Rare Role
Oregon is favored over USC this week by three points. The last time the Trojans were an underdog in the regular season was against Auburn in 2003 (four points). The last time USC was an underdog in a Pac-10 game was in 2001 against UCLA (three points).
USC was also an underdog in last year's Rose Bowl against Michigan (1.5 points).
It has been a while since SC has underperformed against top competition. Hopefull that will continue on Saturday.
Scott-
Either you answered my question early or great minds think alike!
hahaha
So in the games you cited USC was 3-0 as a 'dog. Not too bad!
Not much of a "lightning" round, huh Scott?
Still waiting...
Or did you mean 11pm tonight?
From Scouts.Inc's Todd McShay:
Stock Up
1. USC QB Mark Sanchez
This former super recruit lived up to his hype during USC's blowout of Notre Dame on Saturday. In his second start for the injured John David Booty, Sanchez completed 21 of 38 passes for 235 yards with four touchdowns and zero interceptions. He displayed a strong arm and good field vision in spreading the ball around to eight different receivers. He also showed more mobility to create positive yardage once the initial play broke down. Don't automatically "insert disclaimer" because his success came against a one-win Notre Dame team, either. The Irish's pass defense is better than people think. It ranks 39th nationally in pass efficiency defense and, comparatively speaking, it held Heisman candidate QB Matt Ryan (Boston College) in check. In addition to picking him off once, Notre Dame's defense is the only one that prevented Ryan from reaching the 300-yard passing plateau when attempting 35-plus passes -- and Ryan attempted 49 in that contest. Sure, Sanchez still has much to prove. However, his showing in South Bend certainly gives Pete Carroll and his staff something to mull over when Booty is healthy enough to return.
Not too shabby. USC has to hope to erase the Stanford debacle from the minds of voters by playing the "starting quarterback suffered a broken finger and the team has turned it around with the spark provided by the backup." It's our only hope of getting back into title contention.
so the last two regular season appearances as dogs resulted in USC winning 27-0 and 27-0? that would be a fun trend to see continued.