So much USC’s rebuilding year. After losing a bunch (huge one!) of studs last year to the NFL, this year USC was supposed to hang in there and maybe go to some nice bowl.
What has ended up happening is an unbelievable thing (well, believable nowadays of course). USC is a lock for one BCS Bowl, the Rose Bowl which takes the Pac-10 champion.
USC is the Pac-10 champion already.
USC can beat ucla and stake a claim to go to the BCS National Championship.
USC “survived” the year with one loss so far, with one game to go.
With two games remaining in the schedule, USC knew the worst it could do is go to the Rose Bowl and if they won the last two, they could possibly go to the National Championship game. To lock up the Pac-10 title with two games to go is a fantastic feat.
USC went unbeaten at home this season.
Yea, this is the rebuilding year. They have only 4 senior starters. Provided they don’t lose too many juniors to the NFL draft, it is going to be much more experienced next year and I can’t imagine what they would be able to achieve next year.
Mr. November is now unbeaten in the most crucial month of the college football season. Pete Carroll (now 20-0) won the ‘something must give’ in the game yesterday because Charlie Weis was also unbeaten (7-0) in November.
I know this streak will also end someday, but till then, we can only drop our jaw and think ‘wow’.
Seeing the game yesterday made me very happy, but at the same time I started thinking, is Notre Dame really as good as it was made out to be? If yes, then it makes USC even better than what it has been made out to be.
But what if Notre Dame was really overrated and its boosters had just unjustifiably made them ranked so high at the beginning? What if Notre Dame was not that good?
I don’t care at the end, of course. USC beat one of its biggest rivals and that too handily. If not for Booty’s 2 INT’s, the blocked punt and that one freakish run by Brady Quinn, this would have been a flawless night.
The offense did seem like it was working like a well-oiled machine, the defense has really come up in the last few games and the special teams showed up too (way to go, Cushing!).
Ok, so now it is down to the last regular season game with another big rival who is doing not that well. ucla in Pasadena. I am not as tense as I was for the Notre Dame game, but I just hope there is no over confidence and complacency in the USC team and the “looking ahead” mentality. They do need to win this one and then start the chatter.
I am so glad I did not buy the entire package to watch the cricket series between India and South Africa. After the first game which was rained out, the second one was simply a pathetic display of batting by the Indians.
When will this team pick itself up from the dumps and be counted? What does it need to do to improve?
The good omen is that the last World Cup’s campaign was preceded by a pathetic display of batting in New Zealand. Could this time’s New Zealand trip be this South African safari?
I love this time of the year. The holidays, the festivities, the sales (though I hardly shop), the general happy faces, the cheer in the air, and of course, crunch time in college football and sort of important time for the NFL.
I love the time, and unfortunately, it gets over too soon. It will get over even sooner this year because we are taking a long vacation.
In any case, at least I can enjoy the fact that it is only Friday and the true weekend is yet to start! :-)
Since last evening, I have been feeling like its Friday. I wore jeans to work today, woke up late, came in late and am taking it easy. No one is here, not the people I work with anyway. So it is take it easy policy.
I was a little bit unsure of how the game was going in the first half, but after seeing the defense step it up big time today, I feel a lot better in general about the health of the team at this point in the season.
The offense is sputtering, and JDB still seems to telegraph his passes, but we have huge playmakers in the team in DJ, Steve Smith and in this game CJ Gable. How cool was the catch for the first down by DJ jumping high in the air just beyond the marker? How cool was Steve Smith’s 4th and 2 conversion to a TD? How cool was CJ Gable in his monster runs at various points in the game? Awesome.
I was not willing to quote the turnover margin that USC had against Stanford because hey, it is after all only Stanford. But to create so many in one game against a team like Cal is worth noting.
USC kept the 35 points per game Cal to a miserly 9 and that says a lot. The defense deserves a huge pat on the back for doing that to Cal. Good stuff.
There is a reason to feel upbeat for USC Trojans.
Of course, next week is going to be a different game. So we’ll keep the celebration limited to tonight only. :-)
I am sorry to say, but due to the following factors, I am not going to watch the Michigan-Ohio State game:
1. Too much being reported already on it, so much that it has created a state of overdose in my mind 2. I think the teams are both going to have it so much on their heads that it going to be a pathetic, mistake-ridden, absolutely no-fun game 3. I cannot spare time on a Saturday nowadays to watch two football games and of course I think Cal at USC is the “better” game to watch
So yes, I have set my DVR to record a few Sportscenters in the evening, but I am not going to watch the entire bloody game.
Let’s talk about it after the game - who ended up being the better team and who is legit and who is not. For now, shut up already.
My current client office has an in-house Starbucks coffee area. It is sort of an OEM operation where they have their own person making Starbucks coffee within certain hours in the morning and in the afternoon.
That is all nice and dandy, but recently, I overheard the person ordering 4-shot cappuccino! Are you serious?? 4 shots of espresso coffee with a hint of milk and foam? How many times must he be having that drink? Is it good for you?
Is it the coffee maker’s responsibility to slow him down? Just like a bartender is (ideally) supposed to slow down someone trying to get drunk heavily, is it the coffee maker’s role to slow down a person trying to have too much coffee?
I do believe these kind of people may become a huge distraction in the office, especially if they come to post-lunch meetings and start taking away the meeting from the main points of discussion.
Given the upset special tags put on the game, I should say ‘phew’ after USC beat Oregon. Of course, the game was well played by USC and equally badly played by Oregon.
That TD review was a joke … it took 15 minutes or so for the review, which reversed the decision of the TD. Then after a challenge (ludicrous as it is, to challenge an official REVIEW!) by Mike Belloti, and another 10 minutes or so of nothingness, the reversal was reversed! How bizarre is that!
In any case, in terms of rankings and stuff, the day was a good one for USC. Auburn, Cal, Texas all lost. Also, Arkansas trounced Tennessee, and Louisville had already lost to Rutgers. And finally, Florida had a close call with South Carolina. So a sort of a perfect day for USC. But it is too early in November to pronounce anything.
Next weekend is a big one (#2 of 4) for USC. I am really not bothered about Michigan/Ohio State. Cal at USC is the biggest game that day. It will decide (practically) the winner of Pac 10 and therefore a guaranteed berth in a BCS bowl. It will also push the winner’s value in the national rankings picture, though Cal with two losses by now has no chance realistically of making it to the National Title game.
So … can’t wait for next Saturday!
update: Thanks, Displaced Trojan, my bad to include Georgia in the “all lost”. Don’t know what I was thinking. I updated those lines of this post.
Another bad trend that USC has fallen into this year: start the second half with a punt (or a turnover) instead of coming out and scoring a TD, which was almost a certainty last season.
Lack of turnovers forced, INT on first possession of game, punt/turnover on first possession of second half … how can they keep winning like last few years?
Once again USC has started their first offensive drive with a freaking INT! What’s going on???
Also, what’s the deal with the 4-5 3rd down conversions given up in Oregon’s first offensive drive? Of course, it was a good defensive stand at 4th and 1 to stop the Ducks.
I do not intend to live blog the game but just some initial thoughts.
I was happy to see the link to switch to the new blogger in my dashboard yesterday and today. But I keep clicking on the link only to see the “regret” message about the inability to switch.
What??? Cal lost??? Oh my gosh! How did that happen????? Did not expect that.
Uh oh. They will be coming hard next week. Irrespective of the result today between Oregon and USC, next week Cal will be hurting big time and will be looking for a big comeback.
Finally got around to see the DVR’ed Office of this week. It was hilarious!
It was first of all, good to see that they are making Diwali “mainstream” as opposed to limiting it to cultural section of the newspapers ;-)
Secondly, all the stuff they showed made it so funny - from the explanation by Dwight of what Diwali stands for, Kelly’s version of Diwali (fun and food and drinks and dancing), Kelly’s parents interrogating the intern, and of course the Adam Sandler-ish Diwali song.
Too good. Worth a watch. Check it out on itunes if you did not record it.
USC chopped the Stanford tree, but the game itself felt more like USC struggled to make a statement. USC was in total control, no doubt, and Stanford had some things going for them, but in general, I think there were a lot of times in the game where USC had to put away the drive or create a turnover and they did not.
But of course, I am happy that they shut out a team, does not matter that it was lowly Stanford with a 10.4 points average so far (last in NCAA). It was good to see some long passes actually being caught and it was also good to see some turnovers.
What seems to be the problem (or at least one of them!) is that JDB is a little too mellow. I know it is good to be calm and collected but I think JDB is just too calm. There seems to be a lack of killer instinct in him which I think Leinart had a lot of. And the calmness sort of turns into complacency and carelessness. Which in turn could explain the high number of turnovers.
In any case, it is now on to the final stretch. First up is Oregon. Oregon has shown some weakness in the last two games which of course they have been able to cover up quickly in the second halves of those games and win well. USC has its work cut out big time and I think the game should start out as evens, without a clear favorite.
I tried to switch (after a long wait) to the new beta blogger today, and unfortunately, was not able to. :-(
The message said that there are a variety of reasons a blogger may not be able to switch. Most of the conditions did not apply in my case, but the one that may apply is that I have ‘a lot of posts and comments - a couple thousand or so’. I check on my dashboard and I have about 1400 posts and I would imagine about 200 or so comments.
So after resisting for so long, when I finally give up, I hit disappointment of not being able to switch. Dang it! I thought I’d spend some time over the weekend updating my template with some of the bells and whistles that I have on this blog.
What’s the point of having a radio signal-based atomic clock (and a watch) when it does not adjust the time automatically by the next morning after the change of time?
Unfortunately for me, my wall clock and my wrist watch both failed me over the past weekend. And funny enough, manually ‘syncing’ the wall clock was not even an option! I had to keep the clock by the window and in four to five DAYS (yes, DAYS!) it was expected to be updated.
Sucks. Makes me wonder what is the point of these things …
USC’s multiple streaks ended. And sadly, in a loss that I can only term as bullshit. There were so many chances that the Beavers gave the Trojans to stay in the game, and so many (plus more) chances that the Trojans gave up. Forget about blowing away opponents in the recent past after a bye week, forget about having a great October/November under Pete Carroll, this team plain sucked today.
I feel so bad that the loss did not come against a worthy opponent, no offense Beavers. Losing to Cal or to Oregon or even ND would have been sort of digestible. This loss against a “gimme” opponent is just pathetic.
How about those bloody turnovers! Chauncey was supposed to have a breakout game here but he was one of the culprits. And forget about the final stats for JDB, but his unfortunate INT at the top of the first quarter after a quick strike by the Beavers was probably a very costly turnover. If USC had made the scores even, it would have made OSU slight overwhelmed but instead the INT gave them more confidence and they just did not let up.
Anyway, I hope USC is not the answer to Stanford’s winless season so far, next week!
Yes, I saw the India-West Indies match. It was a lot easier for the West Indians than it seemed to be. Lara started a brief collapse which increased the interest in the game towards the end. If not for that last big shot by Samuels, it would actually have been interesting.
In any case, the bottomline is that India did not deserve to win. The batting is pathetic nowadays with some of the “stars” constantly failing. The bowling is inept both at the top and at the bottom so much so that one of the better bowlers was Sehwag!
India needs to drop Sehwag first, and get someone solid at the top so they don’t find themselves in a 21-1 or 34-2 situations too much. Then, Yuvraj needs to be replaced so that India can finish off the innings well.
I understand that Agarkar is not going to play the next match, and Patel is not 100% so the fast bowling department is absolutely useless based on current form. And that may be the biggest difference maker against Australia, with Gilchrist showing signs of coming back to some sort of form.
So it is going to be a virtual quarter final tomorrow with India and Australia fighting for the last spot in the semis. Let’s see how India responds. And let’s see what Australia brings to the table.
Ferrari F1 team lost Ross Brawn and Paolo Martinelli today. So they lost their multiple times world champion driver, the brains behind the wins and the engine guru behind the car that won so many races.
So besides the fact that Ferrari is going to be handicapped, one small note for Kimi - you seem to be quite unlucky. Guess what - I have a feeling that McLaren will suddenly improve their reliability many times over and start winning, while Ferrari will be handicapped and will “rebuild” this year.
I am finally, slowly catching up on my DVR-ed shows and I think I like Friday Night Lights a lot. It seems to be shot in an Office-style camera position which makes it seem like you are there in the scenes and at the same time, it concerns football and I love the behind-the-scenes sort of look at high school football.
I unfortunately had to stop a few shows from recording even though I felt that they would be good watches, and those include Heroes, 30 Rock (Studio 60 is WAY better) and Twenty Good Years. I have kept Studio 60, Friday Night Lights, ER, The Office and How I Met Your Mother for now. Let’s see if I can keep up - the wife has already given up on it.
Given the shows that I am watching and wanted to watch, it seems that NBC is back. Isn’t it?
