Discuss The Debacle

With Dwayne Jarrett double-teamed, why wasn't he moved to the slot where it is tougher to double cover him? Our previous Offensive Coordinator would have made that adjustment.

Dynasty? Don't think we will be hearing much about the D word anymore. Not only does this loss hurt for the most obvious reasons, the Trojans are going to be much more vulnerable in the all important recruiting wars.

Our O line and UCLA's defensive schemes beat us. today.
Kyle Williams should lose his scholarship

Which debacle?

Arsenal's season, Mike's attempts at communicating through the written word or the latest Lane Kiffin meltdown?

kiffin admitted he was outcoached...maybe this will put his ego back where it belongs...nowhere

UCLA was highly motivated and they came out to play football.
USC played not to lose and was extremely flat.

Comments on the game:

1. Booty had how many tipped passes?

2. Run game - non existant - what did UCLA do that was so different?

3. Pass game - Seems like a ton of pressure from UCLA

4. Punt game - How did their punter continuously kick it 20 yard over our heads, did we even look at film or did he save these punts for SC

5. How is it we could not kick into the endzone. Is TVB ready to ride the pine, he only has one job and can't do that.

6. why don't we ever try long FG's anymore?

7. Did we forget the Dennis dixon defense or did it take a half to remember it.

8. I think we noticed how much we missed a healthy CDub on those 3rd/4th and shorts.

9. I'm surprised we didn't go to Fred Davis more often

10. DJ sure took a step down after last week other than one nice gain

giving the offense to lane kiffin is like giving the keys to your Benz to your 14 yr old son. When does Carrolls debt to the elder Kiffen end?

I did see one adjustment. I saw Cowen adjust his helmet after Rey-Rey almost ripped his head off!

Best part of that whole damn game.

It's true: All of us commenters would do a better job than the coaches. That said, even if there are some tactical shortcomings we notice and (rightfully) point out, we should also be very candid about this game and this team.

A few things trouble this team, and they seemed to all come to the forefront yesterday:

(1) No real fullback play (Thomas Williams is admirable, but he's not a fullback, whiffed on a few key blocks and got pulled;)

(2) After 35 yards of penalties, would you call key plays behind Rachal and Williams? What does it tell you about our depth that Kyle played essentially every down every game?

(3)Chauncey is clearly not 100%, and Coach Carroll said after the game, "We had to use him." What does that tell you about the depth of our physical tailback position?

(4) Fred Davis is a gifted receiver, but a mediocre blocker and Dale Thompson fumbled his only catch of the day. Would you have thrown to him again?

(5) There are some real gaps in the middle of our zone on defense (how else can a receiver run 19 yards downfield and be open?) but it's usually manageable because we can score more than our opponents;

Some games just don't work out and some days the flaws of a team all combine, conspire and collect in defeat.

1. flags for false starts, illegal formation, 12 men, delay of game - well coached teams will have gradually have less and less as the season goes on. seems like USC had more the last 4 games than the previous 8.

2. prior to the season the coaches must have known that booty is slow and gets distracted watching the pass rush. they should have installed the shotgun formation. this would give booty distance from the line and time to set up for a quick throw.

3. play calling on 3rd and 4th down was awful. but i think the coaches also knew that booty was nervous in the pocket and
that limited them to running the ball.

Does anyone else think it would have been standard procedure to go for the 2 pt. conversion after the TD considering we only had two points on the board?

Miss it and you'd be down by five instead of four - no difference, you need a TD to beat either one.

Make it and all you need to do is get in field goal range at the end of the game to tie.

I know it didn't matter in this case with JDB throwing an INT. But wouldn't it be the standard call?

I respect Pete Carroll but how can he say that Booty played his tail off yesterday?. I'm not a football coach but I would love to know the total number of tipped passes that Booty has had this season? Mark Sanchez is the future QB and he has not played enough this season. I refuse to believe that Sanchez can't give Booty a real strong push for the QB job next season. You can tell that the guy has a stronger arm and he could give us some quick strikes again with the offense. I can't remember the last time that USC had pass in the air over 30 yards!
Next, let's discuss the O-line! I would love to know the total number of false starts the O-line has had this season (especially Kyle Williams!) Good Lord, that guy was a 5th year senior and he was acting like he had never played before! I understand he has been sick but that game was for the right to play for the championship and there was way too many mistakes that were made by that group yesterday.

Next, let's talk about not wrapping guys up. I am starting to get a little concernced with Oscar graduating that #58 won't be pushed next year and he will think that his diving for the ball carrier is the only way to get the guy down. How many times in games has he just that? He is a great player but he has to use his hands and grab some cloth! Now his bad habit has rubbed off on some #75, and #28 as well!

That 3-4 defense GET RID OF IT! It puts 0 pressure on the QB and it is very easy to defense.

How about the offensive playcalling? No new wrinkles for Walker in this game? How about a reverse with Patterson or Hazelton or just a flat out bomb to those guys? Opps, Booty can't get the ball to them 'cause they run too fast I reckin'! Bradford can't get a few carries? Neither can Johnson? Chauncey should have not been out there yesterday!

How can you outgain your opposition by 100 yards and lose the game by 4 points? I don't care if it is your rival or not. Both sides of the ball should have had some new rinkles for UCLA for this game. They had 2 weeks to prepare and a coach that used to work with Pete Carroll.

And what about all that talk this week about coaches being ready to coach their own team somewhere else or Pete going to the Cardinals and his people are having discussions with them? Those discussions could have taken place starting today and NOT when you are preparing for the final leg in a 4 week endurance test to play for the title!

I hope that valuable lessorns are learned from what happened yesterday.

Where are the correct grammar?

Well if the coaching wasn't impressive the play of the players was even less impressive. The right side of the offensive line has been called for starting to soon all year and usually it's #78 and his early movement cost us several times. However one of the biggest penalties of the day was #66 getting a 15yard penalty making it 3rd and 21 on the opening drive of the second half that was a momentum killer for sure. A screen pass would probably have worked well against that very aggressive pass rush and not an inside screen pass. The one play that was totally questionable to me was the 4th and 2 when the quarter ended and we had additional time to think about it and ran a sweep to a very short side of the field. As for the rest of the team they appeared flat and just never got fired up, it wasn't Booties fault and one player in particular, we were just flat and that happens a lot after a realy big game, or 3 back to back. Those people calling for Sanchez need to watch the tape of the one game where he got a little playing time, I believe he threw an interception and where as he might have more upside than Booty in the future no way would I change them right now.