Sunday, September 27, 2009

Has Bandwagon Fan Left the Coliseum?

That was fast....USC loses one game and bandwagon fan has abandoned ship. This was the scene at last night's game against the Washington State Cougars.



You probably can't see it all that well, but the Coliseum was not at capacity. Walking into the Coliseum, one could tell that there were less people than usual. As my wife and I got to our seats, there were entire sections that were empty, not to also mention the numerous empty seats where SC fan could typically be found. While it could be that SC fan wasn't all that excited about playing WSU, I couldn't help but think that the team needed our support after a bad loss and we all needed to be there to cheer the team on.

If these no shows were indeed bandwagon fan, I'm glad they're not there any longer. I enjoyed the extra elbow room! :-) Here's hoping they continue to stay away.

Anyways, here's my take on the WSU game:
  • The SC offense looked good in the first quarter as they put up 20 points on the board with Matt Barkley back as the starting QB. A few deep Barkley passes for TDs were a sight to behold. As one will undoubtedly ask, where was this type of play and play calling the week before against UW? (And to add insult to injury, Stanford takes down UW by keeping the UW defense honest with the passing game which let Toby Gerhart run all over the UW defense.) Sigh...
  • Unfortunately, the offense did nothing after the first quarter. The conservative play calling returned and for the final 3 quarters, SC outscored WSU by a single point, 7 - 6.
  • The "special" teams play continues to be pathetic. Let's see: a botched extra point attempt, a missed field goal, etc. If this is what a dedicated special teams coach gets us, I'd rather take my chances of not having a special teams coach. At least then, the team would have an excuse for poor special teams play.
  • Penalties, penalties, penalties. This was a penalty filled game and there's no excuse for that. Where is the discipline? Coach Carroll better get this cleaned up as we've got Cal, ND, OR coming up on the road and we cannot afford to kill drives with our stupid penalties.
  • Dropped passes were a problem here. The team has been too dependent on Damian Williams and Ronald Johnson. With Rojo being injured, no other receiver has stepped up to help. The tight ends haven't stepped up either. The dropped TD pass by Ellison in the endzone on 4th down sums it all up.
  • The SC defense played a solid (if not stellar) game. It's clear that the defense will have to carry the team this year. The offense still has not shown me it can score consistently where we will be able to win comfortably...especially on the road. The only thing that gets me is that Coach Carroll continues to call for that soft zone on 3rd and long plays.....and it continually gives the opposition big chunks of yards (if not the 1st down).
  • I hate to say it, but Aaron Corp's playing days at SC are numbered. I was hoping that with the solid 20-point lead going into the second half, Coach Carroll would put Corp into the game to rebuild his confidence and let him lead the offense. Not to also mention that Barkley took a few hard hits in the first half and one would like to keep Barkley out of harms way with Cal coming up next. Unfortunately, we didn't see Corp until the 4th quarter; and on his first pass play, Corp fumbled the ball which WSU recovered and turned into their lone scoring drive. The fans boo'd Corp and I felt bad for him. As an SC fan, I want Corp to succeed...I want him to be able to step in and step up should we need him. This definitely does not help the team as we now have to hope and pray that Barkley can make it through the rest of the season without getting injured. I just don't know if we can count on Corp to step up and lead the team.
Well, that's it for now. It's on to Cal...which should be a really tough game as Oregon absolutely embarrassed Cal (42 - 3) and Cal will be looking to bounce back at home against SC.

Fight On!

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