It wasn't a blowout.
It didn't have to be.
USC did exactly what they needed to do wrap up their 7th consecutive Pac-10 Title and their 4th consecutive Rose Bowl appearance.
The USC Defense once again pretty much bottled up and opposing say for a double pass that caught both Clay Matthews (I think it was Matthews, it happened so fast) and Taylor Mays just enough out of position for them to take each other out the play and that came off a C.J.Gable fumble that gave ucla the field position to make that score.
In fact it was so dominating that ucla RB Kahlil Bell was named ucla player of the game with just 38 yards rushing. That's saying something!
A couple of things...
Major Hat Tip to Rick Neuheisel for calling the time out to even the tally in regards to to USC wearing their home jerseys.
The ucla defense is pretty good but they spend way too much time on the field because of an impotent ucla offense. For the most part they played some solid defnse but there were a couple of cheap shots that they delivered that were uncalled for. I realize that Rey did it as well but he was flagged for it and Pete Carroll pulled him for a few plays and Ken Norton sent a strong message that that would not be tolerated. I got a kick out of some of the comments from some of the jackasses across town hoping the ucla defense would "take Mark Sanchez out" as well as some other nice things that were said. Getting dominated like they were does that to some people, even the highly educated who look down their noses at the masses. You stay classy clowns...Moving on.
The ucla secondary played our receivers pretty good so hats off to them. Though I am not sure about that #2 pass defense rating...I mean SC put up almost 300 yards in passing on them and that was without Damien Williams being out for the the whole 2nd half. You have to give Kevin Craft credit he didn't meltdown and only threw one pick at the end of the game...but he sure tried to get it to SC more than a couple of times.
It was definitely disappointing to see Gable cough the ball up like that and it was even more disappointing to see SC get burned on the trick play for the TD but they settled down grabbed their lunch pails and went to work.
Here are some numbers..
Not a pretty sight for ucla.
It was a fairly balance offensive attack but there were head scratcher plays called but at this point it doesn't really matter.
I listened to the post game on the 710 ESPN internet feed and Pete Carroll announced that Sarkisian would indeed be taking the UW job. the official announcement can be read here. Sarkisian will stay on through the Rose Bowl though. I am ambivalent as to his leaving he had his good days and bad days. He called a decent game today and that is all that matters. The other thing that was interesting was Pete Carroll's endorsement of John Morton as the next OC. he didn't come out and say the job was his but he it sure sounded like he was leaning that way.
So now we focus on Penn State and the Rose Bowl.
Here is to another great season. Congrats fellas...you deserve it!
This is our Post Game thread!!