Dang . . . that was close! We said it was a clash of heavyweight college football programs, and the Trojans got the 15th round KO with one last offensive drive that will go down as a classic.

It doesn’t get much tougher: Ohio St. in the ‘Shoe . . . 106,000 screaming fans . . . trailing 15 – 10 . . . 1st and 10 at your own 15 yard line. . . with a true freshman at QB.

No problem for Matt Barkley and the Trojans.

So how did Barkley do it? Just when did the Trojan OLine finally take over the game? And is a stellar defensive effort by USC being overlooked? These questions and more are answered below . . . so let’s go to the grades!

Offense:

QB – The stats ain’t pretty for Barkley (15 – 31, 195 yards and an INT). He started the game a little shaky with some balls thrown behind receivers, and he missed some TD opportunities throwing the ball just out of bounds to Damian Williams and David Ausberry. But he came through when it counted. One of his spectacular throws was a 25 yarder in between defenders to TE Anthony McCoy on the final drive. Grade: B minus

RBs – Not a lot of running room in this game. But the Joe McKnight/Stafon Johnson combo rushed for 110 yards on 4 yards per carry, and got the tough yards when needed the most. Johnson rushed for 2 TDs. Grade: B

WRs/TE – The connections in the passing game just weren’t made to have a serious impact on the game. Damian Williams led the team with (5) catches for 51 yards. Success in this area would have really loosened up the 8 man “in the box” defensive formations Ohio St. was using. Grade: C minus

OLine – It was expected that SC had a significant advantage offensively in the trenches. It didn’t turn out that way during the game. According to OLine coach Pat Ruel, the Buckeyes used a defensive front four alignment that SC had not seen before. But they SC figured it out on the last offensive drive, and blew Ohio St. off the ball. However, SC only rushed for 118 yards on the game. Grade: C minus

Defense

DLine – Terrific game by this group. DT/NT Jurell Casey and DE Everson Griffen combined for (11) tackles, (2) TFLs, and a key sack that pushed the Buckeyes out of FG position that could have iced the game. Grade: B+

LBs – MLB Chris Galippo came through with an INT that led to SC’s first TD, and added (5) tackles for good measure. OLB Mike Morgan had a terrific game with (7) tackles, including (2) TFLs. Even LB Luthur Brown got back into the mix in goal line defensive situations. Grade: B+

DBs – In the first half, Safety Taylor Mays made a critical error in coverage that eventually cost SC a TD. But he did come back to make (8) tackles. CBs Josh Pinkard and Kevin Thomas were good against the pass, and contributed (7) more tackles between them, and a pass break up. Grade: C


Special Teams

The kicking and return units have yet to be special. Long snapper Cooper Stephenson air-mailed a deep snap to the punter for a safety, and punter Billy O’Malley has yet to get over the 40 yard per punt average (he only hit the 37 yard mark vs. the Buckeyes). To top it off, FG kicker Jordan Congdon banged the cross bar on a 44 yard attempt. He did nail a 23 yarder later in the game. Grade: D

Coaching

Offensively, the SC coaches were scrambling to crack the Buckeye code on defense. Give Ohio St. credit for a nice scheme and inspired performance, but I thought SC kept itself in 3rd and long situations by not running on first down enough. Defensively, the game plan to bottle up QB Terrelle Pryor mostly worked. Pryor hit a couple of nice passes in the first half, but then was frustrated by the Trojan defense for the majority of the game. Grade: C

Prediction Winner:

Mrs. Payback turned out to be the most reasonable one among us, and gets the W.


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