Coaching is not always to blame

It was a controversial call.

I knew a lot of the student body would disagree with it. But when my father made the offer, I knew I couldn’t pass it down.

On Saturday, I decided to take my talents to Chavez Ravine.

 

I skipped the Arizona State game and instead went to see the St. Louis Cardinals in Game 2 of the NLDS against the Los Angeles Dodgers with my dad. I love watching USC sports, but the Cardinals are definitively my No. 1 team, so it wasn’t too tough of a decision. Even though the Redbirds fell 3-2, I’m happy with my choice. Not just because I avoided seeing the Trojans’ what-just-happened 38-34 loss, but also because the Cardinals clinched the series in four games yesterday and I got to see almost all of it.

The weekend was a perfect reminder of why I love sports. Though I didn’t see a miraculous comeback win in Game 2 of the NLDS, I saw just that during Game 1 on Friday. Down 6-1 against the Dodgers’ ace Clayton Kershaw, the Cardinals came back to take a 10-6 lead and held on to win by a final score of 10-9. Matt Carpenter stroked an epic three-run double that turned out to be the game-winning hit, and that at-bat alone was worth the price of admission from both games.

There were plenty of upset Dodger fans on Friday, just as there were plenty of upset USC fans Saturday. Both were games that the home team let slip away, and both fan bases placed plenty of blame on the coaching staff for costing their team a win. There are definitely parallels in these L.A. sports stories, but I would attribute both results to the natural idiosyncrasies of sports and not to any major coaching blunder.

About every single caller on the Dodger talk radio show after Game 1 blamed the loss on Dodgers manager Don Mattingly. He should have brought in a reliever much earlier during the Cardinals’ rally, callers and hosts agreed, because Kershaw was clearly running out of gas and the bullpen would have prevented the Cards from taking the lead. Of course, once Mattingly did call in Pedro Baez to relieve Kershaw, Baez walked the first batter he faced then served up a three-run homer to Matt Holliday. But every Dodger caller was still pretty confident that the bullpen should have been trusted earlier over the defending Cy Young Award winner.

Then in Game 2, after Zack Greinke pitched a solid seven shutout innings for the Dodgers, Mattingly called in reliever J.P. Howell. The bases were empty, and Greinke didn’t appear to be in any trouble. But Mattingly obviously wanted to give the ball to bullpen to prevent Greinke from getting in trouble if he were to run out of stamina that inning. Not only did Howell have a scoreless appearance in Game 1, but he also matched up well against the next three left-handed Cardinal hitters as a lefty himself.

Sure enough, the first batter Howell faced singled, Carpenter then tied the game with a two-run homer and Howell was finally chased after Jon Jay followed with a single. The stadium echoed with boos as Mattingly took the ball from Howell and called in a new reliever. Plenty of fans in earshot shouted expletives at the Dodger skipper, incredulous that Mattingly could possibly throw away another game by mismanaging the bullpen. On Friday, he obviously called the bullpen too late, and on Saturday, he obviously called it too early.

By Game 3 of the series, the postgame commentary had reached a much more rational conclusion. Mattingly wasn’t mismanaging the bullpen, the Dodger bullpen was simply underperforming. After surrendering a two-run home run in the eighth inning to Kolten Wong, the Dodgers bullpen had an ERA of over 8.50 in three games, more than double the 3.80 ERA the team had in the regular season. No matter what he did, Mattingly couldn’t rely on anyone other than his starters, and even his best starter, who was so dominant all season, was underperforming. As SB Nation’s Steven Goldman said so perfectly in a headline, “Maybe God hates Don Mattingly, but you don’t have to.”

So with that in mind, I’m going to respectfully disagree with some of the assessments made by fellow Daily Trojan sports columnists Jake Davidson and Euno Lee. I’ll play the devil’s advocate in this case. And by devil’s advocate, I actually do mean the Sun Devils’ advocate, because I think Saturday has much more to do with Arizona State playing really well than USC defensive coordinator Justin Wilcox making mistakes.

It’s been five games. The USC defense has looked really good in three of them and really bad in two of them  — OK, maybe Fresno State’s lackluster offense diminishes some of the value of the season opener, but big performances against Stanford and Oregon State should be weighed just as heavily as disappointing performances against BC and Arizona State.

As both Jake and Euno discussed, Wilcox’s defense is a relatively conservative “bend, don’t break” scheme without a ton of pass rushing. It’s very different from former dominating USC defenses that lived and died by pressure and forcing turnovers. Though it may not be as exciting to watch, I don’t think this scheme is inherently flawed.

Physically and aggressively overpowering teams is very hard with sanction-limited depth. Though sitting back in coverage might mean getting picked apart by a red-hot opposing QB, as we saw with ASU’s Mike Bercovici, calling a bunch of blitzes might not even get penetration with the injuries ’SC has suffered on defense.

And yes, the last-second Hail Mary was brutal, but I still wouldn’t necessarily put that on the coaching staff. You can practice that play over and over again, but no environment will ever be able to simulate the mental pressure and chaos of the final play of a game. Ever been explained something in a lecture then forget to put in your essay during a two-hour midterm? (I don’t have a 4.0, either). Likewise, no amount of regular season experience can prepare an All-Star pitcher for the pressure of a playoff atmosphere. I can’t sit here and say I expect any athlete to be immune to this pressure when I can’t even passively watch the action without getting really nervous.

Ultimately, in competition, your opponent’s performance has just as big of an impact on the results as yours. Sure, there are always problems to fix and improvements to make, but there isn’t necessarily a problem with a process because of its result. USC doesn’t need to fire Wilcox after the loss; we just all have to applaud the Sun Devils. Similarly, the Dodgers don’t need to trade Kershaw and fire Mattingly; they just need to tip their caps to the high-flying Cardinals.

 

Luke Holthouse is a sophomore majoring in broadcast and digital journalism and policy, planning and development. His column, “Holthouse Party,” runs Wednesdays.