Trojans Get Blasted by Ducks, 47 – 20

Ohhh . . . humanity.

We haven’t seen anything like it for a long time. The Trojans got their Halloween candy taken from them . . . and could do nothing about it. The Ducks ran the ball at will against a confused and frustrated Trojan defense. Offensively, SC hung in there for a half, but then got turned into a one dimensional team that could only hope to pass their way back into the ballgame. But it didn’t happen.

This wasn’t a game . . . it was a crime scene. And unfortunately, we gotta do our best impression of “CSI” to examine what’s left of the victims:

Offense

QB – Matt Barkley kept the Trojans alive and was very accurate in the first half. But with Oregon continuing to score, Barkley had to “wing it” in the second half, and the Trojan offense just wasn’t effective. Barkley finished 21 – 38 for only 187 yards with 2 TDs and a pick. Grade: C minus

RBs/FBs – RB Joe McKnight ran the ball very well, tallying 95 yards on 15 carries (6.3 ypc). But no one else got on track and could help carry the mail. Grade: C

WRs/TEs – WRs Damian Williams and Ronald Johnson each scored a TD, with Williams garnering (9) catches. But the receiving corp really missed TE Anthony McCoy. Replacement Blake Ayles only caught one pass for three yards. Grade: C

OLine – Believe it or not, the Trojan OLine was pretty good. Despite SC’s total reliance on the pass throughout most of the game, this unit only gave up two sacks. And they blocked well in the run game for McKnight. Grade: B

Defense

DLine – Zero sacks folks. And that wasn’t the worst part for the Trojan DLine. They couldn’t get any penetration to stop the run game. The Ducks rushed for an amazing 391 yards. NT Jurrell Casey led the team with (11) tackles . . . I just didn’t see any of them. Grade: F

LBs – This unit could not have played any worse. They simply didn’t know which Duck offensive player had the ball. MLB Chris Galippo did not fill the gaps fast enough, OLB Mike Morgan was a non-factor, and OLB Shane Horton was totally lost falling for the fake handoff to the Duck RB in the Oregon spread offense almost every single time. Grade: F

DBs – The Trojan secondary spent the night chasing Duck ball carriers. End of story. Grade: D minus


Special Teams

Kicking/Coverage/Returns – Just to add insult to Trojan injury, the KO coverage team gave up a 77 yard return to the Ducks. Grade: D

Coaching

Eeesh . . . where to start? The offense moved the ball well in the first half, but went dead in the water in the second half. The coaches obviously wanted to keep pace with the Ducks in the 2nd half by throwing the ball, but would have been better served to run the ball just to keep the ball out of the Duck offense’s hands. On defense, it was a total collapse of gameplan and player execution. The “containment” plan of Duck QB Jeremiah Masoli by the DLine did not work. And the coaches were helpless in assisting the Trojan LBs find the ball. Grade: F

Prediction Winner:

The AFLAC Duck