USC is very good and getting better offensively. Barkley is a stud, the usual stable of RBs, big talented OL, and a stable of WRs including a superstar in the making in true frosh Woods. Defense is where the problems lie. The talent is there, but they need to stop shooting themselves in the foot. The secondary is the real weak area, but boneheaded plays/penalties killed them last night.
Bottom line, USC did not almost win that game because Stanford was down, they almost won because they are a good team. ND will have its hands full next month.
USC has played ONE good game all year, and that was last night in a game in which they made Stanford punt only one time. They are not just bad defensively, they are almost all-time USC bad defensively. Just ask their own fans.
If SC is such a good team, explain to me how they scored only 17 points against a putrid Virginia team, at home, in a 17-14 win. Explain how they gave up 36 pts and over 600 yds of defense against a bad Hawaii team that ND shut out a year and a half ago. Explain to me how they were losing in the 3rd quarter against a Minnesota team that is so bad that they lost to a football subdivision team from friggin Dakota. Explain to me how they lost a UW team, at home, that lost to a 1-4 BYU team and got humiliated against Nebraska (now THAT is a good football team). Jake Locker has sucked this year, but they turned him right back into the top overall pick in the draft. (newsflash...good teams don't do that).
I get the feeling that you saw SC play for the first time last night. Yes, they looked good, very good offensively, but they have been a mediocre to a bad team all year long. Just ask their own coach, who has been pissed after every single win. Their defense was 99th in the nation going into last night's game, and that was after they played 4 HORRIBLE teams and one somewhat decent team (UW). You can say they are a good offense, but in no way are they a good team.
And as for last night and the rest of their season, they finally got up for a team, which was a HUGE game for them for 2 reasons: 1. they are staring into the meat of their schedule and desperately needed the game, and 2. Harballs rubbed it in last year with the 2 point conversation, and he basically owns SC. They had Stanford coming off 2 highly emotional and physical games, and a letdown was easy to predict. SC played their best game of the season, and they STILL lost.
See, the reason you have people calling you a troll is that you are overly praising an undeserving SC team and looking for reasons to downgrade yesterday's win (sorry but Riddick's play was not a pick. I won't even get into the reasons why here).
I agree that SC will give us all we can handle, but everything else you are saying about them is just wrong, especially about Oregon being their bowl game (UCLA and ND are bigger games for them, sorry). Watch them lay down and lose at least 2-3 more games this year...at least.
