With much respect to the great Paul Newman.
. . . .
Who Are Those Guys?
Photo Credit: AP/Mark Avery
Where were these guys last week?
After a slow start USC got in a groove and steam rolled the Ducks. It looked like Oregon was going to run the ball and challenge the USC defense just like Oregon St. did. But once SC saw what they were doing the defense adjusted and they started to contain the run forcing the Ducks to throw the ball more and that was all she wrote.
Mark Sanchez was firing pretty much on all cylinders going 19 of 27 for 332 yards and three touchdowns. That’s a pretty good night if you ask me. He picked apart the vaunted Oregon secondary with the back breaker coming on a switch play that left Damian Williams wide open for a 34-yard TD pass. On their next series he hit RoJo for a 63-yard TD pass that was eerily similar to the one he hit him on against UVA.
The running game seemed to be effective with everyone getting some touches. SC was down 10-3 and then they just turned on the jets and opened it up never looking back. There were once again some real stupid penalties especially on the drive that Oregon Scored their only TD on. Joe McKnight continues to have issues fielding kick returns; that needs to be worked on and addressed. Sanchez went down in the 3rd qtr after he was “horse collared” by his former HS teammate Nick Reed. What is difficult to understand here is that the NCAA has set rules in place to protect QB’s and they also decided this season to ban those types of tackles yet it you can tackle a QB with that type of tackle in the pocket? Go figure. Yes, Sanchez came back into the game after that play but I am not yet convinced that he didn’t injure his knee at all on that play. You know they look at it real carefully tomorrow.
So we put this one in the books and look ahead to ASU next weekend who looked absolutely terrible against Cal today. We will have more tomorrow.
Feel free to fire away…this is our post game thread.