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          Pac-12 Blog

          Five Pac-12 teams that need to bounce back

          Protecting Mike Bercovici, who was sacked nine times by Texas A&M, is job No. 1 for Arizona State this week. Thomas Shea/USA TODAY Sports
          • Kevin Gemmell, ESPN Staff WriterSep 9, 2015, 11:00 AM ET
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            • Pac-12 reporter
            • Joined ESPN.com in 2011
            • Graduate of the Santa Clara University
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          Week 1 was not what many people thought it would be for the Conference of Champions. But Week 1 is just that -- Week 1 -- with plenty of time brush a shaky 7-5 performance under the rug and move on to the next one.

          Five teams -- Arizona State, Colorado, Stanford, Washington and Washington State -- are looking to do just that. Here’s what they have coming up.

          ARIZONA STATE

          • Next opportunity: vs. Cal Poly

          • What went wrong in Week 1: The special teams weren’t great, but neither were the nine sacks allowed.

          • What needs to happen in Week 2: Let's assume Cal Poly isn’t going to provide the same pass rush as A&M. This week should provide the Sun Devils an opportunity to work on getting their timing back. This is a tempo offense. And when that tempo is disrupted (five fumbles, two lost last week), the end result is 291 yards and 17 points.

          • Coach speak, Todd Graham: “We had a lot of self-destructive efforts on offense and special teams, but the effort was there ... I think we’re going to be a better football team from this game.”

          COLORADO

          • Next opportunity: vs. UMass

          • What went wrong in Week 1: There are the turnovers, the two missed red zone opportunities, the special teams breakdowns ... and, of course, the clock management at the end of the game -- which, yes, some of the blame does go to the officials.

          • What needs to happen in Week 2: Believe it or not, I still think Colorado is a decent football team -- when the Buffaloes are consistent. Eliminating mistakes is easier said than done. We get that. But when everything is clicking, this team still has potential.

          • Coach speak, Mike MacIntyre: “They saw the bone-headed mistakes. Hopefully they understand the mistakes that we made that cost us the football game. It wasn’t anything Hawaii did. It was what we did. If they can understand that and get things done, we’ll keep playing good.”

          STANFORD

          • Next opportunity: vs. UCF

          • What went wrong in Week 1: According to Stanford head coach David Shaw, “Everything you try to avoid in a first game is what we did.” Can’t say it better than that.

          • What needs to happen in Week 2: First off, fix the procedural errors. For an experienced offense, those are inexcusable. Second, shore up the protection. With as touted an offensive line as the Cardinal have, there’s no reason for Kevin Hogan to be experiencing that much pressure. Finally, build on the positives defensively. Stanford’s last 0-2 start came in 2006 when the Cardinal finished 1-11.

          • Coach speak, Shaw: "It’s one thing if we weren’t very talented and not very good and we’re still trying to figure ourselves out. None of those things are the case. We know what we’re good at, we just didn’t show it.”

          WASHINGTON

          • Next opportunity: vs. Sacramento State

          • What went wrong in Week 1: Too little too late for the Huskies, who saw a valiant comeback effort go wide right. With no productive running game (29 yards), the Huskies put a ton of weight on true freshman quarterback Jake Browning to make plays.

          • What needs to happen in Week 2: Give the kid a breather ... as in get the running game going. He’s going to be asked to do a lot this season. But a team like Sacramento State shouldn’t give the Huskies too many problems. Let the offensive line maul and the running backs get a little confidence.

          • Coach speak, Chris Petersen: “For the first game out of the gate, our special teams did a pretty good thing, created some things in field position and got some points. I thought we did some things ... I thought our guys went over there to compete and they competed hard.”

          WASHINGTON STATE

          • Next opportunity: at Rutgers

          • What went wrong in Week 1: The 233 rushing yards allowed to an FCS team and the 0% red zone defense are a good place to start.

          • What needs to happen in Week 2: Head coach Mike Leach said he’s going to scale back some of Luke Falk's on-field responsibilities. The tempo wasn’t to his liking, and he thinks that has to do with the quarterback overthinking things. The hope is that will make the offense as a whole more efficient.

          • Coach speak, Leach: “Everybody wanted to do really well to the point where we paralyzed ourselves a little bit with our own analysis.”