Key Play Of The Game
Lane Kiffin is a former quarterback. Is that why he called a pass on third-and-4 at the Washington 23-yard line?
It's two-down territory with a struggling kicker anyways and the offensive linemen want to run in that situation. Oh, and with a power back who gained more than 200 yards. Oh, and with Nick Holt's defense bleeding yards all night.
I guess I'm perplexed to say the least.
very unorthodox play calling. its 3rd and 4 run and get 2 yards and then its 4th and 2 run and you got yourself a first down.
it was horrible coaching on both sides of the ball.
How much would it cost to get Sark back? Pride?
I disagree. Maybe that little 4th down play vs Texas influenced this decision. The play call was fine...Barkley's throw just missed as did the FG.The Key Play(s) was/were all the 3rd and Longs UW converted all night.
Running Bradford on 3rd down eats 50 seconds from the clock, and has a 25% chance or better of going to the house.
Just another reason why Lane will be gone in two years. Haden doesn't want a scum bag like that around for too long and when his combined record after 2 years is 13-11 it will take $5MIL to get anyone to take over this shit program
How about calling some Timeouts before 0:04 seconds left. Lane looked like a deer caught in the headlights. Pop Kiffin didn't help him out either amazing how this team has forgotten how to tackle in on year!!
Run on 3rd and medium? Geniuses, that is not a traditional running situation. You only run on 3rd and short. And, if he had run and gotten stopped, you morons would have bitched about that too. Besides, the pass play was wide open as almost every pass play was all night.
And, EVEN WORSE, you are saying DON'T kick the FG on 4th down up by 2 late in a tight game with your opponent running all over you??? MORONS! Lane would have been crucified if he hadn't kicked the FG.
Lane can't pass for MB7 or kick FGs. If anything, Monte should be on the hot seat. Lane's offense is markedly improved over last season.
DFW I agree that the offense looks better than last year, I have no problem with the play called. MB7 Just hasn't made that big pass in a big situation, He is just a very inconsistent QB. I don't think Lane should have saved his TO's though, He could have used the time on the back end cause Holt's D was as Monte's
SC didn't do a good job of clock management at the end. Sometimes the worst thing you can do is stop the clock on an incomplete pass. If you run the ball and get no gain on 3rd and 4, you run additional time off the clock. This either causes Washington to burn a timeout or watch as 30 seconds go off the clock. If you run the ball again on 4th down, Washington either burns a timeout or another 30 seconds. Either way, the Huskies would have been much more hurried on that last drive.
Then once the Huskies were in field goal range, USC needed to either let the Huskies score or start taking its times out on defense to preserve time for the offense, to give it a chance of scoring.
Goatboy Kiffin was not a college qb ... he was a 4th team coaching wannabe, that was told not even to suit up his final year. That is an insult to all qb's everywhere.
Who is the moron that wants Sark back LOL .. that game was between Dumb and Dumber ( and Locker won it ).
Sark and Goatboy are just crap coaches PERIOD
I did think it was four down territory, but I don't think Kiffin's call was necessarily the wrong one. What I didn't understand was not calling a timeout on Washington's 4th down play. They had been converting their long plays all night - why not look at how they setup and then talk to your defense. If nothing else, make Sark think about switching away from his preferred play in that situation.
Plus he kept Reggie Bush in the sidelines AGAIN!
Our clock management and being left with three worthless timeouts is painful.
DFW- not sure if you watched the game or just read this post but we were running at 5-7 yard every play and the washington d had had more than their fill of 21. barkley missed the pass, but in a scenario eerily similar to the texas game when lanie called that halfback screen, there is no chance wash was stopping 4 consecutive run plays. again he out-thought himself when he simply could have jammed it up in them.
and you dont try a FG there when you know your kicker stinks. run. run. run. run. win the game. simple.
@ WhatAMoron, if you run on 4th down and don't convert the clock stops on change of possession, although if UW didn't call a TO after 3rd down you would run more time off the clock.
DFWTrojan... I respect your opinion, but one thing we geniuses here know how to do is hand the ball off to a beast who was starting and stopping and weaving his way to 220 yards.
Who's the real moron Mr. Dallas Fort Worth? USC needed a touchdown in that scenario - a field goal wasn't cutting it. Even if we would have made it, Washington was probably going to march down and score a touchdown. It's not like they got to our 20 and ran out of time... they started killing the clock on themselves so we wouldn't have any time left. Kiffin said as much himself when he talked about the defense not stopping anybody. That was definitely four down territory whether you run it all four times or try the third down pass and try another pass on fourth. If Barkley had any wheels, we could run the unstoppable rollout pass/run option that's pretty much guaranteed to get a first down in that situation, but since Barkley's a statue that play was off the table.
Anyone who saw that game knew that SC hadn't stopped Washington all night. Washington stopped themselves by dropping every catchable ball under the sun. You had to know that with increased stakes, they would get the ball into field goal range. Kiffin played not to lose and the football gods handed him an "L". He got what he deserved. I just hope he'll get off the mat and dial up some aggressive and fun football for the rest of the year.