despite questions over his primary target JuJu Smith-Schuster’s health, Darnold torched the Cal defense for 231 passing yards on just 18 completions and five touchdowns, including this one late in the 3rd quarter to theoretically end the game. Darnolds’ success continues to be a reason why the Trojans have rebounded from early season woes and now sit in contention for a fourth consecutive bowl appearance.

Defensive Performance of the Week

Washington’s Dante Pettis: Although not exactly a traditional defensive position, I felt obligated to include Pettis’ 58-yard punt return for a touchdown as it not only sealed the road victory for the Huskies, but further pushed them squarely into the College Football Playoff discussion. Quite frankly, you just don’t see many punt returns for touchdowns in the college game anymore, and to see Pettis cap a road victory was something special. Although, the impressive run did not go without penalty cries from the Utah faithful.

Coaching Performance of the Week

Oregon’s Mark Helfrich. Let’s be honest, the seat has never been hotter under Helfrich, and he quite simply needed to put together a win by any means necessary against a reeling Arizona State team at home. Thanks to shades of the Oregon offense of the Mariota days and 54 points of offensive production, the Ducks were able to once again stem the tides concerning their head coaches’ future at the helm.

(No-So-Great)Fan Moment of the Week

In a game where the Utes might have just fell one play short of pulling the major upset, in reality the shortcomings started in the early morning hours on the set of College Gameday in Salt Lake. This was because one fan who was just trying to be funny in reality made a fool of himself, holding up a sign that reads “Leagalize Ranch”. Just a few hours after the game, the fan went viral with this fundamental misspelling. Maybe next year, Utes.