flapjack said:
Scott, I attended all four of those road games in person. To explain away all four games where USC was pushed to the limit by inferior teams including playing in some not so hostile environments - Stanford, UCLA does not make sense.
Are you a USC fan? Do you go to all USC home/away games? If you are not a USC fan, why are you going to their away games? Curious.
Tell me where my explanation is off base.
Game 1 @V-Tech
USC has brand new OL, new WR's, new TE, new FB, off field problems with starting RB Dennis and WR Mike Williams. Playing first game of year on the road across the country with 60k+ hokie fans vs 15k USC fans. Isn't V-Tech a quality opponent? THAT IS THE REASON CARROLL IS THE #1 coach in CFB. Nobody else in the country would win that game under those circumstances. Of course the game is going to be close and USC will struggle.
Game 2 @ Stanford
1st conf. game of year on road. Early in season and USC is still has issues with inexperience WR's, OL, FB, TE, etc etc. Of course USC will struggle. In this particular game, Stanford played great 1h and was getting all the breaks. For example ball going off USC WR helmit and bounced in air right into stanford DB which led to Cardinal score. With 10 sec in half stanford running the clock out with handoff and it goes for 80 yard TD because USC defense for some reason lost concentration. It was $hit half for USC and great half for Stanford. 2h was different story. Again, USC was VERY YOUNG and VERY INEXPERIENCE last year. Especially early in season. Of course USC might struggle @Stanford. But only for one half and overcame horrible breaks that went Stanfords way.
Game #3 @Oregon St.
USC is now is not really a young inexperienced team but this game was in HORRIBLE conditions. So horrible conditions, you couldn't see 20 yards downfield. Never seen fog that thick before. You hardly could watch on TV and anytime ball was thrown you lost sight of it. I think these horrible weather conditions sorta even the playing field. If anything, OSU players have practiced in fog before and this def. was first time USC players played in. On road, horrible weather conditions, UPSETS HAPPEN ALL THE TIME! But USC if I remember correctly in this game had double digit lead late in 4th and gave up a meaningless TD to OSU at end of game.
Game #4 @UCLA
Ok, USC is now experienced and rolling. Had a whole season to play and Carroll has his team rolling. USC just beat rivals ND and now plus play cross town rival UCLA. UCLA has been waiting all year for this game and is the most important game of the year for them. UCLA had over 2 weeks to prepare for this game and install new stuff etc. Almost like a bowl game. USC had 1 week. USC basically had complete control of this game. UCLA got a long TD return that kept them in game but that never would have happened if ref called a blatant hold on USC. Ref also could have called fumble on USC on Bush but didn't. So it evened out although I think USC got worst of it because UCLA return kept UCLA in game. But point is USC had complete control of the game throughout. UCLA stayed in game because starting OL Baker got hurt and his replacement was true freshman BYERS who was playing with disk problem in his back. UCLA freshman DL blew past Byers at least 3 times and destroyed 3 offensive plays for USC. That would not have happened if Baker was in game. Lets not forget USC would have called the game a lot differently if they did not have game in control in 2h. USC sorta went on cruise control and UCLA with some breaks could have had chance to pull upset. Also, don't forget Chow was interviewing for HC position all week prior to UCLA game while UCLA had 3 weeks to prepare for USC. You know damn well UCLA coaches were treating this game as BCS NC game. All in all, it was VERY tight at end of game, but USC had game in control for most of day.
Playing on the road is tough no matter who you are and playing back to back road games next year against conference foes who should be fairly strong (Oregon - OK team, very hostile environ; ASU potentially very good team, not so hostile environ).
I agree completely. I wish SEC folks would realize this. Their are SEC teams who start season off playing 3,4,even 5 straight home games. How could anybody respect that? On top of that, look at the teams they are playing at home. :flush:
And, then giving 15.5 points in the 2nd road game against a team looking for revenge - early in the season (Where USC has over the past 4 years looked like a different team than in the 2nd half of the seaon) is risky to say the least. USC could easily crush ASU again, but I think it will be a close game with potential upset possibilities.
You make great pts but last years USC team is different than this years USC team. USC only has inexperience at DT's and LB's. USC may not be as good as last year (we just don't know) but I think it is safe to say that this will be Carrolls BEST and MOST experienced team heading into the season. BTW, I think there will be 6-8 games this year where USC will get their opponents "A" game and this is prob. one of them. HUGE TARGET ON USC! USC prob. won't bring their "A" game to 4-5 games.
Conversley, I'm not ready to hop on the Arizona bandwagon yet. USC playing Arizona at home only giving 12.5 points sounds like easy money to me. After 2 weeks on the road, the team will be ready to pound someone at home. Arizona's D may hold USC to 25-35 points (If they play lights out), but I don't see more than single digits out of Arizona's offense in that game.
I agree it looks like easy money.
