The good, the bad & the unknown week two: The Pac-12 bounces back

The Good

The Pac-12 bounces back! After a disappointing week one, almost all of the Pac-12 teams that stumbled out the gate, redeemed themselves at least a little bit. Washington State got a much-needed gutty win at Rutgers. Stanford got a much-needed blowout over UCF. Colorado got a blowout over UMass. Even Oregon's defense that got smoked by an FCS school last week had a very good game in a tough situation. It wasn't a complete turnaround, but the Pac-12 did some needed clean up in week two.

Bralon Addison - Addison was the only Duck offensive player to truly shine in East Lansing and was huge in keeping the Ducks in a game when the rest of their usually lights out offense was stymied by a nasty defense.

Oregon's defense - I know they gave up 31 points, but I was really impressed with how Oregon's defense held up against a Top 5 on the road after giving up 600 plus yards and 42 points to Eastern Washington last week, especially the front seven. This was a game that easily could have gotten away from the Ducks had the defense not stiffened up when they really needed to, especially against the run and near the red zone.

LA offenses - UCLA and USC are going to put up a lot of points this season.

Utah's defense - The Utes continue to look like the Stanford of the South with a tough defense that takes the ball away and doesn't give up points.

The Bad

Pac-12 main stage - I'm not going to punish Oregon for losing by three points on the road against Michigan State, but on paper, the Pac-12 doesn't have a good record in big time non-conference games this season (Arizona State/Texas A&M, Washington/Boise State, Oregon/Michigan State, Oregon State/Michigan).

Early season injuries - It has not been pretty thus far for injuries for a lot of the Pac-12, big names like Scooby Wright, Eddie Vanderdoes, Hunter Dimick, Travis Wilson and Adoree Jackson have already had to miss time and Vernon Adams is already really banged up.

Oregon State - The Beavers have a tendency to start the season slow, but regardless, I just don't think they look like they will be very good in 2015, especially on offense.

Utah's non-Booker offense - Utah's offense outside of Devontae Booker looks so limited (especially without Travis Wilson) that they are going to have to hope their defense can keep holding opponents under 20 points while forcing a lot of turnovers to win games.

Stanford's running game - The Pac-12's former golden boy of running the ball now can't even grind out yards against Northwestern and UCF despite having an offensive line and backfield full of blue chip recruits.

The Unknown

Arizona State - The Sun Devils didn't look great against Texas A&M (especially on offense) and then kind of sleep walked against Cal Poly. Does this mean anything? Or is it just losing a challenging game followed by a hangover?

Oregon Playoff race - Obviously a loss should hurt Oregon in the Playoff race, but I don't know if it really does. A three-point loss at Michigan State might not knock the Ducks down any pegs right now. All it might do is make it so they almost assuredly cannot afford to lose  Pac-12 game and still get into the Playoffs.

Josh Rosen - Rosen was excellent against Virgina and good, but not great against UNLV. Is he really the all-time great we all anointed him as after week one?