Friday, September 26, 2008

Trojan Upset

Corvallis, Oregon. Before last night, I didn't even know this place existed. For most Trojan fans, it's a place that they will never want to return to, but they will think about it for the rest of this year. The Oregon State Beavers shocked the world last night by beating the #1 team in the nation, the USC Trojans. The stadium looked like a bad orange juice commercial, but it was orange and the fans were loud as the Beavers jumped out to a 21-0 score going into halftime. The Beavers were led by diminutive freshman running back, Jacquizz Rodgers. This guy ran for 186 yards on 37 carries and had 2 TDs. Jacquizz is 5-6 and 180 pounds, until last night. He had to have lost about 10 pounds from the workout he had. 37 carries against a stout USC defense that just destroyed #5 Ohio State weeks ago. The Beavers played an all around great game on both sides of the ball. Rodgers got all of the sizzle for the game but his O line did work. They were running the ball right up the middle of the USC D. No trick plays, not too much motion, just 'hey we're running the ball right here'. The Beavers D did a great job also. They pressured the normally unflappable Sanchez for most of the night. They played some kind of zone that gave the Trojans fits because the defensive backs were just playing an area (which is normal in a zone), they were allowed to read the patterns of the receivers and make plays. USC looked out of sorts and never really got it together. Sanchez was over throwing receivers, sure handed Joe McKnight couldn't hold on to the ball or get those lanes that he's used to running down hill through. As good as they looked against Ohio State, they looked as equally bad against the Beavers. I'm not saying that to give the Trojans a pass, because they got it handed to them the entire game last night by a gutty Oregon State team. The noise you heard last night were the fireworks going of in Oklahoma, Florida, Georgia, and LSU.

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