The No. 4 USC Trojans will be heading back to Los Angeles feeling a bit more tricked and a lot less treated after falling to the No. 10 Oregon Ducks 47-20 on Halloween night. The loss dropped USC to 6-2 overall and 3-2 in Pacific-10 Conference play on the year.
Offensively, the Trojans showed promise in the first half. They trailed 24-17 going into intermission, with true freshman quarterback Matt Barkley completing 16 of 22 passes for 138 yards and two touchdowns. The USC offense struggled with communication throughout the first half, however, as it was flagged four times for false start penalties.
Both teams struggled with false start penalties all game long, but Barkley said after the game that the stadium noise wasn’t an issue.
“For me, it didn’t affect me.” Barkley said. “But I don’t want to speak for other guys. Guys said they could hear me and everything, it wasn’t a factor to me.”
Barkley and the Trojan offense were unable to reach the end zone in the second half, with their only score coming off of a 39-yard Jordan Congdon field goal midway through the third quarter.
“At the beginning of the fourth quarter, we had that sense of urgency that we need to get the ball in the end zone,” Barkley explained.
But putting points on the board was only half the battle for USC in the second half, as the Pac-10’s top-ranked scoring defense gave up an additional 17 points in the third quarter.
“We just got beat up, up front,” senior free safety Taylor Mays said. “We didn’t tackle well and they busted us. They hit us in the mouth and they kept hitting us in the mouth.”
Mays, who recorded eight tackles on the night, also said that he and the other veterans on the team were in the same position after losing to Oregon in 2007, and that they have no doubt that they’ll be able to bounce back.
And while Barkley is only in his first year at USC, he reiterated the same message as Mays.
“I believe it with my heart that come Monday, when we go out on the practice field, it’s a whole new year,” Barkley said.
The Trojan defense will undoubtedly have the most to focus on as they prepare for Arizona State next weekend. Oregon’s 613 yards of total offense marked the second highest total given up in USC school history, while the Ducks 47-point total was the second highest since UCLA scored 48 in double overtime in 1996.
“Oregon did everything that they wanted to do,” said ninth-year head coach Pete Carroll. “I thought we would have a much better shot at defending their stuff, but we just had a horrible time with it and there’s reasons why. It was just an overloaded ball game by them.”
The Trojan offense that averaged 440.4 yards per game heading into Saturday’s contest was held to 327 yards and was forced to punt six times, while converting just four of 14 third-down conversions.
“We really can’t do anything about what happened tonight,” Carroll continued. “But it’s the next steps that we take, it’s the attitude that we take, it’s the approach that we put together that gives us a chance to finish.”
The game was a certain wake-up call for the Trojans, especially Barkley.
“You never think about this stuff,” Barkley said. “And it’s really unfortunate that it happened tonight. I never thought this could happen coming into the season. I perceived that we had one of the best defenses in the country, and I still think our defense is awesome, but tonight it just wasn’t one of those nights for us.”
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Trojans fall to Ducks after promising start
Daily Emerald
October 31, 2009
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