SPORTS
Wednesday, November 21, 2018
East Oregonian
Pac-12 North still undecided,
a few rivalry games remain
Page 3B
NFL
By ANNE M. PETERSON
AP Sports Writer
The Pac-12 winds up the
regular season this week with
a few loose ends.
Like the Pac-12 North.
Seventh-ranked Washing-
ton State hosts No. 16 Wash-
ington on Friday in the Apple
Cup with the division’s spot
in the Pac-12 championship
game on the line.
For Washington State, the
stakes are higher. The Cougars
still have a shot — however
slim — of making the College
Football Playoff. But they’ll
need to beat the Huskies, then
beat Utah in the conference
championship, and hope a
couple of teams above them in
the national rankings tumble.
If the Cougars win out and
don’t get selected, they’re
headed for the Rose Bowl.
But first things first. It will
be the 111th Apple Cup, and
the third in a row where both
teams are ranked. Two sea-
sons ago, the Cougars and the
Huskies were both 7-1 in con-
ference play going into the
game in Pullman and Wash-
ington won 45-17 to earn a
spot in the league champion-
ship. The Huskies went on
to face Alabama in the CFP
semifinals.
Washington has won the
last five Apple Cups, but
coach Chris Petersen isn’t
counting on recent trends for
this one. This season has been
too strange for that.
“I think you just look at
what’s happened around our
league and every program in
there. I think that says it all.
It’s very, very different year
to year in college football,”
Petersen said.
Washington State coach
Mike Leach played down the
rivalry aspect of the game.
He said “like most weeks the
challenge is with ourselves.”
“I think they’re already
focused,” Leach said about
his team. “The biggest thing is
having a good week of prac-
tice. Have a good week of
Scott Clause/The Daily Advertiser via AP
New Orleans Saints quarterback Drew Brees (9)
passes during an NFL football game against the
Philadelphia Eagles in New Orleans on Sunday.
Saints still on top
of Pro32 poll
By SIMMI BUTTAR
AP Sports Writer
AP Photo/Elaine Thompson
Washington tailback Myles Gaskin (9) gets quarterback Jake Browning to wave to a photog-
rapher after an NCAA college football game against Oregon State on Saturday in Seattle.
practice and then duplicate
that.”
Other things to note head-
ing into the final weekend of
the season:
Bowl bound: Bowl sea-
son is quickly approaching,
so here’s a handy primer for
the Pac-12’s arrangements:
The league has seven bowl
partners, led by the Rose
Bowl. The winner of the Pac-
12 championship goes to
Pasadena — unless it is one
of the four national playoff
teams, and then it would go
to either the Orange or Cotton
bowls. The Rose Bowl would
replace the CFP-bound team
with another league team to
face an opponent from the
Big Ten.
After the Granddaddy Of
Them All, set for Jan. 1, the
other bowls are: The Alamo
Bowl against the Big 12 on
Dec. 28, the Holiday Bowl
against the Big Ten on Dec.
31, the Redbox Bowl against
the Big Ten on Dec. 31, the
Sun Bowl against the ACC on
Dec. 31, the Las Vegas Bowl
against the MWC on Dec. 15
and the Cheez-It Bowl against
the Big 12 on Dec. 26.
Let’s take a moment to
appreciate the bowl named
after a popular snack cracker.
Currently, there are six
teams in the league that are
already bowl-eligible with one
game left.
Rivalry week: In addition
to the Apple Cup, there are
two other conference rivalry
games this weekend. Oregon
and Oregon State meet Fri-
day in the annual Civil War,
which is essentially only for
pride this season, and Arizona
faces Arizona State on Satur-
day in the Territorial Cup. The
game is important for Arizona
because the Wildcats need
one more win to reach six and
secure bowl eligibility.
USC hosts Notre Dame in
the 90th meeting of their inter-
sectional rivalry, and Utah
hosts BYU in the Holy War.
Colorado visits Cal and Stan-
ford is at UCLA for the other
two regular-season finales.
Utah coach Kyle Whitting-
ham isn’t particularly fond of
having the Holy War at the
end of the season — and on
Saturday — because the Pac-
12 championship is looming
in the distance and the North’s
representative will be deter-
mined Friday.
“I guess ideally you’d like
a bye this week so that you
could prepare for what’s
coming up next. So we
have the six-day turnaround
where whoever we face has
the seven-day turnaround,
so that isn’t ideal, but that is
how it lays out,” Whitting-
ham said.
“Nothing we can do about
it. I don’t think the rivalry
game is scheduled for the end
of the year in the foreseeable
future, I think it moves back to
the beginning.”
Speaking of Utah, they’ll
play for the Pac-12 champi-
onship for the first time since
joining the league.
Hotseat update: Mike
MacIntyre became the first
Pac-12 coach of the season to
fall when Colorado dismissed
him Sunday. Clay Helton still
has his job at USC as of Tues-
day. This seems to be shaping
up to be a quieter offseason
than last year when there were
five coaching changes.
NEW YORK — Drew
Brees and the New Orleans
Saints just keep on rolling.
The Saints extended
their winning streak to
nine games with a 48-7
rout of the Eagles, hand-
ing them the most lopsided
defeat for a Super Bowl
champion.
And the Saints will also
get an early start on trying
to make it 10 wins in a row
when they host NFC South
rival Atlanta on Thanks-
giving night.
Because of their impres-
sive run, the Saints kept the
No. 1 spot in the latest AP
Pro32 poll. They received
all 12 first-place votes and
384 points in balloting
Tuesday by media mem-
bers who regularly cover
the NFL.
“The Saints’ offense
keeps rolling along, to the
point where the NFC play-
offs might very well go
through New Orleans,”
Newsday’s Bob Glau-
ber said. “And if that’s
the case, can another trip
to the Super Bowl be far
behind?”
The Los Angeles Rams
and Kansas City flipped
spots after their 54-51
shootout on Monday
night at the Coliseum. The
Rams are No. 2 and the
Chiefs are No. 3 as both
teams enter their respec-
tive bye week.
Monday’s game was
the third-highest scoring
game in NFL history and
the first game in the NFL
when each team had at
least 50 points. There were
14 touchdowns, including
three by defensive players.
There were 56 first downs
and 1,001 combined yards.
“(Rams) just won best
game of the decade,” Fox
Sports’ John Czarnecki.
The New England Patri-
ots moved up two spots to
No. 4 as they were on their
bye week. The Patriots
return to action when they
face the New York Jets.
And despite overcom-
ing a 16-0 second-half
deficit at Jacksonville, the
Pittsburgh Steelers slipped
a spot to No. 5.
The Chicago Bears
climbed four spots to No.
6 after their 25-20 win
over Minnesota on Sun-
day. The Bears will open
Week 12 when they travel
to Detroit to face the Lions
on Thanksgiving.
“The Bears are prov-
ing that defense, a running
game and a league-lead-
ing turnover differential
still matter in an era of
wide-open football,” said
Ira Kaufman of Fox 13 in
Tampa, Florida.
The surging Houston
Texans, who have won
seven in a row after an 0-3
start, gained two places to
No. 7.
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