USC-Arizona State Report Card
Here's this week's grades.
RESULT: NO. 11 USC 44, NO. 7 ARIZONA STATE 24.
RECORD: 9-2, 6-2.
WEEK 11 GPA: B-.
QUARTERBACK
John David Booty looked like the quarterback everyone expected before the season. Most impressive was the way he spread the ball around to so many different receivers. Imagine if he was healthy and played like this against Oregon. Or Stanford.
A-
RUNNING BACKS
Missing in action again after so much hype following the Cal game. At least Joe McKnight's fumble went out of bounds.
C-
WIDE RECEIVERS
Booty found Ronald Johnson deep once (a minor miracle) and also showed the Trojans could survive without a go-to receiver as Patrick Turner, Fred Davis and Vidal Hazelton all caught five passes.
B+
OFFENSIVE LINE
A few penalties but that's expected on the road and they did a nice job protecting the quarterback, unlike Arizona State's offensive line.
B
DEFENSIVE LINE
Lawrence Jackson's four sacks demonstrated what the line is capable of under the right circumstances. Now you know why so many Pac-10 teams throw quick passes to avoid a real pass rush.
A-
LINEBACKERS
Keith who? Kaluka Maiava made everyone forget Keith Rivers for a night with a team-high 10 tackles, and did it with a broken wrist. Rey Maualuga and Brian Cushing combined for just five tackles on a pretty quiet effort.
B-
DEFENSIVE BACKS
When he had time, Rudy Carpenter found open receivers, but the defensive line made sure it wasn't enough to make a significant difference.
C+
SPECIAL TEAMS
The kick return for a touchdown was not a shining moment but enough with the blocked punts already. This was the third time a team blocked USC's punt. Maybe they need a special teams coach.
F
COACHING
Pete ``Caesar'' Carroll looks golden again in November as the Trojans seem set for a BCS bowl game. Before we hear too much about too many penalties against USC, let's not forget the Trojans got a gift on the fumbled backwards pass recovered by Arizona State that was ruled a forward pass by the officials.
B
"Keith who?". Keith Rivers, right? Yes, Keith Rivers is going número uno in the draft...
Receivers "A"
ESPN showed a graphic that the SC receivers had 265 "yards-after-catch" (YAC) which would be about two-thirds of the total passing yards.
Scott, stick to beat writing. You don't know anything about football.
JDB is just not a champion-lacks something...problem seems to be mental
just4sc is barking up the wrong tree this week. sorry dude.
I gotta agree with just4sc....yeah Booty had nice stats, but as was pointed out by chuckytrojan, the WRs yards after catch helped make those stats look much better.
Seeing Booty go under guard, only to have the center tell him he was in the wrong place was chilling.
The unsportsmanlike conduct call against big Sed Ellis was a joke...just as the backward lateral being called an incomplete pass was.
Yards after catch are credited to the passer, at least in part because if the receiver is hit in stride, the yards after catch are a lot higher. When the receiver has to adjust his route or stop, he is more likely to be tackled immediately.