Another Nail-biter

Good article, Scott.

Sanchez will go down as a trivia question in USC history:

"Who was the quarterback who played between when John David Booty was injured in 2007 and Mitch Mustain started in 2008?"

He is just not up to the darn job and proved it on Saturday.

I see Mr. Wolf did not like some of the critical comments when he posted comparison statistics of past quarterbacks to Sanchez. But the man will never learn, because he then follows that with another highly negative "summary" of the game. Compare his style to a real writer, Gary Klein of the L.A. Times. Mr. Wolf is the Paul Hackett of writing.

Sanchez just plain stunk. The only way to win with Sanchez until Booty comes back is to rely on the running game and take Sanchez out of the equation. If Sanchez is limited to handoffs, USC can win. If he throws, a certain USC loss. He has no accuracy and can't read a defense at all.

Stanford is rated the worst Pac-10 team and beat JDB with a healthier OL. JDB had 4 INT.'s, right? Correcto! Did you hear that neilson and Thomas? Against WA JDB threw 2 INT's again with a pretty healthy OL, right? Correcto again, got it? ROJO could have caught MS second Int'd pass, he did NOT...
Can JDB muscle his way for a 1st down like MS did? With NO disrespect to JDB, absolutely NO. That run for a 1st. down earned MS the team respect. That is called intangible. If you don't like that fancy word will guts do the trick? Now you damn experts shut the hell up.
Gracias

Memo to JD Booty. That is what a leader looks like. Someone who will sacrifice himself and his body for the team. Since Booty has never seen the other side of a line of scrimmage pretty much EVER, he should be learning from Sanchez. Yes, learning from him. It's why the team respects and plays harder for Sanchez.

The Sanchez experiment not only failed miserably but was also a complete joke. I bet Booty and Mustain were laughing on the sidelines!!!! As Scott correctly pointed out, Sanchez does not have much in the way of talent and if he does not have any talent by this stage, he never will. When Sanchez started being booed by the crowd, you knew he had lost his opportunity.

What does it tell you when Sarkisian tells the media that he had to change the plays because of Sanchez's limitations and not to expect the team to be any good while Sanchez is playing?

Sanchez is so out of his depth. He had a chance to impress while JDB was out of the picture and simply ended up empowering the critics with a sad excuse of a performance.

It would have been better for Sanchez not to play, so the few supporters he had could still support him without knowing how awful he is. Now that people have seen him in a full game setting, it's open season. No way in hell will he beat out Mustain now. That's the talk of the students and from what I can see, the talk of everyone else. Sanchez blew it and he knows it.

We won. LSU and Cal wish they had, too. Quit bellyaching.

I never had an opinion on Sanchez and maintained a "wait and see" attitude. Now that I have seen him play, boy does he suck!! He is a long, long way from Matt Leinart and Carson Palmer. He does not not come within a mile of Booty. If that is how he plays, it will not even be close when he goes against Mustain. There is no way to spin this, Sanchez sucks. Everything he was notorious for came out last night. He has no ability to read a defense and Arizona has a very weak defense. I agree with the person above, let him hand off to runners and don't let him throw the ball. He cannot throw worth a damn. Even Mike Van Raaphorst had more accuracy than Sanchez and that's saying something.

A big FIGHT ON to John David Booty! We never knew how much we missed you until this week.

I got 33% on my first test on my first semester of Organic Chemistry. Based on that according to you QB coaches experts, etc. I am a dumb A$$$. Guess what? I Got B in the class. JDB had an ALL American center in Ryan Kalil and Baker and Justice NOT to mention Jarret and Smith. The OL yesterday was patched-up. The team does NOT have a Jarrett nor a Smith. ADD to that that JDB worked with them when Leinart was taken out at the end of blow-out games. In just about every of those games JDB threw an INT., WHY? He threw into double coverage. Did I refresh your memories?
Thank you

I had a dream that Scott Wolf broke his brain, and would be out of action for 2-weeks, and that I was brought in as a last minute sub to write his SC-Arizona football game column. Here goes nothing:

"It was a tough outing for Mark Sanchez in the first half, the man having thrown two interceptions, and SC was clinging to a 10-10 tie. And the second half was looking even more dim for the Cardinal and Gold Boys, now down 13-10, and time becoming a factor.

But out of nowhere came the play of the game, when Flash McKnight split the seams for a long and graceful punt return. Buoyed by this sudden success, and with Arizona now reeling, Sanchez gathered himself, and threw his best pass of the day, a strike to Fred Davis for 6-points and a 17-13 lead that would not be challenged.

The sudden dynamic duo of McKnight and Sanchez would strike again, late in the fourth quarter, when the little freshman busted through the line for another 50+ yarder. And Sanchez looked like a man when he scrambled for a first down on a third down play, leaving the Wildcats with little time to counter. A field goal making it 20-13 aided the defense, stout throughout the afternoon, and Arizona could not mount a charge, and fell once again to the Trojans."

This goes out to the guys still stuck at band camp; Thomas, Canon, EVK, etc. SC does not win against Ariozona WITHOUT SANCHEZ! He made some plays with his feet that Booty would have never made. The other issue that you brain donors have failed to realize is that the offensive line is in shambles because of injuries. SC has lost three STARTING offensive lineman, including a two-time All-American, Sam Baker. Without a solid offensive line you will not control the line of scrimmage and not be a productive offense. Lets see what happens when the O-Line gets healthy; like they were against WSU. One more thing, Scott, with your reference to the Hackett Days, you must be drinking the same Kool-Aid as Lou "Granny" Holtz. All of you naysayers need to go to the doctor and have your collective heads removed from your rectal cavities.

Vegas had USC as 21 point favorites with Sanchez against a very, very bad Arizona team. USC barely won with 7 points. Sanchez is not the savior and never will be. He is downright pitiful. Hell, even McDonald would be an improvement over Sanchez at this point. Look at the stats Arizona's QB Tuitama had. They were much better numbers than Sanchez and he's hardly heralded. Sanchez is an albatross on the program.

wow....

looking at this thread we have 50% of the people backing sanchez and USC and the other 50% arguing with them.

there isn't anything I can say as I do my share of complaining.

It just seems to me that, if we are in this situation, the program is in trouble.

I mean, yeah we all love USC trojanwahine but after what has happened the past 2 weeks I don't think sitting around saying "we won, didn't we?" is the correct response. Sure we won, against Arizona and Stanford, 2 awful teams. What if it had been Oregon and Cal?

But I have also come to the realization that, even though I am angry at what I see on the field, yelling at Scott Wolf and arguing with his bloggers isn't going to change it.

I think it looks pretty obvious to all of us that Sarkisian's comments sound like a person who is making excuses. And he is obviously not as great an OC as we had hoped. But, Sanchez didn't do that badly. He hasn't played an entire football game since 2004 and he didn't totally Fuc* up.

Just for my 2 cents, I think we should all remember we are playing without Booty, Johnson, O'Dowd, Rachal, Cushing, Wright, Pinkard, and now I hear Baker and Ellison might be out too. So of course we don't looks so good. Conversely though, we cuold look better, I agree.

So I guess resigned indignation is the order of the day. Just try to grin and bear it until some of these guys get healthy and maybe next yeark PC have a little input on play calling or he can talk with Sarkisian about it.

Something I saw posted earlier - rephrased..."At least, Sanchez throws his int's in just the right place so they're not returned for 6 points"?

Now I've seen everything. Someone suggesting that Sanchez' int's are things of beauty. Anyways.

I just wish people would stop making this a Sanchez v. Booty v. Mustain issue. It's not the main problem and anyone with any football experience would see that right away. Are Booty and Sanchez struggling? Yes but there's a bigger reason behind it all.

USC has exactly ONE starter on the O-line (the one spot where USC had depth issues to begin with) that was a designated starter at the beginning of the season. Everyone else is a second or third stringer. None of these guys have played together on the same line and it's showing. The O'line has no chemistry and for the first time in years USC QBs are being forced to scramble for their lives. Coming into Washington USC QBs were rarely sacked more than once a game (and yes, that includes Booty for all you people that like to complain about his mobility) and in the Stanford game Booty was sacked 3 times. Last night I believe Sanchez was sacked 4 times. It's not the QBs' faults.

USC's real problems began the second O'Dowd and Rachal went down at Washington because at that point the running game that was piling up 250+ ypg vanished and with it any real threat of passing as well. The reason USC needed a strong running game to start the season is exactly the reason USC lost to Stanford and is struggling now- the WRs are young, inexperienced and don't have the required in game chemistry with the QBs yet. Couple that with the fact that the QBs are now being asked to run for their lives and voila, mayhem.

The WRs have barely had a chance to run their corect routes repeatedly in game and now they're being asked to be aware of pressure on the QB and restructure their routes accordingly.

As most of you should know if you don't think a team can run all you need to do is play the pass and that is what most teams are doing.

Oh and to those who would say "Well this is USC we should be able to lose 4 starting O-linemen and not miss a beat"...just stop watching college football now. You clearly have no idea what you are talking about.

Lets be real here. SC is playing with less than half of the expected starting lineup due to injury. The O-line is on fourth stringers, only a couple of the expected "deep" running back corps is actually playing, the receivers have been absolutely horrible as opposed to expectations and recruiting, and the playcalling has been too conservative. They're starting the backup QB. And that's just the offense.

95 percent of teams with this type of injury record would be 1-5 at this point. I can only think of a couple of others with this type of depth, and they would still be considered horrible teams.

Let's keep it in perspective.

I'd like to see Sanchez with at least a half-healthy O-line before judging him.

Sanchez proved, without a doubt, he will always be nothing more than a back up quarterback and is not ready to be a starter and never will be. He can come in for mop up duty, but will never be the star who will lead the Trojans to the promised land. He just does not have the "IT Factor." He is simply out of his depth doing anything than sitting on the bench.

Poor reads, throws and lack of judgment. He has a very poor football acumen and that has been suggested by insiders to the programs for 2+ years. He did more harm for his cause against Arizona than if he did not play at all. Sanchez is a lifetime second stringer and there is no evidence to suggest that will change when Booty has healed.

Fight On!

No excuses for Sanchez, he's been in the system for 2 1/2 years; he had weak QB command of the offense. He looked nervous, unsure in the pocket and could not find open receivers all night long. His decision making was too slow. He scrambled due to indecisions and not hitting open receivers.

I'll take Booty over Sanchez due to better decision making and accuracy, better reads in the pocket and finding receivers.

Tyler:

Agree 100% regarding the stupidity of the claim made by someone that Sanchez somehow throws "quality interceptions" since they are not converted to touchdowns. Ummmmm, NO! That just means the Arizona defenders weren't good enough to run back to the endzone. Subsequently, since they weren't that good to begin with, what does it say about Sanchez that he is intercepted by poor defenders?

No interception is good. You cannot spin an interception as somehow being a "good interception" because it did not result in a touchdown.

Let me ask you, is it better to throw an interception that is not returned for a touchdown or no interception at all?

Seriously, some people are just grasping at straws now.

USC_1966, I agree. I have seen the ability of Rojo, JoMac, The Prince, Fred Davis, and CW. The WR's are decoys. The OC needs to develop and call plays that fit the skills of those I named above. Stop running JoMac between the tackles. Get Rojo and JoMac in space. JoMac is good but not Bush YET. Reggie would have threw on the brakes and reversed field for a TD. The next time JoMac will then look out.

This truly is a Paul Hackett-era team. People booing, leaving early, empty seats. When we win, no one is happy, only anger and disappointment.

How did something so good go bad so fast?

Mustain is the only answer left. Without him, it's a general state of malaise. When a win over Arizona is somehow considered an accomplishment, you know your days are numbered.

But hey, we've got basketball to look forward to! OJ Mayo and Tim Floyd, now those are two born winners. As the football team's profile and rankings go down, the basketball team is top 10!

Who would have thought that basketball would be ranked higher than football? And there are about 117 Division I football teams compared to over 300 Division I basketball teams.

In Tim we trust!

All you losers out there who would still take Booty over Sanchez, you need to get your heads examined.

Yes I will admit Sanchez made two INTs. It was going to happen. THAT WAS A GIVEN HE WAS GOING TO MAKE MISTAKES! Plus he had to deal with the tight reigns in the playcalling. He has not been given a whole off season to prepare like Booty has.

But he took command in the second half and did what was necessary to win the f%$@ing game. He showed the type of poise, leadership, sacrifice and MOBILITY that Booty clearly does not possess. And all his players recognized it. They started to believe and maybe you should too.
That 1st down he ran for near the goal line, in a year and a half did Booty ever do that? NO!

Sanchez got stronger as the game went on. If I recall Booty displayed less and less as the Stanford game went on and against FUCLA last year same deal. If I recall the offense scored 0 points against FUCLA in the second half of the 13-9 fluke.

GIVE IT UP WITH BOOTY, IT WILL BE HIS NAME IN A TRIVIA QUESTION FOR YEARS TO COME ALONG WITH JOHN FOX, MIKE VAN RAAPHORST, KYLE WACHOLTZ, BRAD OTTON, and TODD MARINOVICH.

Thank you Tyler, Jay. 13-9 fluke and Bryan for your expert analysis. Jake the Trojan: Sanchez had a patched-up OL with back-up's backing up back-up's. Your JDB had a much healthier OL and against WA and Stanford he threw SIX[INTERCEPTIONS]. Do you call that accuracy? So much for your blind idiotic and moronic fact less theory. In one game MS showed guts, mobility and athleticism>those are facts you usual suspects/MM faithful.
Thank you

13-9 Fluke, this is from today's Daily News story by Scott:

"The biggest thing we learned is Mark has a lot of stuff to learn and cleanup," Carroll said. "He needs to improve his reads and getting rid of the ball and not getting sacked, but he brings a lot of energy."

So I guess Carroll doesn't know what he's talking about either, right? Sanchez is just all around awful and Carroll knows it.