SportsHubLA

We thought USC would have trouble covering the 25 point spread Vegas had established heading into their matchup Thursday night at Oregon State.  After all, life in Corvallis hasn’t been easy for the Trojans in recent years, evidenced by the 38-36 loss they absorbed back in ‘06.  But this was supposed to be different, right?  After all, two weeks ago, Pete Carroll eviscerated Ohio State to the point that they all lost their little helmet stickers after watching the film.  They had All American candidates at seemingly every position.  Or two.  Or three.  Or eight.

Lot of good it did them.  The Beavers bum rushed SC early, building up a 21 point lead at the half behind freshman running back Jacquizz Rodgers, who not only proved himself to be the finest player in America named Jacquizz, but an absolute terror for a supposedly impenetrable defense, racking up 117 yards and a TD over the first 30 minutes of play. USC couldn’t tackle him.  21-0 Oregon State at halftime.  The Trojans cut the lead to 21-14 near the end of the third quarter… but that’s as close as they’d get.  Final score, 27-21.

Cue 42 thousand plus orange clad Oregonians storming the field.

Mark Sanchez threw three touchdown passes, but was picked off with under three minutes to play, setting up Oregon State’s final score and sticking a fork into the Trojans.  Joe McKnight, who galloped all over OSU, was held to a UCLA-like 10 yards on seven carries. Stafon Johnson and CJ Gable were more effective (both averaged more than six yards a carry), but because SC fell behind early, it was tough for them to establish the run.  It was hard for them to establish anything, actually, in part because they didn’t have the ball.  Oregon State dominated the time of possession battle 37:49 to 22:11.  Really?  They had the ball for nearly 38 minutes?

That ain’t gonna fly.

In our podcast Thursday with Adam Rose and in previous posts we’ve talked about how the Trojans couldn’t afford to drop a game in a weak Pac-10, not when the SEC and Big 12 look like gladiatorial collections of pigskin titans. Guess that theory gets put to the test.  No question this will be a huge knock to USC’s national title hopes, but if there’s a silver lining for Trojans fans, it’s that the loss came in USC’s third game of the season.  Had this come a month from now… sure fire Armageddon.

Discuss: