5 Thoughts for October 18, 2015 (60% about football)

1. USC looked good against Notre Dame, before they looked bad, before they looked good again, before they looked bad again and lost. This team has tremendous talent, but simply cannot sustain a high level of concentration and performance through an entire game against a tough opponent. This we know: USC's players and staff, no matter what they say, can neither conduct a 2-minute offense nor do they have a sense of urgency to pick up their level of output.
2. USC opened as a 3-point favorite against Utah, at the Coliseum this upcoming weekend. How'd that happen? Utah is 6-0 while USC is 3-3. Utah is consistently tough, while USC isn't. If USC loses and drops to 3-4, it'll be the worst in-season record since 2001, when USC started off 2-5.
3. Seattle Seahawks won't make the playoffs this year unless they win out. It's obvious now, that like USC, they might have talent all around, but there's a mental toughness missing. The difference is a razor thin edge: Last year their offense was able to overcome lulls in games, to come back to win in the fourth quarter; this year they can't figure out how to do it.
4. It used to be that if you bought something from Woot.com, it'd take a few weeks before they shipped it out to you; my last order was split into two, and both were sent off within 2 days. That's a good sign, and something I think most people expected would eventually happen, when Amazon bought out Woot. Now, if they'd simply get rid of the $5 shipping for orders above $35.
5. The Benghazi investigation -- what is the point of it? Was it supposed to see if anyone committed errors that led to 4 American deaths, or is it a political witchhunt? I believe it is the latter, following the admission of two Republicans in the House. But the real kicker is that the man leading the 7th investigation into the matter, Representative Trey Gowdy, told the media that it was an impartial investigation, while at the same time, it turns out he leaked information that was both partisan and patently false. And this wasn't even on the topic of Benghazi. Perhaps this is the reason why Hillary Clinton received a boost in her poll numbers, just a week after a top House Republican admitted that the investigation was partisan, and just before the first Democratic presidential debate.