Football Thoughts, September 7, 2014

On Seattle Seahawks' win against Green Bay:

1. Seattle's offense looked sharp in the first game of the NFL season.  The offense's big three -- Wilson, Beast Mode and Harvin -- make it so difficult to play against Seattle.
2. Take for instance, the read-option pass, used just once against GB. The defense had to deal with Beast Mode going in one direction, Wilson in the opposite, and Harvin 10 yards down field.  It's going to drive defenses crazy.
3. I don't care what Green Bay's coach says, Rodgers deliberately avoided Richard Sherman.  It was so obvious to everyone watching the game.  Some call it "playing scared", while others call it "playing safe".
4. The D-line didn't get sacks.  Well, they say Rodgers was sacked, but he really wasn't.  He ran to the sideline and stepped out right at the line of scrimmage.  But the D-line stopped the run, with Eddy Lacy averaging just 2.8 yards per carry, and GB with a total of 80 yards on the ground.  The D-line isn't quite like last year's, but it might be good enough to get them to the SB.
5. GB was completely dominated end to end, but that Seattle's defense was able to make the stops when it needed to -- bend, don't break.  Last year, the defense was about total domination, and it may yet grow into a completely dominating force, 
6. The folks at -- yawn -- ESPN Stats like to drum up numbers to drive whatever narrative they feel is the bigger picture.  To wit: the rarity of SB champions winning their first game of the following season.  Here's what they missed: It's Pete Carroll's system that produces wins.  Just one year after his first season at USC, the Trojans became a mainstay in the top 5 for six out of seven years (2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2008).

On USC Trojans' win against Stanford:

1. USC beat Fresno State last week with pure offensive firepower on the ground and in the air, while its secondary held strong and stopped the Bulldogs from converting 3rd downs.  This week, USC beat Stanford at its own game by pounding it out on the ground and stopping Stanford with an incredible red-zone defense and downright toughness.  When it mattered most, the USC defense held, including a 4th and 1 on the USC 4.
2. USC brought just 53 players to Palo Alto (a direct consequence of the sanctions); 44 of them played in the game.  USC's got a pro team, it seems.
3. USC just broke Stanford's 17-game home winning streak (the longest active streak), and have now beaten Stanford two years in a row, on the leg of Andre Heidari, with minutes left in the game (and again, followed by an incredible defensive stop).  Heidari's 53 yard field goal was the longest in his collegiate career -- every USC fan who's seen Heidari's struggles the last two years would not have believed that he would find himself in Stanford's stadium kicking his longest field goal.  He is now legend.
4. How do you define toughness?  Leonard Williams, having rolled his ankle four days earlier and looking gimpy in pregame warmups, played through and tied for most tackles in the game, with 11 (8 solo) total tackles including one for a loss of three yards and a sack.  I think he ensured a trip to the NFL draft.
5. This win was huge -- the last time a team beat Stanford at home was 2011, when Oregon whipped the Cardinals 53-30, which also marked the last time Stanford got beat by a team (Oregon), two years consecutively.  I guess what I'm trying to say, is that I think Oregon and USC will meet in the PAC-12 Championship, as bookends to Stanford's micro dominance in the PAC-12.  But wait, what if USC ends up in the playoffs facing...Alabama and Lane Kiffin?  Ha!
6. I wasn't going to write about this, but then ESPN's Jay Bilas posted a really dumb tweet following two asinine posts from ESPN's Heather Dinich.  They were upset that USC AD Pat Haden, upon text request by Sark, came down from the box onto the field during a time out and spoke to officials about a sideline infraction call against Sark -- what is supposedly against an NCAA rule.  Dinich wrote that Haden, "should’ve been the one flagged in Saturday’s game".  Mind you, in another article she directly quoted the NCAA's officiating coordinator who said that there was, "no penalty for breaking the rule," and that the rule was more of an "administration management thing".  If that wasn't bad enough, she then speculated that Haden's actions reflected potential bias in which he would likely vote against Stanford to make the playoffs, were the Cardinals in position to make the playoffs.  Of course, this is a silly assertion because voting against Stanford would mean less money for USC under the conference's revenue sharing system and less prestige for the conference.  In other words, Dinich managed to get the bias argument backwards.  On top of that, Lou Holtz is commenting on the actions of USC's AD?  ESPN just loves to manufacture drama, doesn't it?  The manure is so deep on this one, Dinich and company should open up a fertilizer side-business.  Hey, there is a bright side to it all: Haden showed that his heart is perfectly fine.

On Oregon Ducks' win against Michigan State:

1. I could practically hear the groaning from Oregon fans in the second quarter, concerned that a physical team -- yet again -- was starting to take over the Ducks and stop them.  Good thing the offense exploded in the second half, huh?
2. So, has Oregon put to bed the talk that it can't win against physical teams?  I think so, and this seems like a signal that Oregon will beat Stanford this year.
3. If Oregon had lost, they still could have made it into the playoff if the only loss was to MSU, because MSU is a high quality non-conference opponent and Oregon started the season near the top of the polls -- meaning that they would have had the room and time to recover.  With the convincing win, they're one step closer to making the playoffs and are looking solid...at least for the PAC-12 championship.
4. I was surprised that officials did not eject the Spartan player for targeting Mariota's head on that late hit.  I'm surprised no one called the officials on their miss.  Oh wait, this is the PAC-12.
5. 318 passing yards with 3 touchdowns and 47 yards running.  The way Mariota performed against a top quality opponent, I think he should leapfrog Jameis Winston to the top of the Heisman list for the week.
6. Guess what?  No one was distracted by the Colt Lyerla story.  Other than creating paperwork for Oregon, what exactly was the point of Lyerla coming out with the story of a booster who failed to follow through with payouts, then refusing to out the booster?  I can believe some of the story -- that he really wanted to go to USC -- but the way I read it, his family got suckered by a self-interested con man, who, in no way represented UO.  To top it all off, Lyerla just got arrested for DUI.