USC-OREGON: In Defense of Pete Carroll's Defense

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The USC defense has been getting clobbered lately. No, not by Jimmy Clausen and Notre Dame, or Sean Canfield and Oregon State.

But by the Los Angeles media as well as the ever-wise college football commentators on ESPN. The E stands for The Eternal as in the See-All and Know-All Sports Network.

I have openly criticized Coach Carroll in a few of my articles. Nevertheless, I’m often surprised that many writers and commentators don’t look at the whole picture. They need to fire off a story to make a deadline and just take the first thing that comes to mind.

Both the Los Angeles Times and the Los Angeles Daily News carried articles today, critical of Pete Carroll’s handling of the USC defense. ESPN has also been quick to point out the defensive collapse the last two games.

Oh, really?  And what would they have Carroll do?  

Jump onto the field and make a picture perfect shoulder tackle of an opposing ball carrier before he reaches the first down marker?

There is no problem with Pete Carroll’s defense.  

The USC defense that allowed only 8.6 points, 173.8 passing yards, and 64.8 rushing yards per game over the first five games has now given up 31.5 points, 307 passing yards and 117.5 rushing yards per game over the past two games.

Is Carroll to blame?  Of course, he will accept the blame like any decent coach rather than let it fall on his players. But execution is not something a coach can always control.

Neither are injuries and fatigue.

Prior to the opening game, I wrote that I expected USC to drop at least two if not three games this year. One of the things I based that on was Shareece Wright being declared academically ineligible. I thought at the time it would have huge implications further down the line.

First of all, it caused Josh Pinkard to move over from safety to cornerback, and the nickel back, Will Harris, moved into Pinkard’s safety spot. Brian Baucham then became the nickel back.

But as the season progressed, Taylor Mays went down with a sprained knee. Then Brian Baucham dumped his motorcycle on the 110 Freeway. Taylor Mays’ backup, Drew McAllister suffered a severe hip flexor. Pinkard got banged up as well when Taylor Mays crashed into him on a sideline play in the opener.

Remember that the defensive backfield during fall camp was considered USC’s deepest group. The defensive line and the linebackers had been decimated by the NFL Draft, and all of last year’s reserves had to step up and fill the starting spots.

Then one by one linemen started going down—Averell Spicer, Armand Armstead. No sooner did one or two of them come back than two more went down—Hebron Fangupo, Christian Tupou.

The same thing happened with the very thin linebacking corps. Malcolm Smith went down with an ankle sprain as did backup Jordan Campbell.

Do you get the picture?

Sure, the defense was fine in the first five games against teams that did not have explosive offenses. All the guys who had stepped up were able to go four full quarters as long as they were getting a lot of three-and-outs and the USC offense established ball-control drives.

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