The explosion of the Jellyfish ignites the entire stockpile of “red matter” on-board, creating a black hole, which begins to pull in the Narada. Kirk offers to rescue the Narada and its crew, believing that relations between the Romulans and the Federation might be cooled if he did such a thing (a logical move Spock, for once, disagrees with). Nero refuses, saying he’d rather watch Romulus be destroyed a thousand times and die in agony than accept Kirk’s help. Kirk obliges and opens fire, blowing the ship apart with phasers and photon torpedoes.

Iagree with Orson’s take here for themost part. Neuheisel called the TO; he gave Carroll the excuse. Orson’s take is spot on: you can’t very well get upset about getting cut by King Arthur if you continue to try to fight. But my opinion differs as follows: I have seen what Neuheisel did happen many times before in the NFL and college. I don’t like it and I think it’s a display of bad sportsmanship. Nevertheless, this a move that is not unknown and unprecedented. UCLA used to win football games from time to time and I can recall several instances where a team we were on the verge of beating called their time outs for no real reason that I could discern, to the groan of the crowd. Or consider the many instances when UCLA was on the cusp of defeating some team in basketball while holding a double-digit lead,with under ten seconds to go and the other team kept fouling. In none of those instances have I ever seen UCLA try a bomb, and I have not heard of anyone else doing so. I have not seen Hazzard, Harrick, Lavin or Howland (all UCLA hoop coaches since I started at UCLA) ever call for a haf-court alley-oop under similar circumstances.

I thought Neuheisel was a jerk to call the time out in the last minute after getting beat. It was pointless-no way were we going to score two TD with Craft at the controls against a USC defense that handled everything UCLA tried with ease-and as I said, it was poor sportsmanship after Carroll did the right thing by having Bradford(?) take the knee. However, IMHO Carroll’s response to Neuheisel’s minor (IMHO) provocation was inexcusable; it was a gesture of poor sportsmanship that exceeded Neuheisel’s stupid gesture by an order of magnitude.

You asked for my opinion, here it is. I don’t want to debate the issue; I have read too much about the topic already and am ready to move on. I know most of you have very different opinions and I appreciate that. My initial thoughts about the game were contained in the response I put up to Joey Kaufman’s fanpost about being banned at the cesspool. USC’s defense played very well, although I don’t think you should get too thrilled heading into the Arizona game considering how anemic UCLA’s offense is this year. I thought the teams played fairly evenly but the turnovers killed us. USC was the better team and deserved the win; four turnovers on the road are very hard to overcome, and UCLA doesn’t have the horses to overcome those mistakes. That USC drive after we scored our TD was outstanding; kudos to your OC and the player for really getting after the weakest link in our secondary Sheldon Price. Sheldon can do your taxes; for a root canal, Sheldon’s your man, but in man or zone coverage, Sheldon can’t get it done.

Still, by taking a deep drop and putting the ball in the air, CPC really played right into CRN’s hands. Several bad events could have resulted from this play. The safest approach would have been to run it up the middle twice with Allen and attempt to get the 1st down. Force CRN to use up his TOs. Then, punt with your defense playing well.

But, Lost Balls Pete found his Big Balls and went for it. On OCR, they reported that CPC knew the play was dangerous and told MB7 to fall at the first sign of danger. Good coaching. While CRN had not quit, his secondary had. Bad coaching.

In actuality, the play gave the Bruins their best chance of forcing a TO and pullling off the miracle. The Bruins simply didn’t execute and USC did.

Two bad teams fighting for Emerald Bowl positioning. Alive yes! Well, no!

Pete’s call was a big F U to Neuheisel. Maybe he did it because of the ads, or the smack talk. RN has given Pete a lot of reasons with the way he has shot his mouth off. I don’t think the touchdown had anything to do with the timeout. It had everything to do with how Neuheisel approaches USC and Pete with his comments that make it into the press.

Even if USC were forced to punt, UCLA would be left with around 20 seconds to go 80+ yards. Obviously a UCLA TD in that situation isn’t especially realistic.

Yep. Which also goes partly to the idea of calling the long pass.

1. If the pass is complete, the game is completely iced.
2. If incomplete, it stops the clock (saving a Ucla timeout), which sort of defeats the purpose of playing — but it does definitely send a clear signal.
3. If intercepted, it’s basically just a punt.

The question of time seems to be at the heart of every argument anh makes regarding defending the pass. But that hinges on the possibility of Ucla actually being able to score not once, but twice within about 40 seconds! That’s a hard task for any team, though not impossible. However, factoring in Ucla’s very anemic offense and SC’s tough D, the odds go from slim to asteroid-striking-the-game. An example: in the Big Game, the Furd was down 6 with about 2:50 to play. They have a strong offense, and It took them more than a minute to get within scoring range.

All SC needed was a first down and, barring that, to have their defense play even semi-competently for about 40 seconds to win.

The bomb, while a legit call, was kind of overkill. And seriously, if you don’t think there was a pretty big F-YOU message to it, then you have blinders on!

The bigger and more troubling question has to do with the unnecessary taunting by the SC side (including PC’s gleeful stare-down), and then the loss of composure by the Ucla players.

But you need to consider how difficult it is to get a first down without throwing down the field against stacked box and corners playing close to LOS.

I actually do think that long TD doesn’t hurt recruiting – you have to realize that 16-17 year old’s don’t really put much thought regarding the “feelings and proper process”. They are caugh up in the the moment and emotion.. Plus you can always sell this as “we always have an answer to anything our rival tries to do”

That dude could beat anyone, I remember a story that Vic Braden once told me of Gonzo, he said once on tour Pancho killing everyone not even a contest. So they got together and the next tournament all players only got one serve, the other guys we hitting poop serves while Pancho (who a 2nd serve as good as most 1st) was ripping ace after ace and set-up after set-up.

He should have done that. But he chose the F-you route. Whether or not you blame him for that kinda depends on what colors you are wearing. Its fun to see something like that happen if you are the team throwing the bomb against the arch-rival. But you can’t really take the high ground for sportsmanship if you take that path. I don’t think it was the best move from a sportsmanship angle. It was the best move if you want to stick it to Neuheisel though. That was Pete’s intention, and thats what he got.

Try searching “Dichos Mexicanos” or “Dichos de Pancho Villa.” Mexicans have attributed that quote to PV since forever, I first heard it from my Saintly Abuelita back in the 60’s. The grammatically correct form is: “Primero fusílenlo y después averiguamos,” the English equivalent is “shoot first, ask questions later.”

Actually, the deep pass was very risky with many bad potential outcomes for USC. CRN should have been hoping to entice a pass play. He also should have had his defense prepared for it.

I think CRN obviously underestimated CPC. His constant probing finally drew a reaction. Turned out well for SC, but it could have easily turned out bad.