USC-Washington State Report Card
Here are the grades for Saturday night's game.
RESULT: No. 12 USC 27, Washington State 6
RECORD: 3-1, 1-1.
WEEK 4 GPA: C+
QUARTERBACK
Matt Barkley's dramatic flair remains in tact.
B+
RUNNING BACKS
Allen Bradford leads Trojans in rushing off one series.
C-
WIDE RECEIVERS
David Ausberry and Rhett Ellison's drops kept game closer.
C-
OFFENSIVE LINE
Still having problems in short-yardage situations.
C+
DEFENSIVE LINE
Reserve Nick Perry leads team with six sacks.
B
LINEBACKERS
Reserves Jordan Campbell and Shane Horton combined for 14 tackles.
B+
DEFENSIVE BACKS
Not a whole lot to do other than Josh Pinkard's interception.
C+
SPECIAL TEAMS
A botched extra point, fumbled punt return, missed field goal . . .
D
COACHING
Jeremy Bates still struggling with this converting on third-down concept.
D+
D+ is a nice grade for Coaching. Between Bates and Carroll's lack of killer instinct and extreme lack of control over the penalty and turnover situation, this team is going backward in a hurry.
Beat the Bears!!
One more thing about bad coaching> It is a sad day when Stanford can dominate a team on the ground and pound out a win against the very same Washington team that Pete and Jeremy refused to pummel into submission.
Overall grade C-. We are on track to lose 3 more games. Holiday Bowl here we come. While frustrating, I can rationalize this as a bad year due to the law of probability. The BCS streak had to end at some point.
What's our biggest weakness? Look at OC Guz Malzahn and Auburn, yes frkn Auburn, averaging over 40 pts/gm at 4-0. What would a very good OC like Malzahn be able to do with USC's talent on offense if PC gave them the reins? PC's ego and insistence on controlling the offensive system have led to a modest underachievement since Chow relative to our talent-level.
Except that Stanford has Gerhard, who doesn't need holes, and SC has guys who need blocking help and didn't get it against the 8-man front Washington threw at them after the first two series.
USC has the biggest, fastest back in the conference in Bradford. He is a great gap runner and really gets to the second level fast and comes with bad intentions. In the UW game, 8 or 9 man fronts it didn't matter. After the first two posessions vs. UW (which apparently they dominated on defense according to you), the Trojans gained 139 yards on 25 carries (a rather impressive 5.6). Overall they ran 33 running plays and gained 250 net yards. That is a crisp 7.6 yards per carry. Total number of plays was 55. That number is pretty low, but understandable considering the 0-11 brilliance Bates displayed on 3rd and 4th down and the three turnovers in the red zone. He'll run the ball with 17 seconds left and no timeouts on 3rd and 1, but throws it on 2nd and 2 in the red zone which leads to a pick.
He has no feel for the game and what is happening.