Let me get this out of the way first...DeSean Jackson, as good as he is, was once again a non factor when he plays SC. All of his antics last night only made him look like a fool who continues to harbor some insane bad feelings toward a program (USC) that done some great things without him while he has languished up north doing some great things for himself but not winning anything. Just goes to show you one player does not make a team. Good riddance.
Somewhere in their graves Bear Bryant, Woody Hayes, Bo Schembechler and of course the great Jon McKay are smiling this today. Not because USC won last night, well maybe McKay, but because this was their type of football.
SMASH MOUTH!!
Before this season we have been used to seeing the high-flying quick strike offense that could take over a game in a second. That was not what we saw last night. This was a grind it out pund it out type of game that made the game what it was in the days of old.
As I sat with my dad in the sports book at Caesar's Palace watching last night's game, I couldn't believe that with all the missed tackles, more stupid penalties and all the bungled snaps that we were going to win this game. The weather obviously made it difficult for both teams to hang onto the ball so there is a bit of a built in excuse for some of the sloppy play I saw last night, but not enough to make me feel all warm and fuzzy about our last two games. That being said this team did dig down deep going 96-yards for the winning score. It wasn't pretty and it didn't have to be. I'm sure SC could care less about how it looked as long as they won. I can go along with that, I just can't stand the stupid penalties and the poor tackling. You can only blame the weather for so long on those poor tackles.
Chauncey Washington gave us all we wanted to see for so long with 220 yards rushing and doing it like a Mack truck. His goal line fumble pissed me off something fierce but he made amends so it's in the past. There were once again errant or dropped passes but I really can't get to crazy about it with as bad as the weather was and Turner and Hazleton did make some key catches to us in the game. RoJo is going to be something special and I can guarantee that if the weather isn't affecting things the way it was he makes that catch early in the game. You could say Booty over threw him but it could not have been easy trying to get under the ball with the crummy traction on the field. It was also good to see Havili get back into the thick of things though he had some rough patches.
The Cal running game is a sight to behold. Both Forsett and Best are dangerous running backs as we saw last night. When they hit the hole they are off to the races. I don't think they would have gained as many yards had the SC defenders just tackled them instead of going for the hard hits, that's just ESPN Sports Center stuff. I realize that creating turnovers is important but the conditions last night really called for tackling not hard hitting. So it wasn't pretty but it is a win and our hope for another BCS Bowl birth are still alive.
On a side note, a funny thing happened on the way back to the room as two Oklahoma fans were giving me and my dad some lip about OU possibly going to the BCS Title Game while we watched from a far. We were cordial and said it was hard to tell where things would end up but as they were getting off the elevator simply said 55-19! the doors closed and we moved on. Gotta go with my friend Peter Bean here, OU SUCKS!...damn land thieves.