This is a mediocre USC football team.
I hate to say it but it is true. The team is just disjointed in a lot of areas. The excuse of youth and depth is wearing thin. Injuries happen, we have dealt with them before. This program has played under classmen in the past so whay is it a big deal now?
As much as I love this program and as much patience as I have for some of the things I have seen this year I am starting to not be as charitable in my good will towards this teams performance.
As I noted in my game day notes, I knew that the offense had its work cut out for them against this aggressive ASU defense but not like this... once again stupid penalties and soft coverage kept ASU in this game all night. Matt Barkley took a step back in my eyes. He passing was not sharp he floated some balls out there. Blake Ayles needs to sit. I am more that willing to support Ayles when he makes bone headed moves like that picture at ND but with his play the past two week I see that he is not concentrating on making solid plays.
I think it is safe to say that the offensive line is not as good as advertised...far from it. The tackles were beat on regular basis. You could tell that Barkley was rattled as he had the ASU defense in his head from the early parts of the game. I saw a lot of happy feet back there tonight. I have been on record that play calling is overrated but tonight even I had some questions. The play calling was all over the place. I think it was early in the 2nd qtr. when were 3rd and long after a penalty Bates calls a running play? Why in Gods name would you that?
The defense made some nice adjustments. They got a lot of pressure on both ASU QB's tonight. If not for them it would have been much worse...If not for that pick 6 SC isn't even in this game...that is how bad it looked. Carroll and Seto did tighten up some of the coverage by moving the corners up closer to the LOS but once again the middle was left open for ASU's quick slants. And that TD for ASU that made it 14-9 was an embarrassment in coverage, Kevin Thomas is better than that. That was just frustrating...
Sullivan was as bad as we thought he was...he handed 3 turnovers over USC and we turned only one into points...the pick 6. That is not the USC offense we are used to seeing this season.The new kid that ASU has at QB will be a great player but not for a a couple of years...he has some talent but he is still raw.
I know SC is probably still punch drunk after last weekend but they really needed to shake the cobwebs loose...this one was all on the offense.
I have no idea how this team is going to be ready for Stanford next weekend. Lord help us...
Leave your comments and rants here...this our post game thread.