I go to every USC football game at the Coliseum and have for a few years. Yesterday, the Trojans defeated Oregon St. 42-36, and I have to keep reminding myself that a win is a win is a win. After all yesterday alone, Alabama needed a blocked field goal at the end of regulation to hold off a very mediocre Tennessee team and the Gators had only a 16-13 lead at the end of the 3rd quarter against 3-5 Mississippi St. and Ricky Stanzi threw a 7-yard TD pass on the last play of the game leading Iowa over Michigan St..
This was a sloppy, unimpressive win for the Trojans. Allen Bradford was a horse with 147 yards on the ground on just 15 carries. Matt Barkley had an inconsistent performance with 15-25 for 202 with 2 TDs and 2 INTs (he had another sure interception dropped by the Beavers and had a possible 4th INT called back on an Oregon St. penalty). Overall, the offense really won the game for USC, which is something we're not accustomed to seeing.
In the first 5 games of 2009, USC didn't allow a TD pass. In its last 2 games now, the vaunted Trojans secondary led by All-American Taylor Mays has given up 5 TD passes and recorded 0 INTs. USC has allowed a combined 63 points to Notre Dame and Oregon St. in back-to-back weeks, and if something doesn't change in a hurry, the Trojans will need 60 points to outduel Oregon at Autzen Stadium on Saturday.
Ran into ESPN's Bruce Feldman on the sidelines near the end of the game, and I said, "What do you think about next week." He said, "Every week stands alone. There's no real carryover." He's right. USC is always great in the "circle that game on your calendar" games and questionable in all of the games in between. Oregon St. was one of the in-between games.
Still if you look at the 2nd halfs of the Notre Dame and Oregon St. games, the Trojan defense has faced 11 offensive drives and the Irish and Beavers combined to score 7 TDs (and that doesn't count the last drive of the Notre Dame game which went 16 plays and nearly led to an Irish upset win).
Especially ominous looking ahead to Autzen on Saturday is the performance of Beavers TE Joe Halahuni he racked up 127 receiving yards and was seemingly open for Oregon St. quarterback Sean Canfield on every play all night. USC will face TE Ed Dickson on Saturday, who is one of the best at his position in America with 27 catches and 4 TDs.
After giving up a mind-numbing 482 yards to Oregon St. yesterday, Mays says that the Beavers are the best offense USC has seen all year. The Trojan defense better get ready, because they are about to face an even better one. Jeremiah Masoli has a quarterback rating of 129, throwing for 5 TDs (vs. 2 picks) and running for 7 TDs. In his last 3 starts, Masoli is completing 75% of his passes. And, freshman TB LaMichael James has racked up 100yds in 4 of his past 5 games and 150+ in 3 of those.
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