One Man's Opinion: Stanford review

USC overcame one of the poorest first quarters of football that I have seen a USC Football Team play in some time to defeat an over matched Stanford team going away, 45 to 23. Maybe not everyone will admit it, but for the majority of the first half of this game, there seemed to be reason to wonder if Stanford could pull off a major upset of USC for two consecutive seasons. Overall, this game was literally two games in one. There was the less than awesome performance by SC in the first half and the overpowering defensive and offensive show that the Trojans brought in the second half.

To start the game, Stanford received the kickoff and proceeded to shred the vaunted USC defense on the way to an 80 yard, 7 play touchdown drive. There were two big plays on the drive, with the biggest being a very long 40 yard run from scrimmage by Cardinal quarterback Tavita Pritchard. The Cardinal finished off that drive with a nice touchdown run by Toby Gerhart and voila, the Cardinal was quickly off to a 7 to 0 start. On the ensuing kickoff, Ron Johnson returned the ball some 66 yards to the Stanford 20 yard line and the Trojans proceeded to gain all of two yards on three straight pass attempts and SC had to settle for a field goal. Now 3 points are better than nothing, but how strange was it to simply see 3 passes without even attempting to run the ball even once? It was not as if any of the three attempts fooled anyone on the defense and it was a moral victory for the Cardinal, something that set a very bad tone for the entire first half.

To be honest, the USC offense was simply out of sync once again for a substantial part of the first half. It would be easier to understand if the Stanford defense was simply a lights out unit and if it were on fire. That is simply not the case. It would be more accurate to state that SC either self destructed by having an ill timed penalty, a pass was off target, the running game was not given a real chance to get it going or Sanchez got sacked. Fortunately, SC was able to sustain one 80 yard drive in the second quarter which resulted in a short touchdown pass from Mark Sanchez to Damian Williams. And of course, USC was helped out by CJ Gable who took a kickoff back for six on a thrilling 93 yards Kick Off return. Prior to that return, it had been quite a while since any SC kickoff returner brought it all the way back.

The USC offense looked like things would be better on its first possession of the second half until the Trojans once again self destructed. The second half started with yet another fine kickoff return by Ron Johnson, only to see the Trojans have to punt as a result of a penalty on Anthony McCoy and another sack on Mark Sanchez. It appeared that the second half might just be a continuation of the first. On its next possession the Trojans showed some signs of life, but once again the drive ended on a sour note. Stanley Havili caught a nice pass for a ten yard gain, but he fumbled the ball deep in Stanford territory and once again, the Trojans came up empty.

Finally, late in the third quarter, SC decided to emphasize the running game and things turned around. USC put up 7 3rd quarter points and 21 fourth quarter points and if somebody were to simply see the final score, one might assume that it was an easy win. As a SC fan, it was nice to see the offense finally put up some big points in a conference game against a team that is not from the state of Washington. It was also especially satisfying to see SC wear down the Stanford team, one which was seemingly keeping the game closer than one might have hoped.

But the final result not withstanding, one can't help but wonder exactly what gives with this USC offense. Is it to be expected that this talented team should go an entire first quarter with virtually no offensive production? Should the team still have so many drive stalling penalties or other types of miscues that seem to be counterproductive. After seeing how the team fairs when it tries to run the ball first and pass second compared to the opposite, does it appear that this offense actually excels more when the run is emphasized ? The regular season is almost over, and there still seems to be some unanswered questions on the offensive side of the ball.

As for the final statistics, how can anyone argue? USC ended up with 283 net yards rushing and only 137 passing yards, with Mark Sanchez hitting 11 of 17. All three tailbacks had very productive games, with Stafon gaining 116 yards, CJ Gable getting 86 and Joe McKnight lighting it up for 73 yards on only 8 carries. It is hard to complain about any offense that ends up gaining 420 yards, but one had to see this game to understand how questions do arise. If one were in a time tunnel, one might assume it was business as usual. TheTrojans came out,(as in years gone by) kept things close, then as the game got to the fourth quarter, USC simply used its overpowering athleticism, strength and depth to wear down the other guys and beat them to a pulp. And come to think of it, even though we have grown accustomed to seeing SC put up lots of points through the air and with big plays over the past several season, just perhaps, this particular version of the SC Trojans is actually a team better suited to running the ball to set up the pass. Even though I personally like to see it the other way around, if the power game is what works, then maybe that is this team's actual offensive identity. After all, there is a whole stable of very good backs, the offensive line is mobile and most of all, on those occasions when SC has tried this approach, it has worked.

As for the defense, it was also a tale of two halves. I think most would agree that over the course of this long season, USC's defense has played lights football for all except two halves. The first half against Oregon State was sub par and USC lost that game. The fisrt half against Stanford was equally bad, but fortunately, the SC defense came out and made quite a statement in the second half and the SC offense also came out and did its job as well. For all but the last play of the game, USC shut down the Stanford Cardinal and held them without a score until that very last play. Unlike in the first half when Stanford could run the ball almost at will, in the second half, USC shut them down. Whatever happened or was said during half time, it was a resounding success. SC controlled the line of scrimmage in the second half and the defense played with an intensity that seemed to be missing in the first half. The poor tackling that we saw time and again in the first half was not anywhere to be found in the second half. The Stanford quarterback was on his heels and the defensive line was in gear.

Several young defensive linemen saw considerable action and at times, the inside of the defensive line had two true freshmen at the same time, Jerrell Casey and Armond Armstead. We also got to see sophomore Everson Griffen in the game quite often so the dline should be in good shape for years to come. As for the linebackers, they were not tackling well in the first half, but they were on a mission in the second. The defensive backs managed to keep everything in front of them and the Cardinal really did not try to challenge USC deep very often.

As for the special teams, all I can say is that it has been some time since I can recall seeing USC kickoff returners have so much success in one game. There were three long returns and one was for a touchdown. In recent years, that has not been a common scenarion, but one can only hope that it happens more often in the future. Ron Johnson and CJ Gable actually form a dynamic duo back there and as we saw tonight, either is absolutely capable of bringing it back the distance. When a team sees a special teams defensive unit struggle the way Stanfords' did tonight, it becomes all the more obvious what a huge weapon David Buehler really is for the Trojans. David kicks the ball so deep that well over half the time there is simply no return and that really helps alot. It also helps that a guy like Buehler is also one of the most accurate field goal kickers in the entire nation. Overall, the special team were clicking for the Trojans. I don't recall any blocking in the back calls and there were no fumbles of the punts.

So now what happens? SC is off for a week and then on the 29th, USC hosts Charlie Weis and the Fighting Irish. Hopefully, SC can use the bye week to get guys like Joe McKnight and Blake Ayles healthy and perhaps some of the offensive kinks can be worked out. It would be very nice to see USC play an entire game on the offensive side of the ball in a productive and relatively error free manner. Although there were fewer penalties tonight than there have been as of late, there were still more than one would like to see. As for the defense, I don't think there is any major problem at all. Nobody is perfect and the other guys have to be given some credit. But in my opinion, this defense is capable of really causing problems for most any offense and so long as the unit is focused, few, if any teams will surpas their norm. It is unrealistic to think that SC can hold each and every team to no points in the second half and to completely shut down all aspects of everyone's offense. On the other hand, I do think that this SC defense will do as good a job as any other unit in the nation against against any offensive unit it will face.

There is nothing USC can do about the other teams in the country. They can only play their best, take one game at a time, and make sure they beat Notre Dame and then the Bruins. As for how the rest will turn out, who really knows? Oregon State is playing very good ball, but Arizona will be tough in the desert next week. The Big 12 teams will continue to beat each other and who knows about the SEC? Florida is tough, but remember this. They also have one loss and that loss is even worse than SC's. Only time will tell.