Penn St. is not a great team but to think that USC will stomp them is ridiculous. You USC homers have been yelling every week about how great USC is and how that are going to kill every team they play by 35+ points.. well the thing is.. they ARE NOT DOING IT!
They couldn't even put a proper beating on a UCLA team that hung their hat up weeks back.
They couldn't even put a proper beating on a UCLA team that hung their hat up weeks back.
USC and Penn St. were both impressive in their respective conferences, but let's face facts here:
total defense: USC #1 vs. Penn. St. #4
total offense: USC #14 vs. Penn St. #15
Are people actually going to make the argument that a #15 offense can beat the best defense in college football? Now I'm not saying that this will be a blowout, but USC wins by double digits.
total defense: USC #1 vs. Penn. St. #4
total offense: USC #14 vs. Penn St. #15
Are people actually going to make the argument that a #15 offense can beat the best defense in college football? Now I'm not saying that this will be a blowout, but USC wins by double digits.
I'll be on Penn St. I'll list the reasons.
Your post title is the reason why I'll be on Penn St., you think USC is happy to be playing in the Rose Bowl? Against another Big Ten team with no title shot? ESPN and all the media saying they should win by a large amount will get to their head.
Some "on the field" reasons would be that this seems to be the classic "first to 20 wins" kind of game. When points will come at a premium, I'll take 10 points.
Mark Sanchez seems to be all hype with little results. He has shown flashes, but he hasn't shown up when he needed to. When USC's run game is in a little trouble, he hasn't shown that he can put teams away or come from behind.
Special teams will be a big factor and I believe with the return ability of D-Will, that field position battle will belong to Penn St. I think he will mean 5 to 10 yards every punt, which will make a huge difference in a expected low scoring game.
The one thing that will keep me from betting big will be that this will be a home game for USC. In these hard times, it's going to be hard for Penn St's fans to travel across the country and attend this game. It's expensive (travel, hotel, food, tickets, renting a car, missing work, etc.). While USC fans just have to be stuck in traffic for 3 hours. I believe it will be 70 to 80 percent USC fans.
Your post title is the reason why I'll be on Penn St., you think USC is happy to be playing in the Rose Bowl? Against another Big Ten team with no title shot? ESPN and all the media saying they should win by a large amount will get to their head.
Some "on the field" reasons would be that this seems to be the classic "first to 20 wins" kind of game. When points will come at a premium, I'll take 10 points.
Mark Sanchez seems to be all hype with little results. He has shown flashes, but he hasn't shown up when he needed to. When USC's run game is in a little trouble, he hasn't shown that he can put teams away or come from behind.
Special teams will be a big factor and I believe with the return ability of D-Will, that field position battle will belong to Penn St. I think he will mean 5 to 10 yards every punt, which will make a huge difference in a expected low scoring game.
The one thing that will keep me from betting big will be that this will be a home game for USC. In these hard times, it's going to be hard for Penn St's fans to travel across the country and attend this game. It's expensive (travel, hotel, food, tickets, renting a car, missing work, etc.). While USC fans just have to be stuck in traffic for 3 hours. I believe it will be 70 to 80 percent USC fans.
We also all saw what Oregon St did to USC. 10 days after PSU annihilated them. I see this over and over and over again....hilarious.
Also...the OSU team that went on the road to play against USC with Boeckman at qb and no Beanie wells is a far different team than the one that PSU played IN COLUMBUS. OSU was losing to Ohio 14-12 in the 4th quarter the week before USC, and was only beating Troy 14-10 in the 4th quarter before putting them away with a few late td's the week after USC. Its obvious that this was not a good OSU team to start the year when they played USC. Pryor came in..the team got their act together and for the most part shellacked everyone the 2nd half of the season. If you people think the same result would have happened had USC travelled to Columbus when PSU did you weren't paying attention. Regardless...its this exact same attitude why the line is set so high and that's really good for those of us who are going to take PSU. I'm going to wait and see if the line gets bet up even further.
That whole post is bullshit.
That didn't seem to matter last year when Illinois went to Pasadena and crawled home with their tails between their legs. The only thing that will get into USC's heads will be the opportunity to knock off another big name team. Can you list the reasons why this would be their first loss after winning the last 11 big non-conf games in a row...big? Or is that just a coincidence and stats like that need to be ignored?
That didn't seem to matter last year when Illinois went to Pasadena and crawled home with their tails between their legs. The only thing that will get into USC's heads will be the opportunity to knock off another big name team. Can you list the reasons why this would be their first loss after winning the last 11 big non-conf games in a row...big? Or is that just a coincidence and stats like that need to be ignored?
Consider yourself lucky if PSU even scores 10 points.
We'll see about that. Sanchez's stats will get him drafted. The only thing about thier offense that bothers me is their play calling (Sarkisian) and their lack of a dominant rusher instead of RB by committee (Sarkisian again.) They've come from behind more than once this season. How's your memory? Did you already forget about last week?
5-10 yards is not a huge difference when your offense can't move the ball from anywhere. They will have to fight for every yard to manage over 250 yards total offense in this game.
If you can't manage a trip to the biggest bowl game PSU has had the opportunity to play in for years, then can I buy your ticket?
I like this match-up on a nuetral field but USC at home would be the play if any. Penn St. is a complete football team and has a way to exploit USC's one weakness, their O-Line. The only problem is USC always domintates in the Rose Bowl. They usually dominate the turnover margin and always comes out fired up. The other team is on vacation and gets overwelmed by the atmoshpere. Joe Pa is good at preparing his team for bowl games but USC at home with their defense usually takes care of business. I won't jump on USC blindly though because I still think the USC offense is really suspect and will not have an easy time with a quality defense like Penn St.
