Yeah, a lot of shuffling in my top 25. Well, I guess I have to talk about the USC-UW game sometime, right?
Well, I guess I should lead off with the positives. The defense played lights out on Saturday, allowing only 190 yards (90 passing) and forcing a turnover. You could say that they only allowed 165 yards, as the two touchdown drives they gave up were on short fields. The first was after the mishandled exchange between QB John David Booty and C Matt Spanos, who stepped in to replace an injured C Kris O'Dowd, which gave the ball to the Huskies on the 15 yard line. Two plays later, UW QB Jake Locker dashed 10 yards into the endzone to give the Huskies a 7-0 lead. The second time the defense had to play on a short field was after P Greg Woidneck's punt was blocked and returned to the USC 10 yard line. Three plays later, Locker ran 1 yard into the endzone for the game's final score. But in between, the Huskies could not do anything on offense, with Locker misfiring on a lot of passes and the run game being stuffed by the dominant Trojan defensive line.
The other positive from the night was to see our run game still clicking after O'Dowd and G Chilo Rachal went down to injuries. RBs Chauncey Washington and Stafon Johnson both finished with over 100 yards and a TD each, and both had big runs which led to scores. The only thing I can complain about with the run is that Johnson needs to get more carries, as right now Washington has about a 2-1 ratio on carries, and rotating them on every play may even help if one is struggling. It was also nice to see Desmond Reed more involved in the offense on third downs as a pass blocking back who catches some passes out of the backfield. But whenever he's in the game, it screams to the defense that we are going to pass, almost like when WR Brad Walker is in, we run the ball almost 90% of the time.
Now for the bad. I can't really say that Booty played a bad game. But it seemed he was missing receivers all game, including several passes that if thrown on target, would have led to touchdowns. In his defense, the field did seem a little slick, especially on the play where Booty was almost intercepted in the end zone, the receiver (I think David Ausberry) slipped on the timing route. And FB Stanley Havili probably played the worst game of his life, with several drops, including the one which led to the interception returned for a touchdown. Havili wasn't the only one with drops in the game, but hopefully this problem gets resolved in the next three games before we play Oregon. The one thing you can say that is Booty is getting a lot of time to throw, which is credit to the offensive line. And that he threw for the longest touchdown pass of the season (23 yards to Patrick Turner).
The penalties almost killed the team. At least for the offense anyway. Any rhythm that the offense had going were killed by penalties, especially the false starts on G Alatini Malu, who had to replace Rachal after the injury. The personal fouls on the defense didn't hurt them, as they still held their own and gave up only a field goal on Washington's sustained drives, but that was due to two questionable pass interference calls. But whenever you have almost more penalty yards (166) that yards you allow (190), that's a problem.
Special teams was also a disapointment. K David Buehler missed a 33 yarder on our first drive, which kept UW in the game. Though I felt like that was a "Big Balls Pete" moment, with fourth and short after a long third down play by Desmond Reed and a field goal only giving us a 6 point lead. But that was still a very makeable kick. And the blocked punt at the end... it was a protection breakdown, and we were very lucky they didn't return it for a touchdown which would have made the upset bid more realistic. But the good, we had good kick coverage all game long. And CB Terrell Thomas had a hell of a game on special teams. First forcing the fumble on the punt return which set up our second field goal. And on the onside kick, he recovered, sealing the win for USC. Not to mention he played good defense.
Sigh. Anyway, time for the game balls:
Offense - Stafon Johnson, though he only had 9 touches, still kept the offense going while Booty struggled. I would say Chauncey could get it, but Stafon really lit a torch in the offense when he was in the game.
Defense - Keith Rivers played his assignment on Locker down to a tee, collecting 10 tackles in the process and continuing to build his draft stock. Other nominees were Rey Maualuga, who helped Rivers contain Locker, and Sedrick Ellis, who continues to give opposing O-lines fits.
Special Teams - Terrell Thomas played one hell of a game, forcing and recovering a fumble on a punt return and recovering the onside kick to end the game.
A rundown of other games from the weekend:
- LSU played sluggish in the first half against Tulane, holding only a 10-9 lead, but really showed up in the second half to pull away, 34-9. Their ability to put teams away is why I have them #1.
- Oklahoma, who had been blowing teams away by a margin of 50 points, let Colorado close the game with a 20-0 run to lose 27-24 in one of the more shockers of the day. Most of the time a team like the Sooners goes up by 17 points, they put a team like the Buffaloes away. But not on a day filled with upsets.
- Florida lost to Auburn for the second straight year, this time on a last second field goal to fall 20-17. I guess Tommy Tuberville has Urban Myers' number, but at least the Gators rallied from a 17-3 hole to tie the game before falling late.
- West Virginia failed to get any offense going in losing to South Florida, 21-13 in Tampa.The Mountaineers lost QB Pat White in the first half and never recovered. It looks like the Big East is now South Florida's the lose.
- Cal held off a late rally by Oregon 31-24, after Ducks' receiver Cameron Colvin fumbled the ball out of the end zone before crossing the goal line with less than 10 seconds remaining. It was a great effort by both teams, and I didn't penalize Oregon for losing to my #3 team in the nation, as Cal went into a hostile Auzten Stadium to pull out the win. I'm still terrified by both teams, especially since USC has to play both on the road.
- Texas got blown out at home by Kansas State 41-21. I thought the Longhorns would enter this game focused after their national title hopes were ended in Manhattan, KS, but I guess Mack Brown couldn't get his troops up for the game. I wasn't surprised by the result, though, as Texas has struggled in all of its games this year.
- Rutgers also lost at home, this time to a Maryland team that was coming off a stunning loss to Wake Forest. I wasn't able to watch the game, but I guess Ray Rice and the Scarlet Knights were never able to get the ball rolling. With the three favorites (Louisville, West Virginia, Rutgers) each having one loss in conference play, the Bulls from South Florida look poised to capture the BCS berth (bowl game predictions later...)
And for how I did this week (upsets hurt...)
Straight up: 15-9 (106-23/82.2% overall)
Against the spread: 10-12-1 (43-57-5 overall)
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