HOW DID USC LOSE?
By mark rogers
September 26, 2008
I was on the USC band wagon from last year on...they looked great in the Rose Bowl and smeered Virginia on the road and Ohio State - a top 5 team at the time - last week.
USC is bigger. USC is stronger. USC is faster. USC is more talented than any other team in college football...period. End of discussion...it's not even close. This is probably Pete Carroll's most talented team he's had at USC, and that's saying something.
Taylor Mays, Brian Cushing, Kevin Ellison, Joe McKnight, Mark Sanchez, Mitch Mustain, Aaron Corp, Ray Maualuga, Patrick Turner, Vidal Hazelton, Damian Williams, Fili Moala, Everson Griffin...and on and on and on. You'll see most of those guys in the NFL in the next few years. They're unbelievable athletes.
So how in the world did they lost to a team that lost to Stanford and was crushed by Penn State in a game they looked like a Division I-AA program?
Simple.
Scheme.
I watched the game last night. I watched most plays more than once. I could NOT believe what I was seeing.
USC lineman getting driven off the line. Defenders missing tackles. Fumbles. Dropped passes. Mass hysteria.
What the Oregon State coaches did was scheme the absolutely perfect game plan. Had their plan looked any different, I believe they would have lost and lost big.
The Beavers took advantage of two things: USC's speed and their complacency.
They used the Trojans speed against them by putting James Rodgers in motion and running misdirection plays...over and over and over.
The OSU QB didn't even have that great of a game, which I would have thought was a must if they were to win. The OSU offensive lineman were in the right place at the right time as if they knew exactly what stunts and which direction the USC defenders were going.
When that happened, Quizz Rodgers found the holes and ran with a fire he probably didn't even know he had.
OSU was confident. They weren't scared. They were in front of their home crowd (which is HUGE in college football).
I don't even think the OSU defense played all that great...their offense was just so good that it took most of the pressure off the defense.
When you are the best team in the nation and you get punched in the mouth and it hurts and you're bleeding...that messes with your mental frame of mind.
It just goes to show that ANYBODY can beat ANYBODY on any day.
That is the equivalent of TCU beating Oklahoma...Iowa State beating Georgia...Houston beating Missouri. Craziness.
You think we would have learned after last year when Top 5 teams lost to unranked teams 13 times.
I thought USC was unstoppable. I thought they had a cake walk to the BCS Title Game. I thought they would be regarded as one of the greatest teams of all time. I was way off.
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