This article is pure gold (and surprisingly well written for a USC guy).
Replies to: This article is pure gold (and surprisingly well written for a USC guy).
Looked up to see if the author was related to Roone Arledge, the great ABC sports producer
Apparently not
That's one frustrated SOB
(no message)
This paragraph perfectly sums up ND's only problem on offense:
"It’s extremely difficult to win a football game when the other team’s running backs go for 315 yards on 37 carries. If the other guys can pick up 8.5 yards per carry, you need a lot of breaks to keep the game close, and just about everything else has to go perfectly. Notre Dame did their part; they threw one of the worst interceptions you’ll ever see on 3rd and goal at the 2, and they pretty regularly decided to maintain balance—coaches love “balance”!—by throwing when they could have just run the ball down USC’s throat on every down. Every pass play called was a gift."
Once gain ND needed a couple yards, and had a couple plays to get it, against a defense that they were pushing around and Denbrock went all Brian Kelly. Difference between OC's that think they need to outthink the opposition and OC's that are happy just taking the other teams' soul and stepping on it.
2 plays, right up the gut to get the TD and that game is over for all intents and purposes. But ND's OC chooses, once again, to get cute and give the other team life. And he'll never learn or change.
Yep. Ability to have balance is a tool to have, developed in game prep...
...so that you can adjust as necessary to game developments. It is not a goal to strive for in the game when the opposing team is giving you one entire aspect of the game.
I recall the ND-Florida Sugar Bowl, in which Holtz just kept running it up the middle, daring Florida to adjust to stop us. Holtz was one coach willing to take something freely given by the opposing defense, balance be damned.
Extremely well said…they couldn’t stop Love/Price
yet oddly we kept doing something different. And unlike USC we didn’t get a pass interference call every time we threw.
We should have won by at least 3 TDs, but kicking, red zone woes and play calling.
Room for improvement, but fun game all the same.
Dominated enough where it counted...but going to have to shore up a number of areas to be a playoff
...ready team...should the football gods smile upon us.
Our secondary was billed as an A/A+ squad
looked more like a C Saturday night…
We somehow thought losing Watts would be offset by getting other guys healthy.
I'm not sure why we thought that, but we did.
The USC message boards were particularly in awe of Billy Schrauth.
Yes Love and Price are awesome once they get through a crease... but they still need that opening at the line of scrimmage.
If we are to go far in the playoffs it will be our O Line that needs to show up.
So ... SC fans think SC was the object of bad officiating (1/5 yrds)??? Otherwise fair.
(no message)
Hehe, that WAS funny. He is what he is afterall...a USC fan.
(no message)
I listened to the USC radio broadcast of the game on youtube last night.
They had a camera in the booth. ND radio used to do it too but stopped a couple of years ago. Anyway, the broadcast was pretty good and surprisingly fair and balanced for being a USC broadcast. The radio team basically paid homage to the Irish toughness. They even chuckled at the Alleluia music coming from the Jumbo. Didn't blame the weather or travel.. Remember Shawn Cody? He was the color analyst.
Weather turned out merely wet for the second half. It was warmer than average...
(no message)
Wasn’t bad at all…thankfully the harder rain was pre-game in the tailgate lots
(no message)
ND was definitely pulling at the rivalry aspect, and SC fans seemed to appreciate that
ND could have put the game away early but stupid play calling and piss poor kicking made for a much more exciting game than it could have been.