JEREMIAH BRINGS JOY TO THE WORLD: SC CROAKS

Oregon QB Jeremiah Masoli may not be a Bullfrog, but he licks sc, ending the trojans’ hallucinations of a BCS Title, 47-20

The Ducks won’t be the ONLY team leapfrogging usc in the rankings this week.

With a completely convincing, 27-point THRASING of usc by the #10 Oregon Ducks, the usc trojans are once again eliminated from BCS Title consideration.  Despite their band of merry mercenaries and miscreants being fired up to win one more for Stafon, and despite Pete Carroll’s reputation for winning big games, the trojans got blown away in this one.

It was 17-17 late in the 2nd Quarter, as neither team could really stop the other one.  But the Ducks’ D finally started to assert itself, while Masoli and his Tailback LaMichael James kept gaining big chunks of yards.  sc’s Defense remained confused by Masoli’s running and by his misdirection, and the Ducks just kept on scoring, finishing the game on a 30-3 tear.

With the trojans falling behind, they had to abandon their successful running game, and when the Oregon D knew that trojan QB Matt Barkley had to pass, they were able to shut him down.  Barkley showed a lot of talent, the loss was not his fault, and he is markedly better than his counterparts across town.  However, he still missed a whole bunch of targets as the game wound down, one of his TD’s was on a pass way BEHIND the Receiver, and most importantly, Barkley has DAYS and DAYS to throw the Football.  It is just amazing for a Bruin fan to watch and see all the time Barkley has, and how well the pocket stays intact.

But when things started to crumble, the Feshman did lose his composure, failing to keep the trojans alive.  Ask any trojan:  This season is now to be considered a failure.   That being said, they should be favored over UCLA by about 40 points.

The Bruins lost thier 5th straight game on Saturday to fall to 0-5 in the Pac-10.  But considering the manner in which they lost, they are no doubt NOT suffering as much as the trojans are right now.  While the trojans just choked away a shot at the National Championship, by basically quitting on Carroll in the Duck-dominated 4th Quarter, especially Pom Pom’s beloved (and vaunted) Defense, UCLA valiantly fought back from a 16-point 4th Quarter deficit at Oregon State to tie the game up with two stunning TD drives/passes AND two 2-point conversion passes before falling 26-19.  There are NO moral victories, but there ARE varying degrees of pain that go with a loss, and the trojans definitely had a longer, more depressing, flight home.

The brief flash of Bruin brilliance starred Kevin Prince, but was really made possible by the Wide Receivers.  Nelson Rosario shook off a season-long case of The Drops to come up with the Catch of the Season, on the leaping, one-handed grab of the 58-yard TD that cut the lead in half (after his conversion catch).  Taylor Embree was also like a new man on Saturday, making Prince look good several times, and catching the TD pass that tied the game with 2 minutes to go.

But the Beavers were just too hard to stop, and they were able to drive down the field and take the lead back.  The Bruins had 44 seconds to try to come back one more time, but Prince got hit on the last-gasp pass that fell short of the goal-line.

Still, the Bruins must be pleased that they didn’t fold, and that they found a way — finally — to complete a couple of passes in the end zone, with the game still hanging in the balance.  Even though Prince fumbled AGAIN (so did Richard Brehaut in his one series), and even though the Bruins didn’t score a TD until the 4th, and even though they lost AGAIN, I STILL think that Prince is the right choice to lead this team, and has been all along.

Now, here are 17 more photos of the vaunted UCLA Dance Team, who is second-to-none.  The Oregon Girls may get more pub, and they may have more money, and they definitely root for a better team, but the Bruins are still the ones who bring Joy to my World.

REMINDER:  The photos ENLARGE if you click on them, and if you just roll your mouse over them, you’ll see a pop-up caption… today, with regards to the stats and box scores of Saturday’s sc and UCLA games.