Sunday Musings: November 24th

Missouri

This is a team that is without a question, very very good. But there is lingering doubt in my mind about their ability to fend off a charge from Oklahoma. Are they really and truly a National Title caliber team? I say yes, but they certainly don’t look it on defense, even though there has been a remarkable improvement on that side of the ball. Chase Daniel made an interesting point last night on College Gameday Final, or whatever that bullshit is called. Missouri was very close to winning that match up the first time around, and they were, but they imploded in upon themselves, like Missouri has been oh so prone to do under the Pinkle. I have to look more into this team, this week. If they survive against Oklahoma, the match up with West Virginia looks awfully entertaining from where I am sitting.

West Virginia

Holy Shit. This is becoming an absolute buzz saw of an offense. Given the circumstances of the game, I am not sure that West Fucking Virginia could have had a better performance. Given Connecticut a lot of credit in this game, they certainly played much much harder than they did in their last real game (playing Syracuse after all is a just a glorified scrimmage) against Cincinnati, where they were dominated from the onset and where never in the game, mentally or physically. The Huskies gave it a go, and were decidedly in the game for the first half. But after that, Pat White put the pedal to the metal. What resulted was a firm step on the throat of UConn’s dream season and a simply dominating performance. This is not a team anyone wants a piece of right now, the offense is playing at an otherworldly level and, unlike last season, the defense is playing at a very high level.

USC

Reminded us all what they can do when healthy on Thursday night. The defense remained as good as it has been all season. The difference was the offense, and most notably John David Booty, who looked vintage for a USC QB, which is a hell of a statement given what it mean, and what he has looked like since the Washington game. A defensive stat for thought. USC has given up 400 plus yards once this season, 300 yards twice and has held to opponents to below 190 yards three times this year. Another team that no one is going to want to play in a bowl, though a USC OSU Rose Bowl would be fantastic. Given of course that USC beats ever schizophrenic UCLA Saturday.

LSU

If the people of this state don’t hate overtime yet, they never will. There are couple of things that stood out to me right away. First of all, massive props to Darren McFadden, Payton Hillis and Felix Jones. All three were fantastic in their own ways on Friday. But there is a point that needs to be made about the game of College Football. The most important position on defense is defensive tackle. A good defensive tackle makes a good defense very good, and a great defense elite. A guy like Glenn Dorsey creates a monster out of a good defense. But if he is not good to go, he is dead weight. Not to make excuses, but does anyone think that Arkansas would run that wild with a healthy Dorsey? Of course not, but he was not himself, and that more than anything was why LSU lost. Not because Gary Crowton went to the well one to many times with the slant against corners who were jumping routes all night long. It was because a healthy Jonathan Lugis was able to dominate and injured Glenn Dorsey at the point of attack all night long. In the end, LSU’s luck was going to run out at some point. They had been living on the edge for far too long.

Thanksgiving Football

One game that I am really looking forward to this weekend is not actually taking place on the weekend. It is on thanksgiving night. USC at Arizona State should be a very good game. There is a lot riding on this game for both teams, for Arizona State this is yet another chance to prove that they are for real, after they were handled so firmly by Oregon. USC has as much, or more on the line in this game. As bad as USC’s season has been, from the multiple streak breaking debacle against Stanford to the hard fought loss to Oregon, USC still, has a chance, as incredible as this sounds, to make an unprecedented 6th BCS bowl and a 6th PAC 10 championship is as many seasons. There is a lot on the line for both teams. Thursday will also be my first extended look at either squad in a few weeks, and my first with USC since their offensive line did this to Nebraska on an extended, game wide basis.

However, since that physical beat down of the Pink Shirts the USC offense has regressed, significantly. The running game, which everyone and their mother assumed would become the calling card of this offense after the Nebraska game, has slowly but surely crawled inside it’s protective cocoon. This is due mainly to a somewhat ridiculous string of injuries that has plagued the Trojans in the backfield and on the offensive line, bottoming out in a 38 rush, 95 yard performance against Stanford, yeah that Stanford. The problem for the USC offense has been the play of their QB’s, they have not been that bad in the macro, but they haven’t been the clutch players that we have come to expect from the previous Carroll era QB’s Chillin Matt Leinart and Carson Palmer when the running game is not hitting on all cylinders. The receivers have been very disappointing in my eyes, but it could be that I expected too much from them from the get go, like most people who got wrapped up in the hyperbole like everyone else. In short the offense has been the disappointment for USC. The defense has been stellar and consistent all year long, they came closer than anyone else to shutting down Oregon. In short the defense is for real, the offense is a continual work in progress, with no consistency in the running game from week to week, causing erratic performances from their QB’s because they can’t rely on the running game to provide balance.

Arizona State is a team that I have not seen all that much. I saw a large portion of their second half against Cal, and I did see the Oregon game, but I didn’t come away impressed with the Sun Devils after either game. I am a firm believer in the power of adversity. Routinely being in tight games, occasionally trailing at the half, going down to the wire in a couple of games are all good things for teams. But routinely being outplayed in the first half, or routinely struggling with inferior teams is always a cause for concern. Thats the main reason I thought very little of Wisconsin this year. It is also the reason why I think very little of Arizona State. Oregon State, Washington State, Washington, Cal, Oregon, and consistently schizophrenic UCLA have all put the Sun Devils in holes of varying sizes at the half. Look at those teams you have a very fine mixture of the bad (Washington State, and Washington), the average (Oregon State, and Cal) and the excellent (Oregon with Dennis Dixon) and then theirs UCLA who have a category of their own. Arizona State can not afford a slow start in this game.

This is by far the toughest defense that Arizona State will have gone against this season. I know that they played Colorado earlier this season, and that Colorado has a very good defense in some facets, but USC is just at another level. USC isn’t an elite team right now, but their defense certainly is, the numbers bear that out. This is going to be a knock down drag out defensive struggle, which swings the game decidedly in the favor of USC. I am not so sure that Arizona State can put it together for the requisite 4 quarters that it is going to take to win this game. They can’t play just a half, I just don’t see USC’s defense allowing them back in the game if they only show up for a half.

I say: USC 17 – ASU 10