It's DUCK SEASON!!!

Well, after cleaning the Arizona Wildcat kitty litter box, and enjoying a HEAPING plate of Notre Dame Irish stew (to the tune of 38-0!), the Trojans open Oregon Duck Season in Eugene tomorrow at 3:00 PM on Fox Sports Net. This will be the first REAL test for this team and a win in Autzen would go a LONG way to helping erase the "Cardinal Collapse in the Coliseum."

Last week was a historic one in the annals of Troy as this Trojan team was the first to accomplish several feats vs. the inept Irish:

1. First team to win 6 straight
2. Largest margin of victory for USC in series at 38 points
3. First Trojan shutout in South Bend since 1933

Nice.

This week is different. The season will make a dramatic turn here in my opinion. Win at Oregon and I believe the Trojans will run the table. Lose, and they are fighting for the Sun Bowl. History has shown Pete gets up for the B#IG games like this, and no "experts" think the Trojans will win, and THAT is when they are most dangerous. USC's D is more capable of stopping an O that the Ducks who gave up 31 points to Washington last week. I expect the Trojans to hit Oregon in the mouth early and often and hold for a hard fought 24-20 victory.

By the way, anyone else see Dr. Perry Shen on a Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center commercial recently like I did?

Fight On!

Bought the Farm...

OUCH! That one is gonna leave a mark. Well, the unthinkable happened Saturday, USC lost a home game to a team that it should have overwhelmed. The scrappy Cardinal came into the L.A. Coliseum with a QB that threw a total of two passes and came away with a 24-23 victory over the #1/2 Trojans.

I have seen this before...Pat Barnes and Pat Cowan at UCLA...unknown QB's making a first start facing a team that should crush them with reckless abandon and putting a L on the Trojans. Why we have had a propensity to do this baffles me, but even more disconcerting is the demeanor of head coach Pete Carroll on the sidelines. Against UW and Stanford he has NOT been his fun-loving, affable self. Something is amiss here, I don't know what it is, but there must be an underlying thorn that is poking and irritating the head man.

That being said, the season is FAR from over, to wit, flashback to 2003. The Trojans lost an early game at Cal, came back to win the rest and won the AP National Championship. As wacky as this season has been, I would not put it past some other major upsets forthcoming. Just the past two weeks, EIGHT top ten teams lost. USC can still run the table (though JDB and his receivers better get on the same page pronto!), win the Pac-10 and play in yet another BCS bowl game. Next up, the Wildcats of Arizona. Let's see if Pete and Co. can put on a sense of urgency and revert back to the Nebraska game mentality.

Double Latte to Go!!

The Trojans got the HECK out of the Emerald City with a hard-fought, injury-plagued, mistake-prone, flag-happy, crappy-weather game against the Huskies 27-24. The offensive line suffered two significant injuries to guard, Chilo Rachel and center, Kris O'Dowd on the same play in the first quarter after which, the offense got untracked and couldn't find any rythmn. The 16 penalties was the most by a Pete Carroll Trojan team since 2002...some of those called (on both sides) were marginal at best, including the PI call in the 4th in which Yao Ming would have needed a ladder to catch the ball.

Still, the Trojans survived and advance to their next opponent, hosting the Stanford Cardinal led by Jim "the mouth" Harbaugh. The next three games "should" be relatively easy vs the Cardinal, the Wildcats, and the Irish, which could be a trap game since it is right before another road trip to Eugene to face the feisty Ducks.

For those of you who didn't see the Cal/Oregon game, it lived up to its billing and the Trojans will need the next three games to rest the injured and get ready for the "heavies."

For those of you who missed the Washington game, here is the Cliffs Notes version:

USC/Washington Condensed Game

In closing, it was a WACKY weekend in college football with FIVE top 10 teams taken down. Cal is now #3, Oregon was dropped down to 14 (which is terrible considering how close the game was and how many other top 10 teams lost to unranked teams on Saturday. If any LSU fans remarks about the Tigers jumping USC in the AP poll, bait them into answering this question: "do you feel the move to #1 in the AP is justified?" When the react something like "heck yeah, we should be #1 in ALL polls." Smile and say, "thank you for validating the AP Poll, you just acknowledged 2003 was a split." Turn and walk away...and smile!

Saturday's viewing party will be posted soon.

Fight On!