USC Gets Revenge

One word describes USC’s 45-23 victory over Stanford: Revenge. It was only one year ago when the Stanford Cardinal came to the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum as a 41 point underdog and destroyed the USC Trojans national championship dreams by beating the Trojans 24-23.

USC fans had to have been at the edge of their seats after the first half. The scoreboard read 17-17, meaning the blowout the Trojans fans were hoping for was looking more like a nail biter.

It was probably one of the worst halves of football the Trojans have played so far this year. The defense gave up over 200 yards and the offense couldn’t seem to be able to get anything going. Luckily, the special teams for the Trojans came to play. Ronald Johnson had a stellar kick return for 75 yards to set up a 37-yard field goal by David Buehler (Buehler is still not given enough credit for how much he has contributed to the Trojans this year). C.J. Gable also had a nice touchdown off a kick return. He displayed some of his great speed on that return, going virtually untouched for the score.

Pete Carroll must have said something during halftime in his speech that sparked a fire under the Trojans, because they came out looking like a completely different team in the second half. They had over 300 yards of offense in the second half, and only gave up 160 yards on defense.

Give credit to Stafon Johnson and the rest of the tailbacks, because they led the way in the second half. Johnson ended the game with 115 yards rushing and 2 touchdowns, while his partners in crime, C.J. Gable and Joe McKnight, combined for 157 yards and 1 touchdown.

Overall, it was two different teams that stepped onto the field in Palo Alto, California on Saturday evening. The first team was one that stooped down to the level of the Stanford Cardinal, while the second was the one that deserves to be ranked #6 in the BCS standings.

The Trojans now get a week off to rest and get healthy. Next on tap for the Trojans is Notre Dame. The Fighting Irish visit the Coliseum on Nov. 29 and then the Trojans will head to Pasadena to face the UCLA Bruins on Dec. 6th, in what could be the first of two games in a row that the Trojans will play in Pasadena. Only time will tell what the future of this Trojans team will be, but after this week, Trojans fans will be rooting for the team that played the 2nd half against the Stanford Cardinal.

Fight on!