[quote]eic wrote:
Well time to eat my crow sandwich. I’d been preaching the virtues of USC and must face the music. A couple thoughts:
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I think last night was a good illustration of what I was telling WxHerx in my post above regarding the way every other team in the Pac-10 gets fired up for the USC game. You could see it in the fans and the team how much Oregon St. was amped up for the game. USC got Oregon St.'s best shot.
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USC got out coached in that game. I am still amazed how much USC continued to go to McKnight when it was clear that he was not doing shit and having one of the worst games of his life. McKnight not only failed to produce, but also fumbled the ball and failed to cover two punts that gave USC terrible field position (more on this later).
Meanwhile, C.J. Gable was effective everytime he touched the ball (which was not often enough). IMO, McKnight should have sat on the bench while C.J. Gable ran sweeps to the outside and Stefon Johnson ran up the middle.
Also, how fucking obvious does it have to be that Jacuzzi is going to run the ball for Oregon St. up the middle on every play? I was screaming for USC to put 8 or 9 men in the box.
Moreover, Jacuzzi hardly ever ran the ball to the outside; it was up the middle, up the middle, up the middle. Yet USC’s front four would line up with a two foot gap between them and linebackers poised on the corners. USC would have been better served to have its linemen line up shoulder to shoulder with the 'backers filling in behind.
- Everything–and I mean EVERYTHING–went Oregon St.'s way last night. A few phantom holding calls against USC called back key first-down runs that resulted in USC being set up in a 1st-and-20 situation.
Two shanked punts that should have given USC good field position miraculously bounced down inside the USC 5 yd. line. A USC corner tips a horrible Oregon St. pass right into the Oregon St. receiver’s hands for a touchdown right before the half. USC literally could not catch a break all night.
- USC looked rusty in the beginning of the game coming of yet another week break. As Bauer pointed out (and we saw from USC against OSU and Nebraska last year), this often results in an ugly initial showing by a college football team.
Unfortunately, this combined with all of the above to lead to a hole that USC could not dig itself out of.
- Jacuzzi presented a serious match-up problem for USC. Having seen USC play Vince Young, Dennis Dixon, and Terelle Pryor, it is clear that they tend to have problems with a flighty, shifty runner in a zone running scheme. It’s like they get mesmerized or something.
Unlike RJ, I do not believe that Oregon St. is a better team than USC. If you play that game 10 times, USC wins at least 7 of them.
In my opinion, last night was sort of a perfect storm of uncharacteristically bad coaching by USC, bad play by USC, a fired up opponent, crazy bad luck, and week off before the game.
That said, I wholeheartedly believe that USC does not deserve to be in the NC game. In a season where the SEC and Big 12 are so strong, USC’s only claim to the NC game was a perfect record.
Without one, a one-loss USC only gets in if the best team in the SEC and/or Big 12 has two or more losses. Personally, I’d like to see Missouri win the whole thing. [/quote]
While I do agree with you, USC did have 8 or 9 in the box and STILL couldn’t stop them. Just because a team knows what is coming doesn’t mean they are going to be able to stop them, and that was clear last night. Oregon State hit them in the mouth from the start and through the entire game.