You’d think after getting embarrassed last week in Seattle the USC brain trust would have learned their lesson and opened up the offense; especially with the return of Matt Barkey from his shoulder injury. Sure, Aaron Corp was horses*** last week and thankfully won’t ever see the field again, but the conservative play calling did him no favors against UW….
All week long, Pete Carroll accepted some of the blame for the miserable performance and promised to throw downfield a little more, and in the first quarter he was a man of his word….
Barkley looked sharp, threw two beautiful TD passes and Troy was up 20-0 afer the first 15 minutes…..
After that, however, the brakes were puy on the offense by Carroll and offensive coordinator Jeremy Bates and over the final three quarters the score was 7-7. You read that right, Washington St. played Troy on even terms for the final 45 minutes….
Argualby the worst team in a BCS conference, the Cougars held USC to a measly 156 yards rushing and 27 points; which does not bode well for the rest of the Trojans season….
Another disturbing thing is Washington apparantly isn’t any good, based on their getting thumped 34-14 at Stanford on Saturday….
So UW gets hammered at home by LSU, embarrassed at Stanford and actually wins against USC? Not looking good for Troy to run the table and play for the national championship in January….
I know Cal was destroyed at Oregon, 42-3, but they’re not that bad and were probably caught looking ahead to this week’s game at home against USC. Everyone will be picking the Trojans to bounce back and pound an overrated Golden Bears team, but if Troy continues to play conservatively and depends on the defense to win the game they’re going to leave Josef Stalin Stadium with their second loss of the season….
And Carroll will have a decision to make about Bates….
When I watched Oregon go the entire first half without a first down against Boise St. in their opening game a few weeks ago, I wondered if new coach Chip Kelly might be in over his head….
Since then, however, Kelly has lived up to his reputation as a spread option genius as the Ducks have lit it up. The players are buying into the system, Kelly has made adjustments and Oregon is now a great offensive team….
Jeremiah Masoli, who looked so bad against Boise, was nearly perfect against Cal and looked as though he’d been running this offense for years….
The balance between run and pass, combined with creative play calling and the option, iis fun to watch and USC is in deep trouble when they travel to Eugene later this season….
But let’s not get ahead of ourselves; they’re not going to win this weekend on Karl Marx Field if they don’t produce mor eoffense and take some chances downfield….
Can you imagine the scene in Berkley if the Bears defeat USC?….
The communists up there will celebrate as if Lenin and Stalin came back to life and were back in power….
Who knows, maybe the party up there will spread all the way to their bosses in Moscow and Red Square will be rocking….