Oregon ruins Oregon State's Rose Bowl hopes; Oklahoma, USC roll
A few points about Saturday evening:
Who in the heck does PSU get in the Rose Bowl? It had to be Oregon State, didn't it? This website pointed out that Mike Riley's decision to bench Jacquizz Rodgers—while right—may give Oregon the upper hand in the Civil War.
Oregon State only put up 89 yards rushing in a 65-38 loss. True, that they had to get to their passing game going rather quickly after going down 20-7 early on in the second quarter, but Oregon's offensive backfield stole the show. Step up, Jeremiah Johnson, who ran for over 200 yards—including an 83-yarder—and a touchdown.
USC 38, Notre Dame 3: USC embarassment that they only put up 38 points against a dreadful Irish team or a cue for Fat Charlie the Archangel to file for divorce and get out of the Graceland that is South Bend?
ESPN's Lee Corso and Kirk Herbstreit say that there's no way that he'll get fired. Nor do I —Weis' payout is simply too big. That's the only thing that's saving him.
Mark Sanchez and Jimmy Clausen remained even in the interception stakes, throwing up two each. Ouch.
USC may well sneak themselves into a bigger BCS bowl—particularly if the rumours that the Trojan players have been grousing about Tournament of Roses on New Year's Day are true. For me, I'd love Texas or Alabama. But there we go.
In other rivalry games, Oklahoma drilled Oklahoma State 61-41 in a game that a LOT CLOSER than the scoreline suggests. I know it's a well-worn cliche, but this thing was pretty darned tight until ten minutes to go in the fourth quarter, when Oklahoma's running game—which had been stifled until then—took over and O-State's 'D' became tired.
So who should go to the Big XII Championship Game? I'll go for Texas over Oklahoma—simply because Texas beat OU by 10 on a neutral field. Lee Corso put it like this—check out what he has to say:
