Saturday, September 19, 2009

USC 13, UW 16

So, everyone knows how much I love SC (not just the football - today's result aside). It doesn't mean that I am not critical...

A few observations:

1.) In football, with a young quarterback (who is terrible by the way - more on this later), you simply can not have 7 straight possessions end without scoring points. SC drove in Washington territory almost the entire second half today and didn't score a point until late in the fourth. Turnovers and penalties killed all of those drives...

2.) Why didn't the field goal attempt count at the end of the first half? I watched it over and over, and the ball seems to be hiked before the clock struck zero. So the field goal attempt would have counted...I understand that the line might not have been set...but this would have been a penalty and thus that would be the explanation.

3.) Pete Carroll knows what he is doing. Aaron Corp looked terrified the entire game. He stared down receivers...he threw into triple coverage (at the 15) that led to a pick...he argued with the ref for 7 seconds instead of helping settle the team for the long field goal attempt.

I didn't believe it this year...I thought that they would slide in under the radar and play in a meaningful game. But, Pete seems to have a hiccup every year...2009 we get to add Washington to the list of low life (see Oregon St, UCLA and Stanford) Pac 10 teams that knock SC off. The predictions were that SC could lose 3-4 games this year...and it seems a lot more likely with tough road games coming up in Berkeley and South Bend.

I am not a doom and gloom person...1 loss does not make a football season. But, I can't handle another game with Aaron Corp under center...and I can't handle teams with 1/3 the talent routinely knocking off PC's squad.