Tag Archive for: one-two punch

USC comes full circle in Arizona win


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It took almost 14 months to the day for USC to extract revenge from one of the four opponents it lost to last season. For the Trojans, that moment couldn’t come soon enough. As sophomore quarterback Matt Barkley knelt the ball to expire the clock and secure a 24-21 advantage over Arizona late in the […]

Trojans’ issue is cohesion, not ability


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Preparation can only go so far. Teams can only condition, practice and rest up so much before hitting a wall, and any additional time to focus on an upcoming opponent has marginal benefit. At that point, out of all the things that are worked on in practice, only one factor remains in deciding the outcome […]

Bye week came at perfect moment


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This has been a rough year for USC football. Sure, the Trojans are 5-2 and just decimated a Cal team that, until two weeks ago, looked like decent competition in the Pac-10. But don’t be fooled. The temporary happiness that USC is currently experiencing only masks the lingering damage that it withstood to get to […]

Rout of Cal shows USC is not irrelevant


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Prior to Saturday’s game, the month of October had not been kind to the Trojans’ status in the collegiate football world. Between two heartbreaking field goals, a plethora of missed opportunities and all of the lost hype, the Trojans found themselves tied for seventh place in the Pac-10 and sitting on the national media’s back […]

Defensive inefficiencies doom Trojans


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Defense wins games. So is it any surprise that USC lost 32-31 Saturday against the pesky Huskies? The Trojan defense looked utterly anemic this weekend, as Washington quarterback Jake Locker led an offensive charge that picked apart and read USC like a science class dissection lab. Locker threw for 310 yards and a touchdown on […]

Havili leading Trojans with experience


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If you were listening really hard, you might have been able to hear a collective groan ring throughout Los Angeles on Saturday as Washington State scored the first touchdown of the game against USC. It was as if Trojan fans knew exactly what they were in for over the next three hours — inconsistent USC […]

Bradford once again proving his worth


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It was a classic sports metaphor unfolding right before my eyes: Senior tailback Allen Bradford, sitting at third on the USC depth chart, gets his number called from the sideline during the Trojans’ game in Minnesota Saturday. Until recently, this wasn’t a rare occurrence for Bradford, who helped lead USC with 668 yards and eight […]

In light of early obstacles, any win will do


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As sophomore quarterback Matt Barkley got up to leave his seat at the press conference after USC’s closer-than-you’d-like 17-14 win over Virginia Saturday night, he muttered in a hushed voice, almost out of range of the microphone, “A win is a win.” The tone of the statement coming out of the young leader’s mouth appeared […]