The Week

WEST

"It's humiliating," seethed Stanford Coach Bill Walsh. What got his goat were the two blocked punts and two interceptions by Washington that had led to Husky touchdowns in a 34-31 defeat of the Cardinals. But Stanford fans might well be equally ticked off by a Walsh decision that enabled Washington to win. Deadlocked 31-31 with a fourth-and-11 at the Washington 49 and 50 seconds left to play, Walsh eschewed a punt that would have undoubtedly assured a tie and ordered Steve Dils to attempt a pass for a first down. Dils' aerial to Ken Margerum was incomplete and Washington took over. Quarterback Tom Porras hit Keith Richardson for 40 yards, and two plays later Mike Lansford booted the game-winning 22-yard field goal.

Up to then, it had been a wild afternoon. Stanford led 17-10 in the third quarter until Washington's Lance Theoudele intercepted a Dils pass and returned it 36 yards for a touchdown. Forty-nine seconds later, Greg Grimes picked off another Dils pass and ran it back 36 yards again for another TD. And 1:27 after that, Washington blocked a punt, recovered it at the Stanford five and scored a touchdown three plays later for a 31-17 lead. But Stanford stormed back on a 33-yard Dils-to-Margerum TD pass and a six-yard run by Phil Francis that capped a 50-yard scoring drive. "Our snaps are too slow, our punter is too slow and our blocking isn't good," said Walsh, explaining his decision not to punt.

UCLA exploded for 398 yards rushing and 131 passing to whip Washington State 45-31, and California dumped Arizona 33-20 to remain the only undefeated teams in Pac-10 play. The Bruins' James Owens and Theotis Brown rushed for 161 and 150 yards, respectively, the first time in UCLA history that two backs gained 150 yards or more in the same game. The Bruins had trailed 24-14 at halftime and didn't get the lead for good until Rick Bashore ran a keeper from one yard out to cap an 80-yard scoring drive and make it 38-31 with 1:45 left to play. Cal, boasting the nation's sixth-leading passer in Rich Campbell, was expected to blitz Arizona through the air. The Bears did just that, Campbell completing 12 of 21 passes for 211 yards. But they also attacked on the ground with John Williams, limited to just nine carries in Cal's first five games, breaking away for 133 yards in 15 carries.

Jim McMahon of Brigham Young also popped on the scene in a big way, and as a result the Cougars eked out a 17-16 win at Oregon. McMahon, a second-string quarterback who also punts, had a first-quarter kick blocked and run into the end zone for a TD by Oregon's Ken Lawler that gave the Ducks a 10-0 lead. But in the third quarter McMahon replaced Marc Wilson at quarterback and led the Cougars to two TDs, including a 21-yard scoring pass to Todd Thompson that put BYU on top. For Oregon, it was a fourth straight game in which the Ducks blew fourth-quarter leads. It also left them 0-6. Wyoming's Myron Hardeman set a Cowboy rushing record of 230 yards in a 31-22 defeat of San Diego State.

1. UCLA (5-1)
2. USC (4-1)
3. CALIFORNIA (5-1)

MIDWEST

It wasn't the first time Bo's and Woody's troops had gone belly up on the same afternoon, but last Saturday wasn't New Year's Day. While Michigan was doing its collapsing act against Michigan State, Ohio State was losing 27-16 at Purdue. Not since Oct. 28, 1967 had two Little Eight squads dumped the Big Two on one afternoon. That year, Bo and Woody will note, was the last time that neither Ohio State nor Michigan won the Big Ten, Indiana, Minnesota and Purdue tying for the title.

Mistakes—six fumbles and nine penalties—might have set up Ohio State for the knockout, but it was Purdue's Mark Herrmann who delivered the punches. The Boilermakers' sophomore quarterback, who was 22 months old in 1960 when Purdue last beat Ohio State in Ross-Ade Stadium, picked apart the Buckeye secondary with 22 completions in 34 attempts for 210 yards and moved into fourth place among Purdue's passing leaders, behind Mike Phipps, Bob Griese and Len Dawson. The Buckeyes trailed 20-16 with 7:40 to play and started on their six-yard line with hopes of taking the lead. Quarterback Art Schlichter passed to Rod Gerald, who took a thunderous hit from Willie Harris and coughed up the ball at the Buckeye 10. Two plays later, Herrmann delivered the clincher. Last year he had noticed Buckeye Safety Mike Guess coming up fast on the out pass. This time he sent Mike Harris on an out, faked to draw Guess up and then lofted a feathery pass to Harris, who had cut into the end zone.

The victory shot Purdue (2-0) into the top spot in the Big Ten. Second-place Wisconsin (2-0-1) was tied 20-20 by Illinois when, with less than three minutes to play, Rich Weiss drove the Illini 69 yards, scored on an eight-yard keeper and then passed to Greg Boeke for a two-point conversion. Mark Carlson hit 14 of 19 passes and flipped two 17-yard scoring throws to Elmer Bailey as Minnesota took a three-touchdown lead and held off Iowa to break a three-game losing streak with a 22-20 victory. Indiana converted three early Northwestern turnovers into touchdowns en route to a 38-10 victory.