Simming The Season, Week 9: Cougs Edge Cardinal, Improve To 7-1

Oh man, this was ridiculously close. To be honest, I think I'm more relieved than happy. After pulling away in the first half, the Cougs allowed Stanford to score 23 unanswered points in the 4th quarter en route to hanging on 37 - 36. Stanford scored two touchdowns while kicking three field goals, but missed a very important point after with only 43 seconds left.

With just under 4 minutes to play, Stanford scored on a short run from RB Stepfan Taylor, then successfully executed the 2-point conversion making the score 37 - 30. After scoring with under a minute to play, it looked as if the game would be headed to overtime. Stanford K Eric Whitaker had been perfect on the night, connecting on all five of his FG attempts. Until he was charged with tying the game. Man, it's a video game, and I still feel bad for the kid.

Junior WR Marquess Wilson was his usual ridiculous self earning Player of the Game honors, but somehow got snubbed for Pac 12 Offensive POTW. Wilson's 200+ yards receiving and 2 TDs were pretty much par for the course at this point, and he also went over 100 catches for the season.

Senior QB Jeff Tuel had his worst game of the year completing just over 50% of his passes, but still had over 300 yards and 4 TDs. Overall, Stanford was only the 2nd team to out-gain WSU on offense (the other being Oregon, by 2 yards) when they gained 396 yards to WSU's 378.

WSU improves to 7 - 1, but remains unranked because, ugh, even the polls in NCAA '13 are stupid.

Passing:

Jeff Tuel: 28/54, 365 yards, 4 TDs, 2 INTs, L43, 3 sacks

Rushing:

Jeff Tuel: 13 carries, 5 yards

Rickey Galvin: 2 carries, 8 yards

Receiving:

Marquess Wilson: 17 catches, 223 yards, 2 TDs, L43

Kristoff Williams: 4 catches, 43 yards, 2 TDs, L19

Bobby Ratliff: 3 catches, 53 yards, 0 TDs, 2 drops

Max Hersey: 2 catches, 29 yards

Rickey Galvin: 1 catch, 9 yards

Andrei Lintz: 1 catch, 8 yards

Defense:

Eric Oertel: 13 tackles, 5 solo, 0.5 sacks

Travis Long: 9 tackles, 1 solo, 0.5 sacks

Adam Coerper: 8 tackles, 2 solo, 1.5 sacks

Kache Palacio: 4 tackles, 2 solo, 0.5 sacks, 1 FF, 1 FR

Remoot Eeryt: 3 tackles, 0 solo, 0 deflections, 0 FF, 0 FR, 0 safeties

Around the Pac 12:

Utah 38, Cal 17
Oregon State 48, UW 17
USC 31, Arizona 24
Arizona State 23, UCLA 20 (OT)
Colorado 30, Oregon 20

Updated Pac 12 Standings:

North

1) Washington State (7-1) [4-1]
2) Oregon (6-2) [3-2]
3) Stanford (4-4) [2-3]
4) Oregon State (3-5) [1-4]
5) Washington (3-5) [0-5]
6) Cal (2-7) [0-6]

South
1) Utah (8-0) [5-0]
2) USC (7-1) [5-1]
3) Arizona State (4-4) [3-2]
4) UCLA (6-2) [3-2]
5) Arizona (5-3) [3-2]
6) Colorado (3-5) [2-3]

• Wow. Oregon loses for the 2nd week in a row, allowing the Cougs to jump ahead of them for 1st place in the division. The Ducks still hold the tiebreaker, though, and we have yet to play undefeated Utah, so we have a few more hills to climb before we can pencil our names into the Pac 12 Championship Game.
• Utah is ranked 3rd in the nation. Oregon is no longer ranked. Two weeks ago, Oregon was undefeated and the #1 team in the nation.
• Headed into this week, Kansas State was the #1 team in the nation. Texas Tech beat KSU by 2 (when KSU failed on a 2-point conversion), and is now ranked 22nd in the nation. Texas Tech is 5-3. TEXAS TECH IS 5-3, BUT RANKED 22nd. WE ARE 7-1 BUT REMAIN UNRANKED. My hatred for Texas Tech grows by the minute.
• Seriously though, here are the Red Raider's wins: vs. FCS SE, @ Texas State (3-4), vs. New Mexico (1-7), vs. West Virginia (2-5), @ Kansas State (7-1). They lost @ Iowa State (2-6), vs. Oklahoma (5-2), and @ TCU (8-0). In no possible way is Texas Tech better than Oregon. There's an argument to be made on their behalf when comparing them to WSU, but they played a ridiculous OOC schedule and lost to freakin' Iowa State. The Big 12 is stupid.
• Even after a so-so game, Tuel jumps up to #2 in the Heisman Race.
• As I stated previously, Marquess Wilson is now over 100 catches on the season. His numbers: 101 catches, 1659 yards, 17 TDs. lolz
  
• Tuel's 4 TD passes give him 35 on the season, making him the single season record holder for most passing TDs. Sorry Ryan.
• Oregon State crushed UW. That's how you know this whole simulation thing is getting a bit ridiculous.
• Next week they should unveil the semi-finalists for all awards, so we'll have that to look forward to.

REMINDER!

Today is the single happiest day of my year.Happy Shark Week everyone!

— Eric Shell (@shellin1) August 12, 2012

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Remember, if you want rosters, go here. For a detailed explanation of what this is, go here. See you Monday. Go Cougs!