SRT's Rose Bowl Preview

I know this site is called Alwayslakers but there's no way I'm going to not do a USC post a day before the Rose Bowl. The grand daddy of them all will be played of course in Pasadena at 2:00pm PST. For the seniors of USC, this is all too familiar a scene...4th R Bowl in a row... the first of which many of them probably remember giving Texas the National title.. stupid lateral here.. missed knee down call there, missed Texas fumble there.. bang.. take care.. buh bye.
Since then the Trojans have enjoyed a good amount of success in this game. The stakes of course were not as high, but nevertheless, we are getting used to the concept that Jan 1 means USC annihilating some Big 10 team that was NTG in the first place.

Enter the Penn State Nittany Lions and their long time coach J Paterno into the mix. But before you think different team.. same result.. let's take a look at what they have to offer.
Penn State runs what they call the spread HD offense. Apparantly its the HD version of what everybody else is doing. Historically USC has had problems dealing with the spread... Oregon, Texas.. etc.. however they did a pretty good job containing Illinois in last year's game. The defense this year is definately better than last years... But D Clark is no J Williams. He boasts stats of 2,319 yds 17 TD and only 4 INT for the season.. B Favre or K Craft can throw that many in a half. They also have Evan Royster who rushed for over 1,200 yards and 12 TD's with 0 Fumbles.. quite impressive. Receivers are reliable but not spectacular and the O Line is fairly solid. They average 452 yds and 40 pts per game.. not bad. That opening win at home against Coastal Carolina (66-10) was impressive.

Defensively P State only allowed 12.8 pts and 264 yds per game which is very impressive and are an experienced group. One thing to note however, key defensive mistakes opened the door for Iowa to pull off the upset and send Penn St packing for So Cal instead of hanging signs on Gus at the Clevelander in South Beach.

For the Trojans, its business as usual.. I don't have to talk about the defense. I think we all know what they are capable of. Granted the Pac-10 wasn't exactly the class of BCS conferences this year, but let's be real.. neither is the Big 10 so I think we are comparing apples to apples here. Rey Maulaluga, Brian Cushing, Taylor Mays, and Clay Matthews lead a defense that didn't allow the domers to get a first down until the start of the 4th quarter. They held the high powered Oregon offense to 10 pts.. 0 in the 2nd half if I'm not mistaken. This year they are fast, have made open field tackles and have a high football IQ... and I don't mean high IQ like L Walton's alleged hi IQ.. he sucks.. these guys know what to do , where to do it, and when to do it...

Offensively I hear people saying the Trojans are lackluster and I have to admit they aren't the sparkplug they used to be. Mark Sanchez has been a decent leader on the field from what I've seen, but he has not mastered the idea of preventing that emotion from influencing his decisions on the field. He reminds me of B Favre in that regard.. highly touted, but when you break it down, he's actually not that good.. sometimes the throws he attempts leave you speechless.. You can't even ask what he was thinking because it's clear he wasn't thinking at all.

USC has a pool of 5 star running backs, none of which have performed to expectations. My personal favorite is Stefon Johnson. He seems the most solid, yet is still able to squeak through the cracks for an extra yard or two.. Joe McKnight is explosive, yes, but it's hard to explode when you're laying the ball down on the turf half the time. CJ Gable has shown flashes of brilliance, but has yet to put a complete dominate game together.

Receiving core is fairly solid, led by Arkansas transfer Damion Williams who is clearly the best out there. Reliable, quick and also the #1 target for Sanchez. Senior Patrick Turner was slated to be the next D Jarrett, but never quite materialized into that big play receiver despite the advantages his 6'5 frame awards him.

With all that said you would think clearly USC would have to have something favorable happen defensively or on special teams to win since their offense is so put down and Penn States is so highly regarded. Let's take a look at the huge statistical differences between the two teams.

Penn State

	TDs	Yds	PassYds	RushYds
Offense	57	452.2	240.6	211.6
Defense	17	263.9	168.0	95.9

USC

	TDs	Yds	PassYds	RushYds
Offense	58	453.1	247.1	206.0
Defense	11	206.1	122.8	83.3

Hmmm. that's odd.. USC's offense isn't that good, but somehow it's outperforming the HD spread that gets so much public attention.. oh wait.. Penn State averages 3 pts more per game.. but I'm sure once you bounce the coastal carolina game out of there, that balances out too..

Keys to the game.. Turnovers, Special Teams, USC's lack of interest.. I say USC does what it does on defense, and gets a key turnover during a return..

USC 31 Penn St 20

Actual Final Score USC 38 Penn St 24