Duck, Duck, Goose

Posted by DontBendDontBreak | Filed under PAC-10 Failures

Perhaps I overreacted just a bit.  Firing Pete Carroll in the middle of the season might be a bit rash.  Though if it were to happen, I’d be all for it, just as the fans of Auburn are dancing in the streets now that the so called “offensive guru,” new offensive coordinator Tony Franklin, has been shown the door.  Their dismal efforts (both in victories and defeats) so far this season reminds me a lot of USC as of late.  Hey, come to think of it, when Pete is finally thrown out, maybe he should take his “defensive know-how” and combine it with Franklin’s “offense” to create an unstoppable team.  They’d be number one year after year…in ESPN’s Bottom 10.

But I digress.  If we wait until the end of the season to dump Carroll, there will be a much better candidate pool.  We’ll continue to highlight the (many) people worthy to take over and hope that Mike Garrett isn’t turning a blind eye to reason.  Al Davis was wrong in thinking he had hired the wrong guy but at least he had the balls to admit it.  Garrett has known for a few years now that he made the wrong choice and continues to point to USC’s Rose Bowl victories as “proof” that Carroll is getting the job done.

Waiting until the end of the season is a luxury we can afford because of the great players.  As long as they aren’t given a terrible gameplan (which isn’t something we can be sure of), they can overpower whoever lines up against them.

Now this isn’t to say that these athletes don’t need any coaching.  They do, and until they have someone else in charge, they’ll continue to perform like they did against the Oregon Ducks.

Of course, even a meaningless win like the one we got over Oregon and whatever Bandaided together quarterback they threw out there is better than a loss.  I guess.

But let’s take a look at some of the disturbing facts from the game.

Roughing the Holder Penalty: I’ll bet most of you didn’t even know this was a penalty until last Saturday’s game.  Heck, the ref didn’t even know what to say about it.  He was forced to call it “roughing the kicker” because he’d never encountered it before.

You know why? Most coaches have the foresight to teach their players the rules, even the ones that have never been broken before.  They’ve never been broken because someone TEACHES it to them.  Either Pete Carroll doesn’t know the rules or doesn’t think it’s important to pass that information along to his players.  Neither of those are qualities I want in a head coach.

Falling Behind: USC fell behind 10-3 early in the game before scoring the final 41 points.  Why must we continually be playing catch-up?  Is there something wrong with the better team jumping out to a lead and keeping it for the entire game?  Nick Saban and Bob Stoops don’t think so.

Kevin Ellison: This USC safety helped out on 12 tackles, prompting some to wonder why he wasn’t given PAC-10 Defensive Player of the Week honors.  I’ve got a better question.  Why the hell was a safety in on 12 tackles?  They should be making pick-sixes, not tackling players.

I know Rey was out, but Cushing and the other linebackers shouldn’t have been allowed to let players wander past them into the secondary.

4th & short: I’m sure you saw the touchdown pass to Damian Williams on fourth and short.  It worked because he was wide open.  How is that supposed to teach Sanchez to perform under pressure?  What is he going to do when they don’t run plays that get their best receiver wide open in crucial 4th down situations?

Misleading Stats: Many in the media are pointing out that since 2002, Carroll his 9-0 in games following a loss, winning by an average of 20 points.  You know what I call that?  Wasted points.  If we had gotten some of those scores in the preceding game, then there would be no need for the media to create some sort of bogus stat that tires to make something impressive out of a coach losing games.

Final Thoughts: Arizona State is likely going to be without their starting quarterback, which would force their backup to have his first ever start in the Coliseum.  Remember the last time that happened?  Stanford.

All it’s gonna take is a couple of our quarterbacks to break their fingers, and it will be that game all over again.

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Permalink | October 10th, 2008

One Response to “Duck, Duck, Goose”

  1. trojancondoms Says:
    November 26th, 2008 at 12:04 pm

    yayyy

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