Disappointing USC falls out of national title contention
At the start of the season, we thought USC had the talent and coaching to be one of the great teams in the modern era of college football.
Looks like we were wrong.
Fifth-ranked Oregon defeated the ninth-ranked Trojans, 24-17, knocking them out of the national championship race and the Rose Bowl. Does anybody have directions to the Sun Bowl?
That's where USC (6-2, 3-2) figures to land after the sun temporarily set on this Pac-10 dynasty. The Trojans, winners of five straight Pac-10 titles and two national championships, looked like just another mistake-prone team against the Ducks, with three turnovers and a rash of penalties that took points off the board. "We had expectations of coming up here and winning and really jump-starting us to a great finish," USC coach Pete Carroll said. "We had a great opportunity against a team that was really hot. We missed a big opportunity."
Compared with being upset by downtrodden Stanford, it's no disgrace to lose to Oregon (7-1, 4-1) in Eugene, but it is an unpardonable sin to watch a once-unstoppable offense, which scored 45 points on the Ducks two years ago, turn conservative and struggle to score two touchdowns against a defense that had given up 31points to Stanford and 34 to Washington.
Sophomore quarterback Mark Sanchez, starting his third game in place of injured John David Booty and coming off a four-TD performance against hapless Notre Dame, came back to Earth against real competition, throwing two critical interceptions in the fourth quarter when the game was on the line. USC had a shot to force overtime in the final moments, marching to the Oregon 33 with 20 seconds to play, but a Sanchez pass downfield was picked off by free safety Matt Harper.
Sanchez appeared primed to become a great story. His father Nick is a captain in the Orange County Fire Dept. who missed the road trip because he was fighting a blaze 50 miles south of the USC campus.
There was plenty of blame to go around, much of it directed at offensive coordinator Steve Sarkisian, who let a golden opportunity slip away after the Trojans recovered a fumble on the opening kickoff. On fourth-and-1 at the Oregon 12, Sarkisian called for an inside reverse to freshman Joe McKnight instead of an off-tackle dive. Joe McKnight lost a yard on the play and the Trojans came away with no points. McNight did score on a 65-yard run in the second quarter, only to have it nullified by a holding call.
But no one should be ready to hang a funeral wreath on this storied program just yet. John David Booty will be back next week for Oregon State. And USC held the Ducks to 339 total yards, 200 below their average. The Trojans could win at Cal and Arizona State and finish 10-2. But it's almost November and they have not yet played up to the enormous hype we gave them in the preseason.
Huskies pull rank for first time
UConn (7-1) has finally cracked the AP Top 25 after defeating South Florida, 22-15, in a Big East game at East Hartford. While we applaud the job Randy Edsell has done and the courage of his defense, which stopped the Bulls three straight times at the 2-yard line to secure the victory, we're reluctant to rank them any higher than 21 in our poll because we still have problems with those two controversial finishes against Temple and Louisville, games they might have lost if it weren't for two blatant missed calls by officials.
We'd still like more evidence before we become true believers. A win over fiesty Rutgers (5-3) Saturday at home might do it.
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