In reality, Washington St. should not have played this ballgame. They should have mailed in a respectable losing score and not risked (nor embarrased) their players. I mean, you saw it people . . . SC threw ONE pass in the 2nd half. They tried to let the Cougars tackle them, and they couldn't do it.
This is actually the toughest game ever to grade . . . but here it goes:
Offense
QB - QB Mark Sanchez hasn't seen this many open receivers since high school. He completed 15 - 20, for 250+ yards with 5 TDs by halftime. It was shooting fish in a barrel. It was so easy that I'm going to have to give him a de-merit for a couple of bad passes. Grade: A minus
RBs/FB - Three 100+ rushers is super rare, but that's what Gable (109), Johnson (112) and Green (121) did. Brod Green started out tentative, but then realized no Cougar wanted to tackle him, and he looked like "Earl Campbell" in the 2nd half. Fullback Stan Havili looks like he's getting back to normal with (5) receptions, and backup Adam Goodman had some good blocks. Grade: A
WRs/TE - Again, the WRs met no resistance, but they didn't drop any balls either. Ronald Johnson and Patrick Turner led the way with two TDs pass receptions apiece. TE Anthony McCoy did his best "Fred Davis" impression with a determined TD catch and run. Unfortunately for backups Patterson, Ausberry, and Carswell, SC had mercy on the Cougars in the 2nd half and only got one pass thrown their way. Grade: A
OLine - Despite having a sub at OT (Nick Howell), SC dominated the trenches. Howell had (18) knockdowns, and the Trojan OLine knocked out the Cougar front seven for 362 yards rushing on 7ypc, and gave up no sacks. Grade: A
Defense
DLine - This was a game for the reserves. The starters knocked a few people down, and got out of the game. Backup DT Armond Armstead was the star with (4) tackles, including two TFLs. The DLine only allowed (88) yards rushing, but couldn't get any sack action cuz Wazzu only threw the ball (9) times. I will downgrade the unit because DE Malik Jackson didn't keep containment on a reverse that led to one of the Cougars few positive offensive plays. Grade: A minus
LBs - This group was really active early. MLB Rey Maualuga dominated the Cougars' first two possessions with (5) tackles before he took a seat with fellow starter Brian Cushing who forced a fumble in his own right. And then it was backup Chris Galippo's turn. He looked tentative his first defensive possession, but got it going as the game went on. Galippo and fellow reserve OLB Malcolm Smith combined for (8) tackles and (2) TFLs. Grade: B+
DBs - The game couldn't have been easier for this group - with only (9) passes to defend - it was tough for SC's excellent D-Backs to get opportunities. But they found a way to make a few plays. CB Josh Pinkard forced and recovered a fumble, and reserve safety Will Harris had an INT that he returned for 28 yards. Grade: B
Special Teams
I'm still waiting for a big play from the return team . . . and it didn't happen. Plus SC had a PAT blocked for the only negative play of the first half as the Trojans got out to a 41 - 0 first half lead. On the positive side, Kicker David Buehler had (9) touchbacks out of eleven kickoffs, and punter Greg Woidneck averaged 49 yards on his (2) punts. Grade: C +
Coaching
Offensively, the team was sharp early. We saw OC Sarkisian stick with his game plan of mixing it up with the pass and run. And the team did a nice job of playing with intensity the entire game despite only running the ball in the second half. On defense, the coaches played "straight up" with no blitzes. Needless to say, a lot of backups got time and the coaches used this game as an opportunity to see some key reserves like frosh OT Tyron Smith and DT Armond Armstead. The brightest spot for the coaching staff had to be the lack of penalties - SC only committed (2), an offensive holding call and a defensive offsides - and that's major progress for a team that is last in the conference in that category. Grade: A
Game Balls
Offense - QB Mark Sanchez
Defense - LB Rey Maualuga
Special Teams - K David Buehler
Prediction Winner: J-Man got SC's score exactly right . . . Dang!
1 comment:
The grades were on point considering the domination in this game. However, I'm gonna have to throw the red flag on the prediction winner. (Mind you, I don't know any of these guys personally, so this is an objective opinion, and it's nothing against J-Man.) Maybe the prediction rules state otherwise, but I think you've gotta have some stones to predict a back-to-back SC shut-out, and still only miss their final score by 3 points. That call deserves a 2nd look. - D.Moody
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