That is a quote from Wolf in this mornings Daily News.
I don't know if I would say easy as much as I would say prepared. Simers with his typical drivel gives the impression that SC fans are spoiled, (you can read it for yourself, I'm not linking him up). He might not be far off but regardless the gravy train has come to its end. To all the columnists, pundits and such you should thank your lucky stars that you even had a football team to write about over the past few years. USC is football in L.A. and the joke of a program in Westwood hasn't brought much to the table except for one win last year that actually meant something. It meant something because USC is something, you can't fall from grace if you have never been there and ucla hasn't been there in football nationally...but I digress.
When fans, pundits and general hangers-on can see what plays are coming then it might be time to either mix the playbook up or throw it out completely. I love this quote from Booty:
Well seeing he brought it up how about consistent.
Wolf goes on to make the point that this type of talk was never heard in the Leinart and Bush era. He's right but then the team was wining and doing it convincingly. It was the perfect storm of coaching for the perfect storm of talent. But that was another time.
It was also noted that there is a lot of rationalizing going on and that is not something we have seen before. One such example (on McKnight's Failed 4th and 1 attempt):
The play haunted the Trojans, but Carroll dismissed it as a "freebie," because it was the opening drive and Oregon would be pinned inside the 15.
I'm sorry but I completely disagree. There is no such thing as a "freebie" when you are playing on the road, as an underdog with a team that is struggling to make plays. It seems that winning has been so automatic with this team that even the coaches think they have throw away plays. I'm not one to criticize the coaches too much but it is not hard to see why it seems that is there is no sense of urgency. Teams take on the attitudes of their coaches not the other way around; that concerns me.
Pete Carroll needs to figure out where to go from here. He made a comment in the article that their hands were tied because of Sanchez's inexperience. OK, I'll bite. What is Sarkisian doing to develop Sanchez? I remember reading a story about when Norm Chow came in for his first meeting with Carson Palmer. For the first few hours or so they talked about a whole host of things EXCEPT football. If football is such a cerebral game what is Sarkisian doing to school Sanchez to not make those types of mistakes? To me it's simple attention to detail and I'm not sure if SC is doing it.
The demeanor needs to change and quick, not to salvage this season but to prepare the groundwork for next season.