Football Answers - Oregon State Edition

• Would one tailback please stand up? USC's 100 yards on the ground was well over what Oregon State normally allows (and that's including minus-33 yards by John David Booty). In fact, Chauncey Washington's 60 yards was more than they've been giving up to the average opposing team. Washington showed a couple flashes, including a 19-yard dash and 26-yard touchdown catch. As solid as he was (5.0 yards per rush), you still have to wonder what could be with Stafon Johnson and Joe McKnight.
• Will the offensive play-calling improve? Things were looking good in the first half, and it was nice to see Fred Davis get involved again -- but zero points in the second half is inexcusable. Fans have been grumbling about Steve Sarkisian for a few weeks. We'll have a poll about him starting tonight. At least we finally saw the shotgun.
• Will homecoming bring home field advantage? The crowds have felt pretty flat this year. This one sounded a little more robust, but the official attendance of 85,713 was below average for the season and well under capacity.
• Can USC ever fix the mental game? Four penalties for 41 yards is a step in the right direction for USC, but as usual they came at inopportune times. Booty lost the ball once, though he wasn't too bad considering his three weeks on the bench. While this game was a marked improvement, it wasn't spectacular.
• Can special teams take advantage? David Buehler missed a field goal from 48 yards out, but overall was strong. He hit a 47-yard field goal and averaged 61.2 yards on kickoffs. Greg Woidneck, however, didn't do much for his season average. He punted seven times for 36.4 yards per kick. On the other side of the ball, Ronald Johnson ripped a 41-yard kickoff return and Joe McKnight had one solid 10-yard punt return.
• Can USC survive a game? Alfred Rowe sprained his left ankle. Considering how often this team gets hurt, that wasn't too bad.
• Factoids: USC is 21-0 in November under Carroll, and just reached win number 750 ... The defense had nine sacks officially, though there was some confusion at the stadium as one early source reported 10 (you may notice that in postgame interviews) ... A reporter during Everson Griffen's press conference quipped, "Seems like you tried to make up for all those sacks in one game" ... There's a new scoreboard on the west end of the Coliseum. Interesting that it went up after the NFL announced there was no chance of them moving in ... The student section chanted "Si se puede!" when Mark Sanchez came in.

Comments

[Gerrrg]

This defense is the best that Pete Carroll has ever fielded. It's definitely not the 'SC of the Heisman, but the 'SC of Butkus, Nagurski, Bednarik, Thorpe, Outland and Lombardi.

Wow, the offense really stunk in the 3rd - 38 yards on 13 plays?

Once again...the defense really stood out.

[Bobak]

Adam, since you're noticing the attendance issue, is it just me or is it the students that are not showing up? When the stadium is filling itself, the giant gap is between the upper student sections and the poor saps who sit on the opposite (sec. 28/29) side of the peristyle from the visiting fans. As soon as the game started you could see an amusing exodus as the folks stuck in the awful seats move over to the vacant sections of the student section. Are the students just not giving a damn? Obviously the rest of the fans aren't really cheering enough (LA people aren't as immediate to cheer as other fanbases I've seen as a visitor) but these low attendance numbers seem to reflect the most on the student seating.