Post-Game Thoughts?

Scott, I think you have to give the defense a little more credit than "fairly well". Anytime you pitch a shutout and hold a D-1 team to under 200 yards of offense, that's pretty good, even for your standards.

Clearly Sanchez lived up to his reputation of being a turnover machine. Just horrible. Horrible.

It is typical for us to frequently play down to our level of competition. We are always out of synch in the first half of the season and hit our stride in Nov. I don't know why....too many players play, so we taking longer to gel as a squad? The Def had a great game. I won't even address our TOs. The O-line continues to be our primary weakness and causes the offense to play out of synch. I am going to harp on the arrogance and recklessness of Pete when he plays underdogs. He NEVER should have gone for a fake FG on 4th and 5 late in the 1st half in scoring territory fresh off a TO. Our FG kicker is PERFECT on the year, and the easy score puts us up 4 SCORES. If the fake is successful, we are STILL only up 4 scores. So, it's a low probability play with little to gain. RECKLESS and ARROGANT. Similar to not kicking the FG on 4th downs against Oregon and Stanford last season. Only this time, it didn't come back to bite us in the butt, but it could have. I hate this one component of Pete's philosophy. He does not appreciate the power of the FG - high probability play, sustained momentum, leverage point advantage. KICK THE FG, PETE!!!!

Mark had did not look good today. The run game for the most part did not look good, until Joe showed what Joe is capable of. It would not have mattered if USC had won 61-0. Nothing would please or impress SW, that is unless he was able to get a picture with the ASU cheerleaders (meaning that he had to cough up some more of his allowance that gets from mommy). Clearly penalties and dumb mistakes can hurt the Tojans, but you also have a "D" that is outstanding, and a run game that can explode at any time. So can this team win out, sure. Do they have to make some changes, sure, but name one team that doesn't at this point (see Oklahoma). Fight On!

Since Virgina, USC WR cannot get seperation. Virginia turned out to be a dud and Buckeye game could have been close if 2nd OSU TD not called back.

RB's overrated, OL as suspected. Despite bad game MS is real deal. But what do you with WR who cannot get open; same problem as last year.

Where have you gone, Norman Chow
(unfortunately we know)

1. Alabama
2. Texas
3. Penn State
4. Texas Tech
5. USC

Note to Scott and all the other intellectually challenged sports writers out there who buy-in to this SEC/Big XII BS... Oklahoma doesn't have to play Texas every week. They also get to play teams like Baylor, Iowa State, and Kansas State. And Florida doesn't have to play LSU every week. Sometimes they get a chance to square off against Miss. State, Arkansas, and Ol Miss (oops). Plus, out of the 11 other teams in each conference, they miss 4 every year. That's 4 teams in their own conference that they don't play every single year. And the championship games??? That's not tradition. That's just a money grab to get more coin in the athletic budget's pocket. So before you continue to spill more of this "holier than thou" crapola, think about what you're saying first.

FIGHT ON!

(And by the way, yes, USC was absolutely putrid on offense yesterday. Worst offensive performance I've seen in a while.)

Saturday was just another example of a team that does not have the killer instinct it takes to be great. The 2nd quarter was not a dominant performance, but after the Pick 6 by Kevin Thomas, ASU was on their heels. USC got the ball AGAIN at the ASU 15 after the fumble and got NOTHING! 2nd and 4 from the 11 and a poor play call, bad execution equals 3rd and 4. AGAIN, bad play selection and another weak incompletion to Patrick Turner. Not even an attempt to throw the ball to Ayles, Havili or Ausberry (throw the ball to big people deep in the red zone: very easy concept). After that they ran the fake FG, but everyone in the stadium had to know it was happening. If that play is coming out on 4th, that group has to sprint out onto the field after the failed 3rd down and snap the ball as quickly as possible. You run out the backup QB instead of the punter that usually holds, you take your time and the entire ASU sideline is screaming FAKE. On ASU's subsequent drive, poor clock management cost SC an opportunity to get more points. After the sack by Cush on 1st from the ASU 26 (driving them back to the 18) there should have been a time out taken immediately. Instead they let them drain the clock and run another play, THEN taking time out with only 9 seconds. It should have been no less than 35-0 at half time. Just like the week before where Pete left 28 points on the field, this team just does not have the instinct to knock out a stumbling team as soon as possible.
SC came out in the 2nd half and just gave up offensively. I don't want or need style points, just have the preparation and drive to capitalize on the other teams mistakes and punish them to the full extent.
Congrats to the defense for time and again saving the shut out.