When the Trojans don’t show up, it’s bound to sting a bit in the morning
As passionate USC fans, JP and Lunchbox try to wade through the mess of a Thursday night upset.
How in God’s name did USC lose to Oregon State?
JP: They believed the hype while the Beavers just lined up and punched them in the mouth. It’s almost like one of those sci-fi movies about alien invasions. At first the aliens seem unstoppable as they’re immune to the archaiac Earth weapons like guns, bombs and tanks. But eventually a diverse group of survivors band together and discover these invaders are incapacited by the common cold, computer viruses, cigarette smoke or something simple like that. This USC team’s weakness are the biggest football cliches: protect the ball, establish a run game and stick to assignments on defense and special teams. If you do that, you stand a good chance of winning.
Here’s a Google Talk exchange that I enjoyed since I’m on an analogy kick:
jonathanglenpyle:
sometimes when you’re a barbarian horde rampaging across the countryside… a village defeats you because they care more about saving their lives and families than you do about ransackingJonathan:
haha
too true
also, 5 foot 8 men should stay in the circus where they belong
How overrated is USC?
JP: (Notice the question isn’t “is USC overrated”) Pretty darn overrated, which hurts to say as the SEC openly mocks the Pac-10 this morning. USC is better than Ohio State to be sure, but not yet deserving of the Top 10. To be fair, rational USC fans didn’t feel great about either the offensive line heading into the season and would’ve started them outside of the Top 10 (including me). After solid performances in the first two games, we ignored our initial concerns and assumed everything was golden thanks to our over-inflated expectations due to years of charmed fandom. Turns out we were right about that. And one thing we know for sure is that this team has taken the personality of Mark Sanchez: fiery but volatile. The highs are very high but the lows are very low. But I will take that any day over the reclusive John David Booty (who really gets a raw deal from fans).
Is there any good news?
JP: Absolutely. Hopefully Mark May will shut up and never speak of USC again. We loathe him too, America! So, at least we have that in common. ESPN will relax the hype and hopefully ignore the Trojans for awhile. The notoriously fickle LA bandwagon is starting to decrease as front-runners head to buy Dodgers or Angels playoff tickets. Now the hardcore fans can get back to appreciating an exciting USC team’s attempt to make it back to the Rose Bowl. Anyone that suffered through the Paul Hackett era knows that we’ve essentially been playing with house money since Pete took over and won 2 National Titles.
Is Jacquizz Rodgers really that good?
Lunchbox: Ask again later. The Corvallis munchkin doesn’t have a large enough sample size to dissect yet since he has only just completed his fourth NCAA game. However, in those four games his rushing totals go like this: 54 yards, 99 yards, 110 yards, 186 yards. If Oregon State had run the ball more to eat up the clock in their first game against Stanford, he could easily have had eclipsed the century mark in every game. If he can stay healthy at his size, he can very likely continue to do damage to opposing defenses. As such a small guy (5’6″), he has natural advantages against today’s beefed up, over-pursuing defenders. He can disappear behind blockers, bursting out of a hole that most other running backs would not be able to fit through. His size makes it easier to change direction too. Defenders have two options when attempting to tackle him: they can try to tackle him at their level and only hit the top of his shoulder pads or his helmet; or they can go low on him and sacrifice their mobility to hit him in the midsection. If a tackler tries to hit him in their own comfort zone, their arms often sweep right over his head. If a tackler tries to go low, they are vulnerable to Rodgers’ ability to change directions in a heartbeat.
Rodgers is definitely not your prototypical every-down back. There’s an exception to every rule. If you look at baseball for a moment, Tim Lincecum is not your prototypical starting pitcher. But that hasn’t bothered him any, has it? I think Jacquizz will continue to impress at the college level. I don’t think he’ll be able to do what he does in the pros. If you put me on the spot right now, I’d predict a season total of about 1500 yards and 20 touchdowns. That’s actually pretty conservative considering the state of Pac-10 defenses. Again, it’s early in his career, but I think Rodgers is for real.
Where does USC deserve to be ranked?
Lunchbox: I expect that the pollsters will probably drop USC to somewhere around between nine and twelve. If I had a vote, I would probably drop them in around 13 or 14. I just can’t see them deserving to be any higher than that right now. And based on their schedule, I don’t know how far they can climb even if they win.
What can Trojan fans expect from the rest of the season?
Lunchbox: Who knows what will happen to the rest of the teams around them as the season progresses…The thing is, I don’t know if USC is going to play a real quality team throughout the regular season. Virginia is BAD, having lost 45-10 to UConn a couple weeks ago. Ohio State is a different team with Pryor starting and Wells healthy. The remaining teams on the Trojans schedule are unranked at this point in time. So if they don’t play a good team all year, how will we be able to gauge this team? It will ultimately come down to the Bowl game. Right now, it looks to me like USC will be meeting the top Big-10 team (Penn State, Ohio State, or Wisconsin) in the Rose Bowl come January 1st. And that’s not a bad thing. Carroll always prepares this team well for their bowl games, so they’ve got a good chance of finishing in the top 5 if they win the Rose Bowl again. Like Carroll says, the whole season is a playoff. The Trojans just got eliminated in the third round of a 12 round playoff.