USC Trojans Hope Luck Is Not-So-Good

Don’t wish the Trojans good luck on Saturday.  If anything wish them not-so-good Luck.

You know the old saying: "You make your own luck.”

The Trojans certainly need to contain their Luck when they face the Stanford Cardinal in Palo Alto on Saturday.

That means the Trojan front four needs to stay in their lanes and make Andrew Luck, right now the No. 1 NFL quarterback prospect in the country, one dimensional.

The defensive ends and outside linebackers cannot afford to allow Luck to get around them the way Jake Locker did at the Coliseum last Saturday.

Luck is just too good.  The redshirt sophomore is a much better passer than Locker, who missed wide open receivers on at least four different occasions.

But Luck is deadly accurate, even on the run.  That’s what will make Saturday’s task for Monte Kiffin’s linebackers so difficult.  They will need to contain Luck but also defend against the pass.

Last year against the Trojans, Stanford was 8-of-11 on third downs.  Most of that came on the legs of Heisman candidate, Toby Gerhart.

But this year, the Cardinal are Number Two in the nation on third-down conversions, and that has mostly been due to the skills of Andrew Luck.

If there is one statistic that Monte Kiffin’s defense must alter on Saturday, it is the fact that Luck has only thrown two interceptions all year.  The Trojans can seriously pad that statistic with a smothering defense.

I know for the Trojans “smothering defense” has been an oxymoron so far this season.  But this Saturday, it must be the only defense that the Trojans employ.

Jim Harbaugh’s Cardinal are expecting the usual Tampa Cover 2.  But Monte Kiffin needs to change things up.  If the Cardinal’s Luck is not to be so good, then Kiffin needs to disguise coverages and mix up the defensive sets at the line of scrimmage.

Confusion is the key, and uncertainty is the goal.  Luck can never be sure of what coverage the Trojans are in.  Kiffin’s blitz packages need to keep the Cardinal quarterback back guessing.

Earlier in the season, many thought this would be a revenge game for the 55-point barrage that Harbaugh and the Cardinal heaped on USC last year.

But the Trojan’s defense has fallen on such hard times that no one in the media is labeling this a “revenge” game.  If anything, the pundits are calling it a “bounce back” game for Stanford after their 51-31 defeat at Oregon last week.

Well, let’s hope Monte Kiffin’s defense can oblige the pundits and bounce the Cardinal so far back in the polls that they drop out of the rankings.

Now wouldn’t that be sweet revenge?