Where did the defense go over the weekend in the Pacific-10 Conference?
Oregon gave up 59 points to Arizona State, Stanford let USC put 44 on the board and Washington was upset by Nevada and its 28 points.
Oh, wait. Guess I forgot what conference I was talking about.
The Pac-10 doesn’t have any defense. And that’s exactly why there won’t be a Pac-10 team in the national championship game this year.
Yeah, you heard it here. There will be no Pac-10 team playing in New Orleans at the Sugar Bowl.
The Pac-10 will be shut out of the BCS title game again.
Really, that’s not a far-out prediction, or anything that most everyone else hasn’t predicted, anyway.
The Pac-10 is a shallow and fickle conference. It can’t decide whether or not it wants to compete with anyone outside of its conference. If Pac-10 teams played only within the conference, then, well, we might be talking in a different manner.
But until then, the conference’s teams are going to have to settle for second fiddle to the Big Ten, the Big 12, and the Southeastern Conference.
OK, USC is ranked fifth in the nation and Washington State sixth. But if you honestly think that either team can go the rest of the season unscathed then you haven’t been watching any games.
Besides, the nature of the conference suggests that one team will have to knock off another. The Cougars and Trojans meet on Nov. 1 in Pullman in the Pac-10’s game of the season.
Meanwhile, 22nd-ranked Oregon State has to travel to Washington State a week before that. The Beavers also get to end the season by traveling to Los Angeles on Dec. 6 to play the Trojans.
That’s a tough schedule, and one that will most likely dash the hopes of any Pac-10 fan wanting to go to New Orleans.
But maybe — just maybe — if any Pac-10 team learned how to play defense on a consistent basis, then national title hopes could be in the picture.
USC looked as though it may have had a defense that could stop any team, but California proved otherwise. The Golden Bears put 34 points on the board in their defeat of the Trojans On Sept. 27.
Washington State may be the team next in line with a defense that has any kind of talent, but it’s a more inexperienced team. Besides, the Cougars allowed lowly Notre Dame 29 points in the team’s only loss this season.
It is those kinds of one-game lapses keeping Pac-10 defenses from achieving any kind of success, mainly because of the Pac-10’s offense-first mentality that keeps the defenses at bay.
The Pac-10 is well known for its offensive prowess, and in order for teams to keep on the up and up with other conference programs, recruiting efforts are spent on the next great quarterback, or the wide receivers that stand 6-foot-2-inches or taller.
Then, cornerbacks shrink to under six feet, and defensive coordinators are left to scramble to find schemes that they hope will stop the likes of Cody Pickett, Andrew Walter and Matt Kegel.
That is, they don’t do very well in this quest, and everything goes back to the drawing board.
The Pac-10 has become so proficient offensively that the best defense against a good offense is even more offense. Cornerbacks are hung out to dry as quarterbacks have their way.
Pac-10 teams seem to understand that leaving cornerbacks unassisted is inefficient, but they still can’t apply that to games.
One team has scored at least 40 points in 20 games this season where a Pac-10 program was involved. Furthering that, six games have ended with one team posting more than 50 points.
Maybe, though, having an offensive-loaded conference isn’t that bad after all.
But if you like that, just don’t expect to play anywhere but the Rose Bowl on New Year’s Day.