USC Trojans 7-2 Overall (4-2 Conference)

This Week’s Score: USC 14 – Arizona State 9

Next Week’s Opponent: Stanford

Well it certainly wasn’t pretty, but the USC Trojans did escape Tempe with a win. Pete Carroll knows his team will have to be better in the final three games, but Oregon’s loss at Stanford puts the Men of Troy right back in the Rose Bowl picture.

While the ‘SC offense looked as bad as we have seen in quite some time, Carroll was more pleased with the defense: “To get back on track defensively is really obviously important to us,” Carroll said. “It’s such a good night to get four turnovers.”

S Will Harris picked off two passes and took one of them to the house for a game-changing touchdown. His fantastic effort on the night landed him Pac-10 Defensive Player of the Week. This was an important game for the defense considering the way the last three games went (ND, OSU, UO), and now the unit has some momentum heading into a tough final stretch.

Offensively, it is hard to pinpoint any one area where things went wrong. The o-line had a difficult time protecting Matt Barkley all night, and the true freshman turned in his worst game of the season (7/22 112 yards 1 TD 1 INT). If you take away WR Damian Williams’ phenomenal individual effort on the TD, Barkley would have thrown for a minuscule 37 yards.

The running game was decent (146 yards), but neither RB Joe McKnight nor RB Allen Bradford could consistently break past the Sun Devil front seven. It was clear to me that the laundry list of injuries took their toll on the offense Saturday, and the absence of TE Anthony McCoy was especially evident. For the second week in a row, TE Blake Ayles had a key drop in the passing game. The talented sophomore will not stay on the field much longer if that trend continues.

After what seems like a lifetime on the road, ‘SC returns to the friendly confines of the Coliseum for the last three games of the regular season. Obviously the Trojans have fared well at home under Carroll, but this week’s opponent has also enjoyed playing on ‘SC’s home turf recently. Jim Harbaugh’s Stanford Cardinal may be playing the best football of any club in the Pac-10, and they are the only team to win at USC in the last eight seasons.