Wheres... what's missing from this team? What happened where a team riding a home field advantage that led to a 35 game home win streak blew a 9 point lead? I'm still trying to piece things together, as I'm wondering where things went wrong.
First off, you cannot blame any of this on injuries. Or if you do, you cannot say we've been having the top 5 recruiting classes in the past 5 years or that Pete Carroll preaches competition, because the people that have replaced the injured have not held their own. Start with the offensive line, going back to the Washington game, where C Kris O'Dowd and G Chilo Rachal went down on the same play. On the next offensive series, O'Dowd's replacement, C Matt Spanos, who came into the season as the starter, and QB John David Booty had a bad snap exchange which led to a turnover. Now go to the Stanford game. The unit gave up 4 sacks as well a blocked PAT which was the difference in the game. They couldn't hold the Cardinal defense to let RB Chauncey Washington score from the one yard line before the end of the first half. The line let the Trojans rush for only 95 yards, not even for half of our season average. But I guess it is hard to stay motivated to give Booty enough time to throw when all he does is miss receivers or throw interceptions.
More on injuries? What about the running backs? We started off with 10 of them. Emmaunel Moody went to Florida. Fine. Marc Tyler and Broderick Green are redshirting. Good. C.J. Gable had season ending surgery on his groin on Saturday. Whatever. Stafon Johnson hurt his foot. Geez. So that leaves us with Chauncey Washington, Hershel Dennis (!), Joe McKnight, Allen Bradford, and Desmond Reed. Washington had 23 carries against Stanford. Where was McKnight or Bradford? Why was Dennis getting cruch time carries? Bradford is a much better back than Dennis right now, and with his physical running, he had a better chance to score before the half. And we couldn't use McKnight as a change of pace back? When Chauncey is running for 3 or fewer yards on every down, we need something to keep the defense off balance. We did on one play with Ronald Johnson on a sweep. But come on. With five healthy and capable backs, why does one get more than 90% of the touches? Especially on a night where Chauncey was not able to break one. It just show's Pete's stubbornness. Here was a situation where a guy like Bradford or McKnight could have really shown their worth. If you're going to blow their redshirt to give them a chance to play, why aren't you doing so? Another back, FB Stanley Havili was again nonexistent in the offense, other than as the intended receiver on Booty's pick 6.
Further into injuries? What happened to the depth of our defense? That our third string linebackers could start at any other FBS school? And our corners may not be the best in the country, but the way they are taught to play, go for the big hits or face guard the receiver, we are never going to get any interceptions or stop a more accurate passer, like Dixon or Longshore. The coverage on the final touchdown was horrible. Did Mozique McCurtis even know where the ball was? And honestly, it seemed like we were more worried about Stanford QB Tavita Prichard running more than anything. But on 4th and 20, giving that up was inexplicable. Why are we blitzing there? First, our blitzes haven't worked since the 2004 Rose Bowl where John Navarre was a sitting duck the entire game. Now, teams have learned to have a blocking back to slow down the corners or outside linebackers just enough to burn us for blitzing. What did all of the blitzing cause? One sack. The other three were by Sedrick Ellis, and that was just by pure talent. I mean come on. What happened to the best defense in college football (supposedly)? They gave up 17 points. In the fourth quarter. To Stanford. Give me a break. Our defense may have talent, but they do not have a nose for the ball. 106th in turnover margin? Geez. We're not going anywhere if we can't get a QB starting his first game ever to only throw one pick. We should be at 2 losses right now, as if Jake Locker could have hit on a couple of more passes, the Huskies could have won last week. Did our defensive mentality leave with Coach O, like our offense did with Norm Chow? Even in the games we have won, it wasn't because of forcing turnovers, it was because the other team was intimidated by us.
Back to the offensive side, when is Patrick Turner going to step up? I think the entire Trojan fan base is still waiting to live up to his potential. A possession receiver cannot drop 3 passes like he did. It seems like he is always in cruise control, never giving his all. If I'm wrong about that, prove it PT. Earn that #1 jersey that you are wearing. Cause right now, you are putting that number to shame. And did we really depend so much on Dwyane Jarrett and Steve Smith last year to the point that Vidal Hazelton, David Ausberry, and co. could not develop? If we are not going to give them playing time, why are we burning up their redshirts? Same with Stafon Johnson. Unless you're playing like Kris O'Dowd, who is my offensive MVP of the season so far, and with other guys already as established stars and backups, please leave them on the bench. If a guy like Stafon only gets 3 touches, that is not worth blowing a year of eligibility over. But the receivers, Hazelton and Ausberry didn't make an impression last year, but they still went through their redshirt years. Now? Where's the impact? Where's the effects of their playing time? Not one receiver is stepping up. It's time to see more of Ronald Johnson out there. He stretched the field on his touchdown, but why aren't we seeing more of that? When we take shots down field, it seems to be with slower guys, like Fred Davis (no offense), Turner, and Havili, when we just need someone to run down the field and beat teams that are stacking the line against us. Why wasn't RoJo in on the final drive? All we needed was 30 yards. It seems like Sark has gone really conservative with us. I guess it wasn't Kiffen that was making all fo the bad calls last year. I can't believe this.
Booty, what the hell man. I understand wanting to play through an injury, but if that injury is clearly affecting your play, which was evident to me, you need to man up and let someone more capable to play, like Mark Sanchez. I'm not saying that Sanchez is going to lead us to New Orleans, but if Carroll had so much confidence going into the game that we'd walk right over Stanford, why not give your backup QB a chance? Of any game this season, why not this one? Just more of Carroll being a stubborn mule here. But not all of it was on Booty. Where are the bootlegs? Is Booty hurting somewhere else? If the O-line cannot hold the pocket, get Booty out on the move to give him more time and more options. Get Havili more touches. If Turner is going to drop balls, look more to RoJo or BFD. But Booty does need to make better decisions, like on his pick 6. Then again, our timing routes don't work with undependable receivers. Come on.
But it comes back around to our savior, Pete Carroll. A lot was missing from this game. The first half was fine, we only had 9 points, but Stanford couldn't get a first down if their life depended on it. But after that, all hell broke loose. An uninspired three and out followed by Booty's pick 6, followed by another interception before BFD took it upon himself to score his TD. The entire second half, I felt nervous every time we had the ball, and I put that on the shoulders of Booty and Sark. But even with the offense struggling, you'd hope that the defense would hold their own. And they did. For three quarters. Then Stanford got a drink of magic water and score three times on the vaunted Trojans defense for the win. But something was missing for me. And that was heart. We really lacked it on Saturday. There was no desire to win. We didn't want to take the game away from Stanford, we just waited for them to finally fold. And you cannot blame the crowd for that, it was the loudest I have ever heard the Coliseum since the Cal game four years ago. The Trojans just seemed to give up. They were faced with adversity and folded, unlike LSU, who converted 5 (!) fourth downs in their win over Florida, where they were down 10 entering the fourth quarter. It was like USC felt the game was over at halftime. But where was Pete, with his gotta win the turnover battle (lost 5-1)? Win the fourth quarter (lost 17-7)? Maybe Harbaugh was right, Pete probably has one foot out the door and the other in San Diego, cause I did not see any fire in him last night.
This was by far the most disappointing loss, no question. I've only endured four other losses in my time at USC. I'll rank them from least to most disappointng:
- Oregon State 33, USC 31. Here, it turned out that it was a wake up call for the team. They were down 33-10 and could have folded like a cheap tent, but the team rallied behind Booty (!) to close to the final margin. Even though this game was filled with mistakes and poor play, they showed a lot of heart to come back and put themselves in a position to win the game. And it was on the road.
- California 34, USC 31, 3 O/T. I wasn't as disappointed only because it was our fourth game ever with a new quarterback and I wasn't as die hard a Trojan fan yet. USC fell behind 21-7 to tie the game 24-24 heading into overtime. Three more periods and two missed field goals later, the Trojans were upset. But here, with an inexperienced team, QB Matt Leinart was making only his 4th start, the running backs were led by Hershel Dennis (!), they still stuck it out in a hostile environment before K Ryan Killeen's field goal was blocked in the third overtime. And it was on the road.
- 2006 BCS Championship Texas 41, USC 38. Even though it was heartbreaking to see Vince Young trot his way into the endzone with seconds remaining, neither team played horribly. USC was up by 12 in the fourth, but Young did his best Superman impression to lead the Longhorns back. And even though we were favored to win the game (when haven't we been favored?), Texas was a great team, and they beat us playing at their best when we were playing great. They deserved to win that game. We didn't give up that one was much as they wanted to win it. And it was on the road (not at the Coliseum).
- UCLA 13, USC 9. This one hurt. Win one from the crosstown rivals and we're headed to Tempe. But it was not to be. The Trojans rushed for less than 3 yards per carry as the offense never got any momentum as the Bruins held USC scoreless in the second half. The only reason why this isn't lower is because of the Stanford game. And it was on the road.
- Stanford 24, USC 23. Because of everything said above. And it was at home...
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