| Any BCS hopes ride on USC’s defense |
One week, Rey Maualuga was galloping down the sideline, hair flying out of his helmet as he shrugged off Ohio State tacklers to return an interception for a touchdown. He could not — and would not — be stopped.
The next week, Maualuga walked off the field with his tail between his legs, he and his USC teammates having had the swagger beaten out of them by Oregon State on a Thursday night in front of a national television audience.
The question raised, after the No. 1-ranked Trojans fell, was this: Were they exposed or just asleep? One month later, the answer is starting to become apparent.
"That loss to Oregon State couldn’t have come at a better time as far as waking everybody up," Maualuga, the Trojans’ All-America linebacker, said recently.
USC went out the following week, got themselves in a 10-3 hole early against Oregon and haven’t been scored on in more than 10 quarters since. They’ve beaten Oregon, Arizona State and Washington State without giving up a point in their last 161 minutes and nine seconds of football. The score over that stretch: 138-0.
The Trojans, dropped to ninth in the polls after their loss to Oregon State, have climbed back in the national championship race. They were fifth in the first BCS standings this week, and have one of their tougher road tests Saturday night at Arizona.
The Wildcats have played the Trojans tough in recent years, and are averaging 40.4 points per game, but if the Trojans want to keep climbing in the polls, they may need to keep pitching shutouts. By playing in the Pac-10, they’ll need as many style points as possible.
Those are most likely to come when the opponents have the ball. The offense hasn’t been quite as good as the numbers might suggest — half the points came against Washington State, which may be fielding the worst team in Pac-10 history, and there were four turnovers by quarterback Mark Sanchez against Arizona State. But the senior-laden defense, which some thought might be the best in Carroll’s tenure, has looked the part.
"They just don’t let you breathe," Arizona State coach Dennis Erickson said.
Arizona coach Mike Stoops said the Trojans compare favorably to some of the Oklahoma defenses he helped coach earlier this decade, which featured future Pro Bowlers Tommie Harris and Roy Williams. He was particularly impressed with linebackers Brian Cushing, Kaluka Maiava and Maualuga. Safety Taylor Mays and nose tackle Fili Moala are considered future first-round picks, and defensive end Clay Matthews and safety Kevin Ellison play with a high degree of intelligence and toughness.
"A lot of people get a lot of hype, but they deserve it," Stoops said of the linebackers. "They play awful physical and awful fast and they’re in the middle of everything so it’s hard to get big plays.
"They’re good across the board. Some teams are maybe weak here, weak there. They play hard, too. That’s the thing that gets not as much written is how they play. That, to me, is everything. When you play physical, fast football with the athletes they have, they make it very difficult for you to move the ball consistently."
Really, with the exception of the first half against Oregon State — when their front seven was blown off the ball, Jacquizz Rodgers ran through turnstile tackles and the Beavers jumped to a 21-0 lead — the Trojans have been that good all season.
They rank first nationally in scoring defense and pass defense, and second in total defense. They’re no lower than eighth in every statistical category. Other than that first half against Oregon State, they’ve allowed only three touchdowns this season.
And each one comes with a caveat.
Virginia got its lone score in a 52-7 loss thanks to a celebration penalty that forced the Trojans to kick off from their own 15-yard line, and then roughing the passer and pass interference penalties that were good for another 25 yards.
Oregon, which scored on its opening drive of a 44-10 defeat needed to convert two fourth downs. One of them came on a roughing the kicker penalty, which allowed the Ducks to take three points off the board, and exchange them for seven after being given a first down at the USC 13-yard line.
Oregon State scored its only points of the second half — and they turned out to be big ones — after safety Greg Laybourn returned an interception to the USC 2-yard line late in the fourth quarter. Rodgers scored on the next play to all but seal an eventual 27-21 victory.
That loss removed any margin of error for USC’s national title hopes. An SEC or Big 12 team might make it into the BCS title game with two losses, but not the Trojans. And teams like Texas Tech and Oklahoma State, undefeated but ranked behind USC, would surely leapfrog the Trojans if they remain unblemished.
The problem is that nobody else in the Pac-10 is even remotely near the Top 25. Oregon garnered eight votes in last week’s poll, placing it 34th, just behind Cincinnati. The Ducks were followed by Arizona with six, California with three and Oregon State with two.
Where the Trojans could be getting some aid is from their non-conference schedule, which wasn’t the way it looked a month ago when Virginia was off to a 1-3 start, Ohio State was beaten up as badly by the media as it was by the Trojans, and Notre Dame was thumped by Michigan State and needed a fortuitous goal line fumble to beat San Diego State.
Now, they’re a little easier on the eyes. Virginia has won three in a row, including an upset of then-18th-ranked North Carolina. Ohio State looks like a different team with Terrelle Pryor at quarterback and could give the Trojans a boost in the rankings and bounce in strength of schedule Saturday by knocking off unbeaten Penn State.
And when Notre Dame arrives at the Coliseum in late November, it could be that only Pittsburgh and Boston College stand between the Irish and a 9-2 record.
Still, if the Trojans have a tough case to make at the end of the season, their most compelling argument could be made by a defense that doesn’t rest.
| " | "They're good across the board. Some teams are maybe weak here, weak there. They play hard, too. That's the thing that gets not as much written is how they play. That, to me, is everything. When you play physical, fast football with the athletes they have, they make it very difficult for you to move the ball consistently." |
