USC vs the other OSU

For the second straight game, the USC Trojans will play OSU, only this time, they’re playing on a Thursday night, on a specialty channel, in front of a signficantly smaller, less curious audience.

The Trojans visit the Oregon St. Beavers of the Pac 10 in a game they’re fully expected to not only win, but win big. And they’ll have to win big.

USC’s BCS fate will depend heavily on how badly they beat their Pac 10 competition. There’s no room for error and there’s no room for three-point squeakers against teams that don’t have nearly as much talent. The Beavers qualify as one of those teams, but those Beavers are the same squad that pulled off what’s known in Corvallis as “The Upset” two years ago, ending USC’s 38-game regular season winning streak.

In retrospect, that game sent shockwaves through the Pac 10 and proved to the nation that USC’s players were actually human. Prior to that game, they hadn’t lost a Pac 10 matchup since the 2003 season, when the Trojans dropped an overtime thriller at Berkeley to Aaron Rodgers and Friends. The Beavers, like the rest of the Pac 10, started treating the USC game like their annual Super Bowl and the Trojans found themselves on the wrong end of the scoreboard on three other occasions.

Do I think the Beavers will win tonight? No. Do I think it will be close? No. Do my predictions matter? No, because I also didn’t think the Trojans would lose at home to Stanford last year! Sure, this may be a better Trojan team, especially defensively, than what USC put on the field in 2007, but college football is known for upsets, even when the odds are heavily stacked in one team’s favor.

The bottom line is USC can’t take this team for granted. Jacquizz Rodgers has done a fine job out of the backfield and is looking more and more like the back the Beavers had in Steven Jackson back in 2001. Mike Riley will do whatever he can to try to establish Rodgers early to best defend the Trojans offense by keeping them off the field.

In any event, USC has everything to lose in this game and I’m sure Pete Carroll knows that. If they win big, the pollsters and media will laugh it off saying “It’s only Oregon St.” If they win by a close margin, those same people won’t credit Riley for solid game-planning but will say USC is flawed. If they lose, their season comes to a grinding halt.

And that’s how it’s going to be for USC until their season finale in Pasadena against UCLA.

Pressure much?

DC

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