USC-Oregon: My Observations on the Game

This past weekend I flew down to LA to watch my Ducks play for the first time in the Coliseum. I wasn't sure to expect, but I knew there would be a lot of USC fans there.

Here are some of my opinions about how the game went and how the game day atmosphere stacks up to the competition.

The problems I have with the Coliseum

The visitor section is in the worst section possible in the stadium. You are in the top deck, in the corner of the stadium and you can't see the scoreboard.

The stadium was really quiet for 90,000-plus people (I understand the game wasn't close until the second quarter, but the first quarter wasn't much better). I think one section of Autzen is louder than the whole stadium.

I was hoping to get in a few spirited debates with fans and was ready with facts I didn't think any USC fan could counter. I only received a few stupid comments (A few quacks and a few incoherent mumbles in my direction).

For some reason the gong sound before every third-down play for the USC defense really bothered me. You know your fans don't know about football when you need a bell to tell you to start yelling.

The things I liked about the Coliseum

I really enjoyed the pre-game tailgating. Not much is cooler than thousands of people drinking and eating on the actual campus. I am not a tailgating veteran, but that was one of the better locations for tailgating.

The ladies. Really not much else to say about that.

Observations from the Game

I am not going to focus much on USC, mostly because they did a pretty good job beating up the Ducks, a team I thought could compete with them.

My biggest problem with Oregon's performance was with USC dominating them on both the offensive and defensive line. Oregon's run game was horrible, as well as Masoli was constantly on the run from the USC defense.

The Oregon defensive line couldn't get pressure all game and let Mark Sanchez throw the ball downfield with ease.

As many other people on the message boards already pointed out, play action was killer. It was the same bootleg play action that the Ducks defense could not figure out. I remember seeing it a couple times in a row.

The last thing was turnovers. USC had a costly turnover that led to three points, while Oregon's turnover led to the back-breaking seven points right before half.

These are the main things I remember from the game. What did I miss? Think my observations were wrong? Give me some comments.