Well, I guess I can't really complain until we lose, but two weeks in a row of games like this is hard to stomach. It's like we're the St. Louis Rams out there on offense, good moving the ball until we get into the red zone where we stall and have to settle for a field goal. I know this offense is nothing like last year's one, but when we get inside the opponent's five yard line, we have to score a touchdown. We're too good not to. Granted, we needed all the points we could get, with the defense playing awesome on first and second down before leaving receivers open on third and long, but that's for the second paragraph. Coach "Big Balls Pete" Carroll made a gamble which paid off, kicking a field goal from the four with about a minute and a half remaining for the final score, but at the time, it looked like a field goal would do not good. But the bend and almost break defense allowed the Huskies to get into field goal range with about 11 seconds left, plenty of time for Washington QB Isaiah Stanback to spike the ball so their kicker could have tied the game, but with Mario Danelo's fourth field goal under his belt, the Huskies and Coach Ty Willingham were forced to go for the endzone. This led to a curious call, a pass over the middle with under ten seconds remaining and no timeouts. The play was finally called dead with 2 seconds remaining (thank goodness for the incompetent Pac-10 officials), and Stanback was not able to get off a final play. Speaking of the refs, there were a couple of phantom holding calls, and the blown presonal foul on the last drive almost killed us, as it allowed Washington to creep closer into "Hail Mary" range. As for the offense, they were good moving the ball into the endzone. QB John David Booty did a nice job spreading the ball out, though he locked into the #1 route many times in the game, which led to easy breakups by the Huskie's secondary which could have been easily picked off if they knew, like the 90,000+ in the Coliseum knew, who Booty was throwing to. While many fans may be frustrated with Booty's performance, if you compare his stats with former QB Matt Leinart's in 2003, Booty has been more effiecient, and the key stat that Booty is leading in, he's 5-0 right now while Leinart was only 4-1. The running game was solid, with Chauncey Washington picking up a handful of key first downs on the Trojans' final possession which allowed us to eat up some clock and get into field goal range. Emmanuel Moody also took advantage of some holes in the Washington defense, but he was also stopped cold several times. The receivers corp was depleted again. With WR Chris McFoy already out with an injured shoulder, and Dwayne Jarrett slowed with a bum shoulder on his own, Booty had to look to WR Steve Smith, who starred in last week's game against Washington State. But Smith went down with an injury of his own, though minor, which kept him out for most of the game. So, after a disappointing performance against the Cougars last week when he coughed up the ball and dropped a couple of passes, WR Patrick Turner stepped up as the go-to receiver for Booty, catching more than half of Booty's 23 completions for 116 yards and a touchdown, USC's only offensive TD of the game.
While the Trojan offense may have had problems putting the ball into the endzone, the defense had problems keeping the Huskies off the scoreboard. As I said before, it seemed like the defense was fired up and pretty much limited Washington to 0-3 yards combined on first and second down, but when we got them to where we wanted, in third and long situations, it seemed like DC Nick Holt sent a blitz while the secondary dropped back into a zone, which left the middle of the field open, allowing the Huskie receivers to run past the marker and settle down in the middle of the field. Granted, some of it may hve been the offensive scheme drawn up by Washington, using the plan Washington State used last week, but again, we failed to get pressure on Stanback and did not force any turnovers. This has been a big reason why we are not able to pull away from games. When the defense forces turnovers, two things happen. One is the momentum swings heavily in our favor. And two, it gives our offense great field position that allows for quick and easy scoring drives. When we hit those big three games; Oregon, California, and Notre Dame, if we can't gain extra possessions by creating turnovers, I'm afraid our offense won't be able to keep up with them.
Special teams did a better job than in past games this season. It wasn't Danelo's fault that the offense sputtered in the red zone, but he was Mr. Reliable, scoring 14 points today when we needed any kind of points with our defense unable to stop the Huskies. Troy Van Blarcom was solid as usual on kickoffs, and P Greg Woidneck also was steady in the field position battle. I stil don't understand why opposing punt returners need to try to be heroes on punts, it seems often more than not that if they don't call for a fair catch, they're going to get blasted by one of our gunners. C.J. Gable looks to have found his niche returning kicks, while Desmond Reed has probably fielded two punts all year. The special teams play of, er, forever, though was the fake field goal for our first touchdowb. I'm surprised Carroll used it in this game, though I'm probably more surprised he did it so early in the game. It seemed more appropriate to do after he sent Danelo out for his 15th field goal attempt, but it still was a special play. Third string QB and holder Michael McDonald threw his second career touchdown pass (on his second career throw) to a wide open Smith for a touchdown. A play like that usually demoralized teams in the past, but now, teams are starting to hang with us instead of fading away. A fake field goal for a touchdown usually led to a bevy of touchdowns after that, but instead it was the Mario Danelo show out there. Oh well. Time for the game balls:
Offense - Though WR Patrick Turner may be tempting with his 12 catches for 116 yards and a TD, it was all about
RB Chauncey Washington and his solid running, going for 81 yards on 17 carries and pitching in with 2 receptions for 17 yards. Without his third and short conversions, we would have given Washington (the team) the ball back with more than ample time to try and score a touchdown. Turner may have the stats, but Washington (our RB) came up with the big plays when we needed them the most.
Defense - Ugh, not again. I guess I should hand one out, though with the defense not forcing any turnovers or the the secondary picking off any passes, it's really hard to pick out someone from a group that's really struggling. This unit was supposed to be our team's fallback, with an inexperienced offense, out defense should keep opposing teams to under 14 points per game. So our struggling offense has had to find ways to put up more points that the defense allows, which has been more than enough against the Washington schools. But if I really need to give one out, I guess
LB Keith Rivers would get it, based on his 12 tackles, including one for loss, and two pass breakups. So basically, the guy with the best stats wins here, though it's not really saying much. Its like winning the NL West.
Special Teams - C.J. Gable really helped with the field position, and Mario Danelo may have scored 14 points today (4-4 FG, 2-2 PAT), but I'd have to give this game ball to
QB Michael McDonald, who threw a touchdown to Steve Smith on a fake field goal, only because I'm still giddy about that play. And maybe because McDonald has probably the highest QB rating ever. (2-2, 24 yards, 2 TD).
Overall, another disappointing game for the Trojans. I'm not expecting to win every game against an unranked opponent by 50 points, but I expect to not have a heart attack in the final minute of every game as we conveinently lead by 6 points... Arizona State is next. You think QB Rudy Carpenter has been watching what Stanback and WSU QB Alex Brink had been doing the past couple of weeks? The Sun Devils had a bye to lick their wounds from their beatings from Cal and Oregon, so they may be prepared for the upset in the Coliseum. The only problem, ASU Coach Dirk Koetter is winless in California. Go figure...
No pick'em this week, though I did pick Washington to cover the spread (I'll show you my Yahoo! College Football Pick'em if you don't believe me), with of course USC (-19) winning, so I guess:
W-L - 5-0
Against the spread: 2-2-1
