🏈 The Good, The Bad and The Ugly vs. USC

[alabama mike]

I have put this on every week now for several years. It is good to see everyone's opinion of the game so please feel free to share. The only thing I ask is you post only one item in each category.

Good-

Bad-

Ugly-

 

[alabama mike]

Good- outstanding defense.

Bad- 1st quarter of play

Ugly- Nerves

 

[Splittine]

I'll hold my comment for another 16 min and 15 sec.

 

[SnakeFan]

Good - Alabama Mike keeping the tradition up

Bad - 1st quarter nerves

Ugly - O'Bama commercial taking credit

 

[Trob]

Good - That defense, mah gawd. Hurts after the early miscue.

Bad - Barnett's nerves early.

Ugly - Cochran's male pattern baldness. Seems like he had a full head of hair just last year.

 

[It Takes Eleven]

Good - a smothering defense that made victory certain. An early mistake, and some youngsters in the secondary getting thrown in the mix. Great learning opportunity. I think I saw a stat flash that said USC hadn't been held without a touchdown since 1997.

Bad - Early line play. Poor communication allowed penetration. Barnett didn't get to shake the nerves between conservative play calling and blown assignments.

Ugly (in a good way) - Hurts is just sick making guys miss. His first down throw to Ridley (I think) on the sideline was too fast for me to see. If he keeps his head on straight, he's going to be special.

I told my buddy during the game that we had amassed the ugliest 31-3 lead that I could recall. As coach said, a great effort but much to work on.

RTR,

Tim

 

[rick4bama]

Good- outstanding defense.

Bad- Starting slow

Ugly- C. Simm injury

 

[OldPlayer]

Good - Defense. Hurts.

Bad - RBs need to get a little quicker. Scarborough didn't impress me until his TD.

Ugly - QBs took too long to get comfortable. Barnett didn't do anything in the first quarter. Hurts fumbles on first play.

 

[rocknthefreeworld]

That Simms injury bothers me bad. This team lacks a lot of experienced depth. I only hope he will be back before we need him.

 

[Bamabww]

Good: Several Freshmen played

Bad: Turnovers

Ugly: Ronnie Harrison's sideline attitude

 

[wiregrass_bamaguy]

Good: defense and no bone headed penalties

Bad: 1st are

Ugly: Looking at my bama bucks wagers after the game

 

[JoshB]

Good: Defense was ridiculous.

Bad: The start, everyone looked so timid in the first quarter. Like they were on edge, not wanting to make mistakes. Barnett looked horrific, Kiffin's play calling was as timid as his QB seemed, the defense even played timid and got burned on a cpl throws in the first and Hurts was uncertain when he came in.

Then, the defense settled in and set the tone and Hurts followed up.

The ugly: USC giving up after things starting to turn, and the personal foul on the USC player. Absolutely pathetic.

 

[RoeTied]

Good: Monster defense, Hurts taking over

Bad: Inexperience showed early on, running game in general needs work

Ugly: USC

Exciting: The sheer amount of athletes we have waiting in the wings at every position. Good lord almighty.

 

[We All Bleed Crimson]

Good: An awfully good team performance! Bad: Very slow start.
Ugly: Sideline incident with Harrison...

 

[uofarolltide]

Good: the defense is straight nasty. JK Scott.
Bad: Team chemistry. So far, i sense a sort of individualistic team without much comraderie or leadership. Lots of great individual players though. INDECISION AT QB. Again, if Hurts had been named the guy after outperforming the other two in practice, they could've worked on that read option extensively, and I think we would've come out with a more defined identity.
Ugly: offensive gameplanning? This goes back to QB indecision, but still. We came out of the gates sluggish as hell. We went 20 minutes of game time before our first first down.
I really don't think USC will even end up as a ranked team, so we've got a lot to work on.
I really disliked the RB rotation as well - it didn't really flow. Harris looked good, but i doubt how effective he'll be against a stronger defense. He's not a YAC back.

 

[TerryP]

Ugly: Ronnie Harrison's sideline attitude

The ugly: USC giving up after things starting to turn, and the personal foul on the USC player. Absolutely pathetic.

I can help but thinking the two instances are somewhat related.

From the time they (USC) left the tunnel there was a concerted effort to "intimidate." Before the game the talk was how they could be physical and stand toe to toe. But, as time ran along ...

Those efforts to be physical turned into something else. It's not the first time we, as fans, have seen teams do this when playing Bama.

Herbie had it right minutes later ... Karma.

 

[BamaFan334]

Good: Hurts ability to overcome a crushing first play turnover and adapt to the environment and turn in a good performance for a true frwhman quarterback a lot of people said wouldn't and shouldn't play.

Bad: The offensive line in the first quarter or so. Unfortunately for Barnett, it cost him playing time because he didn't have two seconds to do anything at all. Allowes for us to have no running game and just looked rough to start.

Ugly: nothing was really Ugly for me. Harrison getting pissed after something being said over on the USC sideline and bringing it over to our own wasn't good, but emotions ran high and testosterone of an athlete makes these things happen. We have a lot to work on with our offense, but as a whole nothing was really Ugly that can't be fixed or even expected in our first game. Hell, we could have pulled an LSU or Mississippi State.

 

[PurlJam]

Good/ Excellent - That defense. They held USC to 194 yards of total offense.

Bad - USC player crotch stomping Minkah

Ugly - The offense, all of the first quarter.

 

[PurlJam]

I can help but thinking the two instances are somewhat related.

From the time they (USC) left the tunnel there was a concerted effort to "intimidate." Before the game the talk was how they could be physical and stand toe to toe. But, as time ran along ...

Those efforts to be physical turned into something else. It's not the first time we, as fans, have seen teams do this when playing Bama.

Herbie had it right minutes later ... Karma.

I believe the "physical" started going out of them pretty early.
Wasn't too long after this.

 

[Che Boludo]

Good - SC fans ability to see the cup half full. From WeAreSC poster the lowedown:

This game has been downright ugly, especially after the 1st quarter. But let's focus on the positives. So here are some things to help us all be optimistic as we move forward:

1. Trojans weren't shutout
2. Not the worst loss in school history
3. No Linebackers sent home during game due to sexual misconduct
4. Brand new punter now has a whole year of college football experience in just one game
5. Special teams got in lots of extra work in this game creating invaluable experience for backups and new guys
6. No Trojan coaches shown on the sideline wearing visors or looking dorky whooping it up, hollering and motivating players
7. No Trojan coaches showed up drunk for the game
8. Team has nowhere to go but up
9. Trojans can appeal to high ranking high school recruits that they can get early playing time because of dearth of elite level talent and depth
10. Juju Smith well rested for rest of the season
11. Future opponents won't be keyed up to play Trojans, making it easier for USC to stay in game and maybe even pull out a victory against said opponent
12. Kickoff return team gaining experience at a rapid pace. Chances of a KIckoff return for TD increase with opportunities, so chance of a kickoff return for TD has exponentially increased
13. No skill position injuries in game due to lack of opportunity and lack of use
14. Trojans never opened it up, making it difficult for future opponents to scout and defend all the plays that they didn't see Trojans execute in the game
15. Trojans can still win the Pac 12. And if that doesn't work, they can still win the Pac 12 South. And if that doesn't work, they can still shoot for a big time bowl. And if that doesn't work, they can shoot for a crappy bowl. And if that doesn't work, they can shoot to have a winning season. And if that doesn't work, they can hope to win at least one game.