Football

General football stuff.

USC vs. WSU: Streak Ended

Posted on by commbro

Washington State vs. USC
September 29, 2017 at 7:36pm
Martin Stadium, Pullman, WA: 33,773
Total Time: 3 hours 46 minutes

A short week, road game, and piling injuries spell disaster against a ranked opponent on a week night. There’s no relief in sight as the 12 game slog continues. The 13 game winning streak lies broken in Pullman in what many predicted as the trap game of the season. Sam Darnold played what could possibly be his worst game a as a starter. We all knew it was gonna happen eventually and now it has. The feature image is a representation of the season! That’s how you can look at it.

You can also look at it as a decent spot to lose. A lot of this can be explained away by the selection committee for the same exact reasons: short week, road game, ranked opponent, piling injuries, no bye week—provided the team can win out and be in the conversation at that point. Perhaps the loss will relieve a lot of the pressure that’s been affecting the team. As long as the team regroups and plays better on offense, the ceiling for the season can still be high.

Good-Badisms

GOOD: Great interception by one of the best defensive players. Uchenna Nwosu decided to play hot potato with an offensive lineman…until he realized he wanted fries with that.

Yeah, I went there. Cardinal and Gold (Soruce: Corpse Reviver, Wikimedia Commons)

BAD: What the—Nwosu gives you the ball at the 3 and you repay him with only 3 points? The next scoring drive is more of the same crap. Drive starts at the 27…3 points.

GOOD: Punter, Reid Budrovich, continues to show competence at the position. Fields strange snaps and kicks far.

BAD: That was the first time in my life that I’ve seen a delay of game penalty on the defense. Of course it’s Pac-12 officials that call it.

BAD: Offensive pass interference on the Trojans at the beginning of the second half. They showed the replay a few times and I didn’t see anything blatant enough to call. I don’t have time to rewatch games anymore, so I can’t say anything for sure. At this very moment, I should be working on two papers that I have to turn in the coming week, but here I am writing this anyway. Anyway, this penalty basically killed the drive.

GOOD: Darnold showing he can still run it.

BAD: The Darnold magic ran out. He must’ve used it all just to get the game tied up.

GOOD: Getting play calls for read options and a QB sneak.

GOOD: Joseph Lewis and Tyler Vaughns had some good catches that game—Vaughns especially.BAD: Allowing more 4th down conversions

BAD: Defense allowed too many big plays. Run defense continues to be a sore spot.

BAD: Too many injuries

CommBro Breaker

At least Washington State is still one of the Pac-12 schools that need a Costco size pallet of wins to even out the series. The series record is 59-10-4. Only USC’s next opponent is worse, with a series record of 61-11-4. Beat the Beavers.

Lottery Stats

Ronald Jones looks to have decent stats. 128 yards on 14 carries, averaging over 9.1 yards per rush. But 70% of that came from a single big run.Take that out and you have 42 yards on 13 carries…an average of 3.2. Doesn’t look so good anymore. No hate or anything. He did well considering he returned from injury. My point is that if the team can’t run and it certainly can’t pass, what can it do? As we saw, the defense can’t carry you through every game. Barely getting 320 yards of total offense does not look good at all. A single player can often have a stat line like that.

Running count of fourth down conversions: 1 of 6
FINALLY, a conversion. On a 4th-and-13, no less. Still kind of a shaky throw by Darnold, but a heroic catch by Tyler Vaughns to keep the Trojans in the game.

Running count of opponent fourth down conversions: 7 of 11

USC vs. Cal: Strawberry Turnover

Posted on by commbro

California vs. USC
September 23, 2017 at 12:43pm
Memorial Stadium, Berkeley, CA: 46,747 (of 62,467)
Total Time: 3 hours 35 minutes

‘Tis probably bittersweet for Cal now that their stadium no longer has “Kabam Field” attached to it. The name and branding really didn’t fit the venue, but Cal really needed—and still needs—that money to fund their renovations. If you don’t already know, their athletic department is operating on roughly a $20 million deficit largely due to overly optimistic projections for the renovations. I won’t get into that though. Today, there was a different disaster on the field: Cal’s offense in the fourth quarter.

The stadium isn’t the only thing that got rebranded this year. Former USC defensive coordinator, Justin Wilcox, made the leap to head coach and instilled a new culture within the team. It was apparent through their 3-0 run, beating teams like UNC and Ole Miss. It was apparent throughout the game today.

Quite interesting that Wilcox did well everywhere except at USC: at the University of Washington, the other UW (Wisconsin), and even Cal. Yet he managed to have a thoroughly unimpressive campaign at USC.

It has to make me wonder if it’s something about SC. Were the position coaches not developing the players properly? Failures of strength and conditioning? Mind control nanobots in the LA water? Just baffling. A person can spend their life contemplating these issues and come to no conclusion.

Meanwhile, USC heads into another fourth quarter with the game tied. Had it not been for an offensive implosion by Cal, the win would’ve seriously been in question. Six turnovers and USC wins by 10 points. Great job by the defense, but something needs to be fixed or a loss is impending. Don’t be like 2014 FSU or 2012 Notre Dame.

Good-Badisms

BAD: Both sides of Cal’s line push SC’s around. Their DL managed to get significant pressure rushing only 3 or 4. They knifed into the backfield early, disrupting a good number of run plays. While the stat sheet doesn’t show a ridiculous number of tackles for loss allowed, I assure you, the damage was there. On the other side, their OL allowed them to run confidently and convert 4 out of 6 fourth downs.

GOOD: That might’ve been the best Pac-12 official crew I’ve seen in recent memory. No super controversial game-deciding calls. They let the people play. Now requesting Mark Duddy’s team for the rest of our conference schedule. Please?

GOOD: On a similar vein, not as many stupid penalties this game. They weren’t swimming in false starts flags like usual.

GOOD:  Deontay Burnett!! Week in and week out, he has been our most reliable receiver.

GOOD: Congrats on Sam Darnold’s first non-multiple interception game of the season.

GOOD: Who is this Uchenna Nwosu guy? Can we give him two scholarships? The outsider linebacker has played absolutely insane this season. He seems to bat or tip a pass every other drive. He also gets credit this game for the weird almost interception fumble.

GOOD: Stephen Carr played a decent game, filling in for the injured Ronald Jones as starter. Outside of the single fumble, he did what he needed to throughout the game.

GOOD: Being able to make a strawberry turnover pun.

CommBro Breaker

3-0 #24 Oregon just lost to 0-2 unranked ASU. Stanford went from losing to SDSU to making UCLA wish they played Memphis again.  An Arizona team that turned the ball over 5 times (-3 differential) still managed to keep it close against #23 Utah. Maybe you just can’t tell what a team will do any given week. Maybe the team will be fine squeaking out wins.

How did that man Wilcox convince a former FBS head coach to serve as his defensive coordinator? Has he become the Saban of the West?!

Lottery Stats

Running count of fourth down conversions: 0 of 5

Running count of opponent fourth down conversions: 6 of 10

Turnovers off of turnovers: 1

USC vs. Texas: Texas BBQ Can Give You a Heart Attack

Posted on by commbro

USC vs. Stanford
September 16, 2017 at 5:40pm
Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum, Los Angeles, CA: 84,714 (93,607)
Total Time: 4 hours 1 minutes

Rey Maualuga led the Trojans out of the tunnel on what many Texas and USC fans expected to be a blowout win for the Trojans. Instead, they had poor Matt Leinart standing in the end zone with PTSD flash backs while Vince Young and Matthew McConaughey were grinning. At that point, we were all reminded that Tom Herman was 6-0 versus ranked teams. I bet thousands of Bruin fans worldwide almost renewed their subscription to the Longhorn Network.

Overtime has not treated USC well since the current overtime rules were instituted in the 1995-96 bowl season. USC was 2-6 in OT games since 1996 and 3-6 overall. The last OT win was under Paul Hackett back in 2000. It’s good to be able to win in OT, whether or not the Trojans should have let it get to that point.

The team showed some grit—something severely missing from teams during most of the sanction years. The entire game tasted like a receipe for an upset once it got under way. I’m sure most people were expecting the big L for USC once Texas scored their go ahead touchdown with 45 seconds remaining.

The defense held the Longhorns to a net rushing yardage of…one and zero points (the points came off a terrible pick six). They did worse in the second half, allowing 10 points, but the offense should have gotten the job done. They scored a net of 10 points through 60 minutes of play. Really not acceptable when you have what so many proclaim to be a future first round pick at quarterback.

Apparently the Trojans only wake up at the end of a half. All their points during regulation were scored within three minutes of the end of a half.

The special teams and offense looked pretty bad for a stretch. After the first interception by the Trojan defense, the offense picked up a delay of game after the change in possession. Not much excuse for that kind of crap. Then it’s followed by a false start and a negative play. The ensuing punt had a bad snap that skipped along the ground. It’s a good thing the MVP punter, Reid Budrovich, managed to field and kick that…only for the coverage team to allow it to roll in for the touchback…

Good-Badisms
Good: Deontay Burnett made great plays, diving catches. He even had the instinct to bat the ball down to prevent an interception at one point.
Good: Reid Budrovich’s long punts and ability to field a bad snap. He pinned Texas deep in their own terrority and helped the defense shut down Texas for most of the game.
Good: Chase McGrath, the walk-on freshman kicker, missed his first field goal. Not that surprising, given that it was a 45 yarder and first college kick. He follows that up by infalliably making the two highest pressure kicks possible. The first, that sent the team to overtime, even had a suspect hold with the laces out. The second sealed USC’s 12 game winning streak. I feel that I to remind you that those are the first and only successful field goals in his college career. He made up for his miss one hundred times over.
Bad: Some of the special teams play (aside from the kicker and punter) was sloppy.
Bad: Receiver drops continue. One led to a pick six.
Bad: Defensive backs struggled at times during the night.
Bad: Still penalties…especially false starts. How do you go from field goal range to 4th-and-36 around midfield. Nasty.
Bad: Texas stopped the Texas Tesla and Carr by packing box. From one hundred yards rushing each, to less than 100 yards as a team.
Bad: Collin Johnson? Change his name to Calvin Johnson
Bad: So many Texas fans showed up, the Trojans almost lost home field advantage. After Darnold got up from and tried to quiet the crowd…as if he thought the Trojan fans were the one doing it.
Bad: Darnold on a series towards the end of the fourth. He came up looking quite confused and rattled. He proceeded to throw three straight passes on tilt. The last one sailed uncatchably over Tyler Petite’s head resulting in an interception. Flashbacks of John David Booty’s broken finger against Stanford in 2007 came to mind.
Good: In defining moments like the end of the second half and in overtime, legacies are cemented or broken. Would you be known like Leinart for his clutch plays in college—or be lost to history? I think the Trojans answered that question.

CommBro Breaker

Before you do anything else, go grab your 3 sack Big Mac and enjoy the spoils of victory. I have to wonder though, do Texas fans get one too for sacking Darnold 3 times? Eh, I don’t really care. USC picked theirs up on what I call a perfect set of downs on defense: three sacks in a row, forcing them to punt. In reality, they only needed 2 more for the burger at that point, but I’ll take three sacks in a row. Too bad we didn’t get Chick-Fil-A from a blocked kick as well. Not that I would eat either of them out of laziness…

With Stanford’s loss to San Diego State, I’m going to venture to say that Texas might be better than people give them credit for and Stanford worse. That basically means we still don’t know where USC stands after one fourth of the regular season has expired.

Or maybe there’s something to that Body Blows Theory.

Lottery Stat: Since I don’t have time to do some running weekly stat types, I’m just gonna pick one each week and run with it. Whatever I feel like is what you get. Texas had a higher fourth down conversion percentage (66.6%) than third down conversion percentage (25%). USC was 0 for 3 on fourth down conversions while Texas was 2 for 3.

USC vs. Stanford: The Answer to Life

Posted on by commbro

USC vs. Stanford
September 9, 2017 at 5:40pm
Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum, Los Angeles, CA: 77,614 (93,607)
Total Time: 3 hours 11 minutes

You know what I like about USC-Stanford games? The game clock actually runs at a decent pace. The teams usually have balanced drives that actually last a while. It’s like being able to watch a rally in a volleyball game rather than back-and-forth aces.

There isn’t too much I want to say about this game. They really turned it around from last week. Stanford scored less against the Trojans than the Broncos did. Shocking.

Also shocking was getting 307 yards rushing even after losing yards on kneel downs. Forget about it being a rank #14 team…David Shaw coached Stanford teams have allowed an average of 115 yards rushing per game. Being able to put over 300 yards on them in a single game shows the caliber of the running backs and the offensive line’s runblocking. The 307 yards amassed by the Trojans would have been one fourth of Stanford’s total rushing yards allowed over fourteen games in the 2013 season.

Good-Badisms

Bad-Good: Back-to-back two interceptions is not a good look. The first pick in the game I might let go. Gotta take risks, sometimes it doesn’t go your way. The second one was another into double coverage and had almost no chance of being completed. No more of that, please. On the other hand, he threw four touchdown passes and most of them were superb throws.

Good: Defense did their job, other than one or two big plays allowed.

Bad: This one isn’t on the team. C’mon Pac-12 officials…There were some blatantly bad calls and lack of calls. Seems par for course in Stanford-SC matchups though.

“Clock operator, please reset the game clock to…”

Good: Two one hundred yard rushers.

Good: Continued Deontay performance.

Good: #14 Stanford looks to be the hardest team on USC’s regular season schedule. Barring any surprises, USC just has to remain consistent and healthy. It’s college football, though, and there will always be surprises.

Good: Balanced and complete offense.

Don’t know: USC offense looks like it’s gone through a lot of changes like:

  • Running out of split back sets. Usually, even when they line up like that, they motion one back out before the play starts
  • More RPO plays
  • Speed option play

CommBro Breaker

Ain’t City of Angles if I don’t spit some stats at ye.

This was USC’s largest margin of victory against Stanford since 2008 (45-23).

Oh, and I should probably explain the title. 42—the answer to life, the universe, and everything.

USC vs. W. Michigan: 100 Degrees of Inconsistency

Posted on by commbro

USC vs. Western Michigan
September 2, 2017 at 2:22pm
Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum, Los Angeles, CA: 61,125 (93,607)
Total Time: 3 hours 25 minutes

I was basically hiding for the past few months, but I couldn’t keep myself away now that football season has started. However, things will be in a new abridged format seeing as how I am experiencing a severe time deficit induced by graduate school.

Or maybe the real reason is because I’m having an identity crisis. My new degree is Public Administration, so can I even go by CommBro anymore? Public Admin doesn’t lend itself well to cool puns though. PUADbro? PAbro? Okay, that just sounds like a racial caricature of someone trying to pronounce Pablo. On to the real stuff.

As you can imagine, it was hot as hell so maybe this wasn’t the best game to be in the student section. I miss my old seats in the shade already. I’ve noticed that some traditions have died off since I finished undergrad. It was reassuring to see the section still packed out in the fourth quarter despite the triple digit temperatures—AND  subpar product on the field.

The last home opener loss was a 7-14 defeat at the hands of #5 Florida State back in 1997. That John Robinson’s final season before getting unceremoniously fired. While head coach Clay Helton probably wouldn’t be at risk even if he lost this game, it’s usually bad to come close to breaking a 20 year streak. I really need to speed this up because I have to do homework.

GOOD: No major injuries. Without byes, this is vital.

BAD: Darnold with the 0-2 TD-INT ratio. He underthrew and threw too many risky passes. Both interpcetions were from tips. Perhaps the new release on his throw is affecting his performance?

BAD: While Darnold clearly didn’t do that well personally, high snaps from Nico Falah certainly didn’t help. One resulted in a fumble that was barely recovered.

BAD: You know what else didn’t help? Key third down drops from a lot of receivers.

GOOD: The exception was Deontay, showing that the Rose Bowl performance was no fluke. He has worked hard amongst all the highly ranked wide receivers and has shown that he is the most complete and consistent WR.

GOOD: For a while there, it seemed like the MVPs were the kickers. Chase McGrath, other than one kick out-of-bounds,—which was really close to being a touchback—he had a good, deep kick that launched it out of the end zone. He was also perfect on PATs. I blame the coverage team for the kickoff return for TD. Reid Budrovich punted well without qualification in his debut.

BAD: Defense struggled in tackling, allowing the Bronco running back to break a bunch of arm tackles. Getting Cam Smith back improved the defense, but they were mediocre. The offense did put them in a bad spot though.

BAD: Too many penalties. 9 for 94 yards?! That’s not even counting the yards from offsetting penalties and the kick out-of-bounds. Unsportsmanlike penalties have no place in a team. Also, key penalties revived dying drives, allowing Western Michgan to score.

GOOD: Ronald Jones II was the player on the game. He was back in form, dreads and all. He put up Heisman numbers all while breaking tackles and making large runs. His 8.8 average yards per carry and three touchdowns carried the sickly offense.

GOOD: True freshman Stephen Carr showed that he could excel at the college level, capping off his day with a 52-yard scoring run. On the other side of the ball, Marvell Tell, decided to answer Carr’s score with a pick six, showing Carr that he wasn’t the only #7 in town.

GOOD: JAKE OLSON GOT TO SNAP THE BALL. There are also sweet pics of his dog. :3

PAbro Breaker? Nope, doesn’t work.

CommBro Breaker

Apparently both teams thought they were only allowed one touchdown per quarter until someone told them otherwise in the fourth quarter.

Western Michigan may have went 13-1 last year, but they had a relaxed MAC schedule. I highly doubt that they are even Pac-12 caliber and warranted such a hard fought victory.

The Trojans should have them out and rested their starters. Recall that there are no bye weeks for this team. Meanwhile, perennial contender, Stanford, is coming off a bye week.

USC Coliseum Naming Rights

Posted on by commbro

I was quietly planning a hiatus from blogging, since I will be a full-time grad student in addition to being a full-time employee soon. But that was before reading the news today. I’ve already went to great lengths to gripe about the Coliseum renovation, so why stop now?

So if you haven’t heard the news, The Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum got a naming rights deal for $70 million over 15 years. From United. Yes, that United.

It’s one thing to have a naming rights deal. I don’t think it works for certain stadiums. Certainly not ones with so much history. What could you add to “Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum” that wouldn’t make it significantly worse? I’ll wait to see how that one shakes out. Maybe they’ll find a way to do it tastefully.

But United Airlines? The same United that had a huge customer service and PR blunder about a month ago? I don’t know if that’s the best thing to associate with at the moment. Don’t tell me they couldn’t and wouldn’t be picky as long as somebody was paying. If it was $100 million over 15 years from a company like…Trojan Condoms, do you think USC would’ve taken it? Someone probably would’ve said, “hey, maybe all the jokes and negative publicity connected to that wouldn’t be worth the money.” But the next best thing, United Airlines, that’s okay.

So let the jokes begin.

They might as well let the Raiders lease a spot again. That way, when you get beat up by a fan, security can tell you that it was sponsored by United.

Great timing on the part of USC. When you’re about to take out 16,000 seats, displacing a bunch of upset fans, who else would you go to for a sponsorship? Because nobody displaces upset customers like United.

This one is a personal anecdote. The one time I went to the Coliseum for an NFL game, I saw quite a few interesting things. All of it seems awfully relevant now. It was an LA Rams preseason game and I went just for the hell of it. I entered around kick off and saw a fight in the stands that ended in security escorting them out. Then a fight broke out on the field, leading to a few ejections. As it neared halftime, a group came in, claiming we were in their seats. We all produced our tickets and realized that a seller on StubHub managed to sell the same seats twice. For some reason, the ticket scanners at the gate still let us all in. Overbooking seems to be the norm!

You know what, I’m not sure why I am criticizing this naming rights deal anymore. It’s a better match than most Tinder dates.

CommBro Breaker

Whooooa wait. I got a naming rights deal offer for $150 dollars over 8 years!! That’s $18.75 a year. Do you know how many chicken nuggets I can get with that?! Like 120 at Burger King or something.

As a result, the name of my blog will be changing to City of Angles presented by The Onion.

Our new logo. Still better than the Chargers

See you at the Coliseum for years to come!

USC Spring Game 2017

Posted on by commbro

USC vs. USC vs. USC (USC Spring Game)
April 15, 2017 at 12:00pm
Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum: (Attendance Not Announced)
Total Time: Approximately 1 hours 40 minutes

Renovations have already started at the Coliseum, as you can see from the picture above. Honestly, it looked like a dilapidated structure that you’d find in Pripyat or some other torn up place.

The Peristyle might actually look worse than this right now
(Photo credit: Timm Suess)

You know what you won’t find in Pripyat though? Great weather! I still got sunburned though…Between that and a condensed and non-game format, you don’t need to feel too bad if you missed it.

You know, maybe they didn’t want to keep score after tearing down a scoreboard.

Below are some observations…pretty much all from offense. Sorry if that offends the defensive-minded folks.

  • Sam Darnold still looks sharp on his passes. During drills, he managed to throw some perfect deep balls between the coverage
  • Jack Sears is deceptively fast and has the instincts to know when to slide on a scramble. I have gained more confidence in him as Darnold’s backup
  • Matt Fink improved a lot since last spring, but still throws late across the middle with regularity. Strangely enough, this issue seems to be less noticeable on left-breaking routes.
  • Tyler Vaughns was clearly favored receiver amongst the quarterbacks, but did not make the most out of his numerous targets. He also needs to tie his shoes.
  • Velus Jones broke off a 30+ yard run on a reverse
  • The redshirt freshman, Vavae Malepeai, looked excellent out there. He could find the holes to run through, good lateral speed and finished runs with force.
  • Ronald Jones caught some passes out of the backfield. That’s a good sign for his continued development.
  • Jake Olsen got to snap for a field goal.
  • Exiting seniors and juniors got their Rose Bowl rings.

CommBro Breaker

The spring poster for this season looks fairly generic compared to some previous ones.

Misleading Stat of the Week: Velus Jones had more yards in one play than Jack Searsdid from passing the entire ‘game.’

SCigning Day 2017

Posted on by commbro

Another National Signing Day has come and gone and USC has closed another highly ranked class. That’s something Trojan fans have come to expect. Don’t let that get in the way of fully appreciating what happened here.

There are a great many number of things to appreciate besides that too. Like…

…being able to correctly type out SCigning. That’s more difficult than it sounds. It just looks weird, which it throws me off because I spell by sight. Nothing could prevent me from giving up that PAT of puns though. College PAT, not the NFL 33-yarders. Easy peasy.

There was also the emergence of Kobe Buffalomeat—a name that sounds like it came out of a Key and Peele skit. I spent some time with my friend trying to verify if that name was real and, let me tell you, it was about as difficult as spelling SCigning.

While scrolling down the Twitter feed of Illinois State Football, we also found Rick Rollerson. That certainly didn’t help confirm anything due to its similarity to the overused Rick Roll.

On to the things you actually care about…

You already know about the spring enrollees (based on consensus of 247, Scout, and Rivals rankings)

3-star OT Andrew Voorhees
4-star QB Jack Sears
3-star LB Tayler Katoa
2-star Longsnapper Damon Johnson
4-star DT Marlon Tuipulotu

Always great to get people on campus early. They get to start learning right away and, perhaps, make an instant impact. Someone like Damon Johnson better learn fast because he will probably have to start right away no matter where he’s at developmentally whereas Sears will most likely not be playing unless some major incidents happen.

The rest I’ll just link to because they do a better job of including all necessary information

http://www.scout.com/college/usc/2017-football-commits

The headliners of the class were the following:

5-star RB Stephen Carr
4-star OLB Levi Jones
5-star OT Austin Jackson
5-star DT Jay Tufele
5-star WR Joseph Lewis
4-star ATH Greg Johnson

The latter five made their big announcements on signing day last week.

Despite getting great recruits, the class is solid because of balanced numbers on offense and defense and filling areas of need. As if that wasn’t good enough, the coaching staff managed to get an advance scholarship to 4-star OT Jalen McKenzie.

CommBro Breaker

Some star ratings may be on the lower side, but due to need, they are much more valuable than their rating would imply. As a result, I’m going to attempt a few modifications to better illustrate the immediate impact. I mean, you can’t really predict the trajectory and success of a high schooler 3 to 7 years later with some stinking stars anyway.

But let’s not stop there. Since this is City of Angles, we don’t settle for no star ratings ’round here, ya hear? Instead, we have angle ratings. By my horrific math count, there are 10 angles per star, so every star is worth 10.

35-angle OT Andrew Voorhees
35-angle WR Joseph Lewis
40-angle DT Brandon Pili
40-angle ATH Greg Johnson
45-angle DT Marlon Tuipulotu
45-angle OT Jalen McKenzie
45-angle OT Alijah Vera-Tucker
50-angle DT Jay Tufele
60-angle LS Damon Johnson

Okay, I’m done trolling. This is actually really difficult. Show some appreciate to Scout, Rivals, and 247 for their solid work. See you next time.

Rose Bowl 2017: Best in the Decade?

Posted on by commbro

Penn State vs. USC (103rd Rose Bowl Game)
January 2, 2017 at 2:12pm
Rose Bowl, Pasadena, CA: 95,128
Total Time: 4 hours 12 minutes

The USC season began with 52 points being scored on them in a soul-crushing loss. It ended with the Trojans scoring 52 points in one of the most exciting victories in half a decade. The difference four months can make.

The 103rd Rose Bowl was the stage for USC’s 25th Rose Bowl win on its 34th appearance. This is perhaps the biggest win since their last Rose Bowl back in 2009. I actually can’t think of a single win in the past decade that has been more meaningful, exciting, and impactful as this Rose Bowl.

Even Pete Carroll chimed in:

The grey clouds hovering over the Arroyo Seco could’ve been taken as a dark omen—like it could rain at any moment. However, just like it almost rained, USC almost lost.

Dark clouds and a black bird! Not to be confused with the SR-71 Blackbird.

Dark clouds and a black bird! Not to be confused with the SR-71 Blackbird.

The former 1-3 team was still down 14 points with about 8 minutes to go, as if a microcosm of the entire season. Against all odds they accomplished something that was considered to be an old memory or distant future. They ended Penn State’s nine game winning streak while extending their own to nine in the long, grueling, and highest scoring Rose Bowl in history in come-from-behind fashion.

Much like their winning streaks, both teams had their moments and scoring streaks. They traded scores for a while in the interim.

  1. USC: 13 points (13-0)
  2. Penn State: 7 points (13-7)
  3. USC: 7 points (20-7)
  4. Penn State: 7 points (20-14)
  5. USC: 7 points (27-14)
  6. Penn State: 28 points (27-42)
  7. USC: 7 points (35-42)
  8. Penn State: 7 points (35-49)
  9. USC: 17 points (52-49)

Penn State ended up being unable to score in the first and fourth quarter (four drives in each quarter)

Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4 Total
USC 13 14 8 17 52
PSU 0 21 28 0 49

The Trojans started well with the Nittany Lions at their own 3-yard line before throwing an interception. And then another. It’s unfortunate that USC was unable to capitalize and get points off of turnovers. With an extremely short field on each of their first four possessions, they could’ve easily gone up 28-0. Instead they had 13-0 after missing one out of three field goals and coming away with only a single touchdown.

I had told a friend that USC needed to pad their lead to 30-0 because the Nittany Lions would score and would make a comeback. It happened earlier and harder than I expected.

Penn State scored on their next seven possessions, including a 28-0 run. The biggest morale destroyer was their 21 points off three offensive plays in 33 seconds of possession. USC was only down 15 points (two possessions), but it felt like so much more.

Because USC doesn’t do comeback wins anymore…until they did

At a time when we only dared to hope for overtime so that they had a fighting chance, the Trojans managed to pull out a victory.

The first Penn State play called a run on the first play after Deontay Burnett’s last touchdown catch in triple coverage. It seemed to signal that James Franklin wanted to play for an overtime period, but thenTrace McSorley throws a floating deep pass after the cornerback slipped. Luckily the deep safety got into position to intercept it—but dropped it. Leon McQuay probably thought he lost the opportunity and the play would haunt him forever.

McQuay got something much better than that. His interception and ensuing 32-yard return set up the game-winning field goal. As the kick sailed through the uprights, I held my celebration, unsure of what I was seeing. I only started after the official signal from the referees. Even then, I kept checking the clock to make sure the game as actually over. Absolute disbelief.

The rough season start and the Penn State comeback weren’t enough to set the stage for the wild narrative. The Trojans had to get shafted in the throughout the game to truly add enough adversity™ to make the payoff of a comeback win worthwhile.

Let’s start with that “late hit.” Both Chris Hawkins and Uchenna Nwosu arrive just as McSorley is sliding. Both of them don’t even have time to make half a step before colliding with the Penn State QB. Yet a flag is thrown for the hit. Doesn’t that give you flashbacks of when that teacher or parent in your life that said “If you’re early, you’re on time; if you’re on time, you’re late.”

Relive the trauma

Relive the trauma

Apparently, the ACC took that old phrase to a whole new level. If McSorley wants to avoid getting hit like that, slide before the dudes are in your face.

  • Uncalled pass interference(s?) on JuJu Smith-Schuster
  • The center at the same depth as the wide receivers and no ineligible receiver downfield call. The rule is that the ineligible players cannot be more than 3 yards away from the line of scrimmage (1 yard in the NFL). The center is clearly about 5 yards deep.
Ball clearly just left QB's hand. The Center is about half a yard vertically away from the receiver that catches the eventual TD pass.

Ball clearly just left QB’s hand. The Center is about half a yard vertically away from the receiver that catches the eventual TD pass.

  • Overturning the turnover. Apparently two fingers enough for clear recovery and changing the call on the field. It’s one thing if you had called it a PSU recovery then let it stand. But to call it USC’s ball on the field and overturn based on this? 
Pinning it on the ground is supposed to be enough?

Pinning it on the ground is supposed to be enough?

These ACC officials further worsens my view of them after their crapshow in the previous game against Notre Dame. Could Pac-12 referees have a new challenger?

Then down to the interviews of former players, pretty much all of them were Penn State except for Mark Sanchez. Why not have a chat with Ronnie Lott, Marcus Allen, and/or Rodney Peete? Allen, Lott, and Peete all played in the Rose Bowl (multiple actually). They were all roaming around the sidelines.

Every time they did, it pumped up the Penn State crowd and got them cheering. SC did not get such things.

Info Dump

  • Saquon Barkley and Chris Godwin are MVPs for Penn State

Good Stuff

  • Drum major stabbing the Rose Bowl field
  • Three interceptions by the defense
  • Sam Darnold breaking two of Vince Young’s Rose Bowl records (total yards and points responsible for) on top of breaking a third record (TD passes)
  • Career night for Deontay Burnett, previously a highly underrated wide receiver
  • Helton’s second top 5 win this season and third overall. (#3 Utah 2015, #4 Washington 2016, #5 Penn State duh)
  • Ronald Jones donned #4 in order to honor the late Joe McKnight
  • Sneaking a Rose Bowl for Obama’s final days in office. That extends USC’s streak for another administration
  • That crazy two point conversion play by Darnold. This is underrated and might have been lost in all the other insane plays made, but was crucial. Had the score been 48-49 from the PAT or 47-49 from failing the two point conversion, Penn State would’ve ran out the clock instead of throwing the ball. That would’ve killed it for the Trojans.
  • The game didn’t end in controversy like so many other high-profile games have in the past.

Bad Stuff

  • Rose Bowl field condition
  • Missed field goals at the beginning and end of the first half
  • Defense allowing the seconds most points in a game this season
  • Run game going nowhere
  • Cam Smith getting ejected
  • Adoree’ Jackson getting injured followed by Justin Davis shortly after

Next up is Western Michigan for the Home/Season Opener on September 2, 2017.

CommBro Breaker

I was uneasy about Helton’s decision to punt with less than four minutes and down by a touchdown. He sure showed me. He knew if he went for it and scored it would only get you overtime. He wanted to win in regulation, so he punted and got 10 points instead. The Helton mindgame strikes again. Now he’s graduated from stealing opponent timeouts (like against Arizona and UCLA) to stealing time itself.

Ridiculous Stat of the Week:

As you can see from the game information at the top, the 2017 Rose Bowl lasted 4 hours and 12 minutes. To underscore how ridiculous that is, the 2011 triple overtime defeat at the hands of Stanford lasted 4 hours and 1 minute. How does a game that ended in regulation take longer than a triple OT game? Thanks ACC officials. Here’s a fake conspiracy theory of why:

Rose Bowl tickets are expensive (one of the most expensive bowl games, if not the most). The ACC officials must be economic-minded folks and wanted to give you more game for your money.

The average USC game in 2016 was 3 hours and 22 minutes. That means we got 25% more game, courtesy of the ACC. Thanks indeed!

To those watching at home? You geven got it for free, why complain?

Ridiculous Stat of the Week #2: USC won its 25th Rose Bowl game. The rest of the Pac-12 combined has won 27. Shame on USC. They need to go win three more.

Ridiculous Stat of the Week #3: There were two Marcus Allen’s at the Rose Bowl. Marcus Allen (USC 1978-81) was watching Marcus Allen (PSU 2014-present) from the sideline. The two are not related…unless you trace their lineage back like hundreds of generations to a point that you can say most people are related.

Stat Dump

  • USC’s defense held opponents to an average of 24.2 points per game, the lowest since Clancy Pendergast’s last stint at USC in 2013 (21.2ppg)
  • The season-end 5.16 yards per carry is tied with 2010 for the highest since 2005 (6.4 ypc)
  • The offensive line allowed 12 sacks this season (T-6th in nation), down from 38 last year (T-109th)
    • That’s the best since 2011 when they allowed only 8 (T-1st)
  • USC’s 47.75% 3rd down conversion rate (11th) is also the highest since 2011’s 48% (11th)
  • USC ended the season with a turnover margin of 0

Last thing—I make a lot of jokes about Dragon Ball Z, but this one almost makes itself

Defensive Backs for life or Dragon Ball Z for life? Let the debate rage.

Sorry I couldn’t cover everything folks, but there was just too much to talk about in this game and I’ve already written the longest post of the season.

USC vs. Notre Dame vs. Adoree’

Posted on by commbro

USC vs. Notre Dame
November 26, 2016 at 12:42pm
Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum, Los Angeles, CA: 72,402 (93,607)
Total Time: 3 hours 39 minutes

The legendary intersectional rivalry notched another in the series. Like usual, the Trojans and Fighting Irish play following Thanksgiving every even year. And it was raining, just like 6 years ago when Notre Dame ended an 8-game losing streak to USC off the uncharacteristic drop suffered by RoJo. A different RoJo took the field on Saturday and his Trojan team delivered a different result.

A Notre Dame team entered the game with an unappealing 4-7 record. However, every single one of their seven losses had been by one possession (8 points or less). I’m not trying to tell you that they should’ve entered at 11-0 or excusing them for their losses. All I’m saying is that they’re probably a bit better than their record would indicate. Then USC proceeded to beat them by three possessions even after the Irishs’ garbage time touchdown.

The win painted a perfect backdrop for the annual senior day on an otherwise rare rainy LA day (sarcastically referred to as “perfect football weather” by more than a few Trojan fans). Most of us were expecting it, but not during the first quarter. The ACC officials present at the game seemed intent to aid the ill-weather in every way possible by dragging the game out. In the end, I’m not sure if the fans cheered louder when the sun peeked out over the horizon or for Adoree’ Jackson’s multitude of touchdowns. Just kidding, we know what got the louder cheer. Not everything was exciting fun and games though. The beginning of the game looked quite sloppy.

After a quick field goal by USC to start, the Fighting Irish caught a safety out of position and ran for 74 yards. Adoree’ Jackson managed chase him out-of-bounds short of the score remnisicent of his performance against Alabama. RoJo answered a few minutes later with a 51-yard touchdown run to get to the score to 10-7.

The next quarter and half was basically a soccer match. Seven punts and missed field goal with four possessions apiece. Then the excitement built up over!!…questionable reffing decisions….

I’m not even sure what they called on DeShone Kizer’s lateral fumble. I was at the stadium and didn’t hear jack squat. I rewatched the broadcast and still can’t tell why they decided to call it dead at the ND 8-yard line.

  • Was it an incomplete pass? We would’ve heard a whistle and it’d be 2nd-and-10 instead of 2nd-and-23.
  • Was it an intentional ground? Sure that’d get the 2nd-and-23 with loss of down at the spot of the foul, but the running back was right there and got his hands on it boefre it fell to the ground.
  • Foward progress stopped? Again, why no whistle? On the very next play, the whistle can be heard quite clearly.

Then two plays later, they cancel out a safety just because the official felt like he wasn’t backed up far enough when that kind of thing happens all the time. He was an adequate distance away and had already turned around to face the play.

In the second half, I thought I had an onset of Déjà vu when the refs blew a fumble dead as an incomplete pass, nullifying the touchdown return by Jack Jones. Why not just let him complete the return and review it after that? Instead they make the strange decision to whistle it dead after Jones has run 10-15 yards down the field. At least they got the turnover part fixed on the review. Great play by Ajene Harris and Jack Jones though to give it a chance to happen at all. Harris had to fight through two blockers to make that tip and Jones had the awareness and skill to grab that instantly in middle of his stride.

The last of the egregiously bad calls was during the nasty 28 on 28 hit. Aca’cedric Ware took a helmet shot from ND safety, Nicco Fertitta. Instead of calling the obvious targeting penalty and ejecting Fertitta, they call it a fumble by Ware. Oh, okay, fumbles are a thing now? After a review, they still think it’s a fumble with no targeting. It took them a second review before disqualifying Fertitta and reversing the fumble. Only took two reviews and 10 minutes guys. It took them two tries to flag Jerry Tillery for personal fouls too.

Wish you the best Ron Cherry, but your crew really didn’t do that well this game. That official team dragged it out to be the longest of the season—longest of two season actually. The last time a USC football game took that long was the 2014 Holiday Bowl against Nebraska going nearly 4 hours (3:55). That being said, get well soon Cherry, because your job performance doesn’t make you deserving of a concussion.

Some penalties were deserved though. USC got penalized for roughing the kicker, turning a three-and-out into a first down. USC lucked out with ND missing the field goal. It wasn’t a block though, so no free Chick-Fil-A. Sad times. You tried to give us free chicken Pittman, but it didn’t work. Next time, please don’t give them free possessions with penalties.These kinds of things could’ve been a big deal if the game was closer. The penalties weren’t their only problem.

It’s hard to imagine a game this season where Sam Darnold didn’t get the spotlight. He had a relatively pedestrian game, suffering inaccurate passes in the rain. The bright side is that he didn’t produce any turnovers.

Unfortunately, the star of the game ended up being the one to turn it over. Adoree’ fumbled it on a punt return, making it emotionally painful since it was the start of a possession change. Much like the roughing the kicker penalty, it was after a three-and-out.

Can’t be too harsh on Adoree’ when he scored as much as the entire ND team by the end of the third quarter. All three of his touchdowns spanned over 50 yards:

  • A 55-yard punt return, showing that they don’t need no stinking 2 point safety. He’ll take 6, thank you.
  • A 52-yard reception because he wanted to make Darnold look good too.
  • A 97-yard kickoff return that might’ve been the backbreaker for Notre Dame. It featured a high jump (I thought he was trying to qualify for long jump?) and a key block by Isaac Whitney for Adoree’ to take it to the house. As a bonus, kicker Matt Boermeester had a monster tackle on the ensuing kickoff earning the cheers of his teammates.

Adoree’ is the MVP of the game, no dispute.

One more good thing:

  • Ajene Harris’ pick six 17 seconds after Adoree’ Jackson’s punt return TD. In 17 seconds, USC went from a 3-point lead to a 17-point lead. Not a bad way to end the half. Reminds me of the Arizona State game in 2015.

CommBro Breaker

The regular season has ended with USC at 9-3 (7-2 in Pac-12). Utah’s loss cemented Colorado’s place as Pac-12 South champion, meaning USC just has to sit and wait for a bowl bid now. Not the worst thing in the world since USC can still get a NY6 bowl bid like the Cotton Bowl or even the Rose Bowl (if Washington is selected for the playoff and the Rose Bowl Committee selects USC over Colorado). Personally, I’d rather have the Rose Bowl for so many reasons.

  • Joey Kaufman over at the OC Register, among others, have pointed out that, “Since 1929, the Trojans have appeared in the Rose Bowl during the term of every U.S. President except Barack Obama.” It would be mighty great for them to sneak one in at the twilight of Obama’s second term.
  • It would also continue USC’s streak of at least one Rose Bowl in every decade since 1920. They have yet to get one in the 2010s.
  • It’s also easier to travel to than the Cotton Bowl game (which isn’t at the Cotton Bowl anymore). Guess where it is now. AT&T Stadium. As cool as that place is, I’d rather use my money to see new locations

Good Stat of the Week: USC has won eight streak games.The Trojans have not lost at home this season and extends their home winning streak to nine, spanning over the 2015 and 2016 season.

Ultimate Misleading Stat of the Week: Notre Dame has won ZERO conference championships, meaning USC has about 38 more than them.

Hard to win conference championships when you’re not in a conference. Notre Dame has always been independent, though they do have one foot in the ACC at this point.

Edit: How could I forget? USC completed a no loss November for the first time since 2011!!