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Thursday, January 05, 2006

Trojans fall to a horse again

I watched the BCS Title Game last night, the first college football game I have watched all the way through in years. It really reminded me of why I don't like college football...nobody can tackle worth a damn. I mean it was like both teams had the Raiders defense minus Schweigert and Burgess. Texas came out pretty nasty early on (one guy in their secondary kneed a Trojan receiver in the head twice, they were constantly pushing guys after they were out of bounds, things like that), but the Trojans were ready to run away with the game. Leading 7-0 in the first quarter, Reggie "He's-real-and-he's-spectacular" Bush made a fantastic run after a catch to the Texas 20 when he decided to lateral to a guy running next to him. Well, that guy didn't get it and Texas scored 16 straight points. Matt Leinart came alive in the second half, LenDale White just kept chugging up the middle of the field, and Reggie "He's-real-and-he's-spectacular" Bush made a couple more plays for the highlight reel, including the one where he finished a 30 yard TD run with a somersault dive from the 5 yard line. USC was able to build a 12 point lead with under 7 minutes left.

Of course, on the other side of the ball was the man of the hour, Vince "Stallion" Young. Two things that played into USC's eventual loss was that their defense never attempted to spy on Young and everytime the Texas o-line blocked left, the entire USC defense went with them, leaving the entire right side open for Young. Oh yeah, and the right side just happens to be Young's preferred running side...I figured it out in about three plays, the announcers mentioned it in the first quarter, but USC's coaches were SHOCKED that he would run right.

Of course, there was also the controversial coaching decision that Pete Carroll made to go for it on 4th down and 2 with just over 2 minutes remaining in the game. To me that wasn't a tough decision...they were in Texas territory, it was a short two yards, and if they make the first down, the game is over. They even went with their tried and true 1-yard back, LenDale White. *People cry out: Bush wasn't even in the game for that play? Of course not, the Trojans have ALWAYS gone to White in those situations.* In hindsight, it probably would have been good to put Bush in the game at least as a decoy, because everyone knew it was going to White up the middle. And the Trojans offensive line did NOTHING. A good play call probably would have been a play action, with Leinart and Bush running out to the same side, but that is neither here nor there. The Trojans probably weren't going to win if they punted and so they decided to win the game there. They then took away their only real shot at coming back with 20 seconds left when they took a time out during the two point conversion.

So, it all boils down to: it was an exciting game, even if it was college, and Vince Young and the Longhorns showed the Trojans how to finish a game. Congratulations to the Longhorns.

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