USC vs. Oregon Animated Drive Chart and other musings
by Paragon SC on Oct 31, 2010 6:27 AM PDT
in USC Football
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Animated Drive Chart brought to you by Gameday Depot.
After reading the observations from the local rags a couple of things stood out to me that shouldn't be ignored.
You can't really rationalize the defense giving up 600 yards and 53 points but they did look like they played better...better tackling, not over pursuing and playing more disciplined. The technique just seemed to look better. The pass defense isn't worth a crap, with the middle of the field open for big plays all night. I don't know who is to blame, is it Monte's defense? Or is it that the players aren't that good.
Lots of questions on defense but I refuse to point fingers...I've got this teams back no matter what even if I am frustrated with what I am seeing on the field.
Wholesale changes need to take place in the off season to improve the defense. The scheme just doesn't work with more and more teams playing the spread.
'SC scoring 15 points and taking the lead early into the 3rd quarter showed me a lot. These guys didn't quit. The plan looked solid. Lane Kiffin is a solid play caller but he still needs to polish a few things up. I think the offense got caught up in trying to score quick to try and keep pace with Oregon and that led to a few miscues like the muffed snap that led to the fumble.
Here are some observations from RipsIt...I don't really disagree with too much of it.
Here is some of the ESPN version...
For a Trojans' offense that looked nearly pitch-perfect two weeks ago on the same field against Cal, a game with no real offensive stars was a departure from the expected. Matt Barkley (26-of-49 for 264 yards, one touchdown and two picks) looked more like a freshman than the sophomore Heisman candidate he'd been developing into in the past few weeks, Tyler and the running backs never got started and even Ronald Johnson and Robert Woods were held under 70 yards each. "Maybe it was the route-running, the play-calling or the blocking assignments," said Johnson, who had the Trojans' only touchdown through the air. "We just gotta go back and fix that.'
I wouldn't say that the offense regressed like some are whining on the boards but the offense definitely wasn't as smooth as it was against Cal or Stanford. I didn't understand the use of Havili in some those slow developing running plays. I do take exception with Saxon slamming Barkley here though. What a guy can't have an off game? Is he really serious that Barkley looked like a freshman last night?
I think Barkley has shown great progress and maturity this season. Did he look great last night?
No. But the overall package looks much better than last year. Will there be fits and starts at times? Yes. But I don't see him looking tentative overall like he did last season.
I do agree with this observation though...
USC assistant head coach Monte Kiffin said a number of times in preparing for this game that his Tampa 2 defense was not built to stop Oregon's spread-option attack. Whatever modifications he implemented over the past two weeks weren't either, as the Ducks were visibly prepared for most of what the Trojans offered at them. And if they weren't, they appeared to adjust quickly. Oregon coach Chip Kelly said postgame that his staff went back and looked at Kiffin's play-calling tendencies against running quarterbacks as far back as his time in the NFL to get a gauge for what the Trojans could do. "It was what we expected," Kelly said afterward. "We broke down every game Monte coached at USC and at Tennessee and what he did against Michael Vick with the Falcons. We felt we had a pretty good idea of what they would do and we had some pretty good counters ready."
I don't care how many Super Bowls Monte has won. I don't care that is a Hall of Fame lock. I do care that he has stuck with this antiquated defense when it is well known that this defense doesn't do well with running QB's especially with kids who are inexperienced.
The college game has passed Monte by. This isn't the boring NFL schemes that he is used to running.
Like I alluded to above, Monte either needs to pull a few rabbits out his hat and adjust or he needs to move on. The latter would not surprise me at the end of the season.
Outside of pride 'SC has very little to play for. This was their bowl game. The games at the end of the season against ND and UCLA are pretty much anti-climatic to me. Of course I want to win but I really want the team to improve so they can get better in the years to come...when the sanctions really start to take effect.
I saw some improvement last night but there is still a long way to go...
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I still see improvement on the "D"
I think its the players right now. Monte needs to get used to the college game, but right now we have a lot of first year starters. We still have break downs, but for the most part, I think we disrupted Oregon’s tempo. We just ran out of gas in the 4th and last half of the third quarter. Barkley needed to play a perfect game, and he only had an average game. Overall I think we did the best we could.
If Oregon runs the table, I hope they school whichever SEC team they end up playing in the championship game. Oregon can’t choke again.
Pretty harsh
We didn’t run the Tampa 2. So, Monte’s schemes suck and he should retire? Well, what was his scheme? Do you have suggestions for an alternate scheme that might have been more effective? And, his scheme didn’t work against a running QB?
Actually, Monte’s “scheme” worked well. We were beat by the pass, and not the running QB. We limited Oregon to 8 scores on 15 possessions, denying scores on 7 of 15 possessions. Going into the game, if I had told you that a good game would be to limit Oregon to scores on only approx 1/2 of their possessions, would you have agreed? Almost certainly.
What killed us is that 7 of Oregon’s 8 scores were TDs, many of them coming on big pass plays. But, we know that our LBs and DBs are extremely thin and inexperienced. ASU is the only team to do better on stopped drive % against Oregon all season. And, guess what, they have one of the best MLBs in the nation – Vontaze Burfict. Yes, one player could have been the difference for USC. We also really missed Malcolm Smith is a good pass coverage LB. None of this is Monte’s fault.
USC scored on 6 of 15 possessions. The final score was a bit distorted, as USC actually had 2 failed 4th downs and a pick all at midfield or better in our final 3 drives. We were very close to staying in the game all the way to the end. 3 turnovers to Oregon’s 2 was a big difference. Had we recovered Barkley’s fumbled snap exchange AND Oregon’s fumbled snap exchange, things might have been different. Remember, Oregon scored on the next play after the fumble recovery. Had we scored on that drive, it would have been a 14 point swing.
So, USC scored 6 times, Oregon scored 8. USC was -1 in turnover differential. USC had 4 drives to midfield or better that did not result in points, 2 drives inside the Oregon red zone.
Oregon’s defense is what makes them a legitimate natl title contender. Against a good rushing unit in USC with much greater size, Oregon limited us to 3.1 yds per carry. This put us in 3rd and long too many times. Oregon took advantage with good QB pressure – 2 sacks, 2 picks, myriad pass break ups. The criticism of Barkley is asinine. Credit Oregon’s surprisingly damn good defense.
Even so, I tell you this game was close. Closer than the final score. Just a few plays here or there made the difference. USC played like a top 15, maybe even top 10, team. We just ran into clearly one of the top 2 teams in the nation. USC has improved dramatically throughout the season. I very much look forward to the remainder of the season as I believe 10 wins and a top 15 year end ranking are still possible. To be playing at this high of a level after the sanctions, off-season turmoil, weak Pete Carroll recruiting in the last few years, and only 70 or so healthy scholie players is a huge credit to Lane Fkn Kiffin and staff.
You can't put sanctions on the fkn endzone! Bowls are for salad!
We disagree, that is fine
That being said, Monte’s “scheme” worked so well that the middle of the field was wide open all night.
7 of 8 drives went for TD’s that tells me they are moving the ball…how doesn’t matter.
’SC had a shot at winning this…stop just one of those 7 drives and this game might have turned out different.
James MacArthur - RIP "Book 'em Danno!"
How?
What scheme allows you to compensate for severe lack of depth and inexperience at DB and LB?
You can't put sanctions on the fkn endzone! Bowls are for salad!
The Blame
is on both offense and defense. Barkley threw the int in the Red Zone, 14 point swing. The Defense just needs to get better, Inexperience is a major factor. The bottom line is Oregon is better than we are this year. We still have a better than average shot to finish a respectable 9-4; if we beat the Domers and fUcla and finish 9-4 that’s something to build on.
_________________________________________________________________________
"You can't sanction heart, and you can't sanction the will to win" - USC QB, Matt Barkley
How about some man coverage?
Still a lot of soft zone out there last night…
When you have a fairly new LB (Kennard), who is a bit slow, dropping into coverage it is going to hurt you. That is depth and experience and scheme…
Depth wasn’t issue two weeks ago and we still beat Hawaii with the same depth. I am firmly on board with the depth issue but the scheme needs to be tweaked, adjusted, revamped whatever.
James MacArthur - RIP "Book 'em Danno!"
There’s no way we can play man against anyone right now ,we just don’t have the horses. Want to blame someone? It’s not Monte you’re angry with, it’s PC and his boy Brennan. This defense will get better, compare us to last year’s steaming pile. There’s no contest.
Football season is here
U feeling Loco?
Anyone out there able to give an example where nepotism worked?
Just asking
"Understanding is a virtue, hard to come by"
J. Airplane
In any loss multiple things go wrong
1. The back 7 on this D is weak, just not up to the standard we are used to seeing. Hopefully they will improve as they mature, or be replaced by other players.
2. Barkley did not have a perfect game. It seemed that he was having difficulty connecting on long passes, many of his longer attempts were short or long.
But some things did go right:
1. Special teams was pretty good — in fact it produced much of the offensive production for the night.
2. Really limited the penalties, looked like the more disciplined team out there.
Some things to remember:
1. Yeah, Monte’s scheme didn’t work (but it worked better than UCLA’s!), but who’s scheme has against this D? Oregon put 600 yards of O on us, but I think they average like 570. It wasn’t a great performance by the D, but I don’t think anyone in the nation has quite figured out how to scheme Kelly’s offense yet.
2. Lets keep the loss in perspective — I don’t think our defensive scheme is worse than its been in recent years, Pete’s D and Monte’s are pretty similar. In addition USC has always struggled against effective spread attacks. Heck, everyone does, that’s the reason it was invented. It allows teams to play beyond their talent level using misdirection. When a team is actually good, and runs the spread, it means they will score alot of points.
3. Lets be realistic. The guys fought hard and lost to a better team. At the beginning of the year I expected a loss in this game (and stanford for that matter). For me the measure of this team will be how they finish. I would like to see them win 4 more games this year, and I think its doable. In any event, for me, wins against ND and and UCLA still mean a great deal, especially in a season with no Rose Bowl.
4. Realism II. USC is not currently the most attractive place to coach. We got the hammer. We have in the Kiffins, a top flight Offensive and Defensive combo. The D is struggling, but could we find someone better who wanted to work with a reduced roster, a head coach with an awful national rep (undeserved IMHO), and no bowl game for a year? Oh and also your upperclassmen can leave at will for the next 4 years. We as fans should do nothing to alienate a coaching staff who wants the team to win as much as we do. Give them a chance to put their stamp on the program. They may not equal Pete, but really, who has?
USC will be OK
If you want to see what real failure in college football looks like check out Texas.
There’s a team that came in ranked 5th (ridiculous) that has lost home games against two bottom-feeders and a decent opponent. And unlike USC they haven’t had the challenge of breaking in a new coaching staff.
Rebuilding happens and the Trojans will be back. It’s just a matter of when.
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