AP Top 25: Sun Devils rise again despite bye week

Arizona State had a bye, but thanks to the continuing parity in the Pac-12, still rose to No. 18 in the Amway Coaches Poll and No. 17 in the AP Poll. The last time the Sun Devils were No. 17 was the week of Sept. 2

USC squeezed by Arizona with a win, taking down the Wildcats 28-26 thanks to a missed field goal late in the game by Casey Skowron. USC had taken a 28-13 lead on a Javorius Allen run near the goal line at the end of the third quarter. The Wildcats came back within two points on a Jared Baker run with just over a minute left and recovered the onside kick, but Skowron missed the field goal wide right. Arizona fell to No. 16 and the Trojans jumped back into the AP Poll at No. 22 with the victory.

Oregon and UCLA squared off in Pasadena in a battle of teams which got their hearts broken last week. The two teams combined for 1,021 yards of total offense, but the Ducks pulled away to a 42-10 lead early in the fourth quarter on a Royce Freeman run from two yards out and the Bruins couldn't recover. UCLA dropped completely out of the poll while the Ducks regained some ground, moving up to No. 9 this week.

Utah didn't play this week either, but moved up to No. 20 from No. 24.

An explosive Washington State team on offense was able to give Stanford a little scare in Palo Alto, but the Cardinal still won 34-17. The Cougars were within one score of tying the game in the fourth quarter when Connor Halliday connected with River Cracraft on a touchdown pass from three yards out. But the Cardinal stopped the WSU scoring there and tacked on 10 more points of their own to secure the win.

Stanford moves up to No. 23 with the win and plays the No. 17 Sun Devils Saturday at 7:30 PT on ESPN.