USC postgame « Cliff Kirkpatrick

category: OSU Sports

USC postgame 83CommentsUSC+postgame2007-11-04+06%3A28%3A42Cliff+Kirkpatrick

LOS ANGELES – This was a game where the Oregon State football team just couldn’t fill the hole vacated by RB Yvenson Bernard. The main story in the GT’s Sunday edition has OG Roy Schuening taking the blame in the loss to USC because a poor offensive line performance.

He’s right, but the lack of a running game started the problems. The Trojans didn’t respect the run, went after QB Sean Canfield and sacked him nine times.

Bernard would have helped the run game and picked up some of those pass rushers.

“When you look at it overall, they are very good and won some one-on-one battles,” coach Mike Riley said of USC. “I look at (the breakdowns) at different spots. We’ve taken some hits and we are playing a lot different people in the offensive line. They are battling like crazy, but it makes it hard to have continuity. We got baptized in a lot of ways tonight. Those guys will learn from it. Once we get past it, it will be good for them to play against those players. It was not pretty. It was hard to do anything on that team. We just have to regroup and get ready for next week.

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The injury report goes like this: Bernard (shoulder) and OG Jeremy Perry (leg) sat out the game. CB Keenan Lewis (knee) returned. CB Tim Clark (back), WR Shane Morales (knee), DE Dorian Smith (knee), DT Gerard Lee (hamstring), RB Matt Sieverson (stinger) left in the second half. Updates to come Sunday night.

QB Sean Canfield didn’t finish the game. He was hit hard in the head and left shoulder on his 18-yard scramble in the fourth quarter. He is said to be OK after the game.

- Cliff

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83CommentsUSC+postgame2007-11-04+06%3A28%3A42Cliff+Kirkpatrick

Robert says:

November 4, 2007 at 10:22 am

Cliff,

The O-line was so bad against SC that having Bernard wouldn’t have made a difference in my opinion. Canfield looked awful; I’m hoping that the cause of this was the fact that the second he looked up he had two defenders in his grill, and not that he still doesn’t know what he is doing. However, there were times where he had all the time in the world and ended up giving up a coverage sack. All I could do was scream at the tube DO SOMETHING WITH THE BALL! Scramble and throw it away!

As bad as the O-line was, the receiving corps grades out with an F. Somebody call Riley and let him know that OSU’s receivers must have missed the flight to LA and somebody needs to look for them when the team gets back to Corvallis. Poor guys must be lost and scared.

Kidding aside, the Huskies and Cougs have the ability to put points on the board and if we cannot get better offensive production from out QB (i.e. more than 120 yards in the air) we could easily loose both those games. Forget the Duck game, the quacks are scary good this year.

Cliff, so what the status of Bernard and the others for the Husky game. Are they going to play (100%) or are they going to be hobbled through the game? What is your opinion on Canfield and the receivers development to this point?

One last question: Other teams seem to have young players that can step right out of “the box” and play. I credit this to a different level of talent. Is the key to getting these players the recruiting budget? I’ve got to think that facility wise OSU is sitting relatively pretty. So is the solution to our ups and downs simply a matter of spending more on recruiting? Am I oversimplifying things?

Thanks,
Rob

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Bob says:

November 4, 2007 at 11:48 am

At least they have cut down the number of interseptions but now they are converted in to sacks. Next step is to learn to throw the ball away with out the interseption if the receivers are covered. Bob

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Robert says:

November 4, 2007 at 12:58 pm

Hey Bob,

I got an idea. Just before the game all the Beaver QB’s look at themselves in the mirror then just throw the damn ball to the same $#!@ color!

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GilesB says:

November 4, 2007 at 4:21 pm

Anybody who understands squat about football understands exactly what Cliff said – USC did not respect our run, and because they didn’t (and because we didn’t prove them wrong – even though we averaged more than 4 yards per carry), they simply forgot about the run and pressured Canfield mercilessly.

Sure, the O-line looked awful, but there was a reason they looked awful – that reason was Yvenson’s absence and the inexplicable lack of confidence in Sieverson.

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Robert says:

November 4, 2007 at 6:14 pm

GilesB, I understand what your saying, but teams not respecting one or another aspect of a team’s ability is part of the game. If they don’t respect the run then surprise them with an effective ground game (you mean Bernard is the only capable back we have?) and if you can’t run then you had better be able to pass protect and get the ball down the field. Simple as that.

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GilesB says:

November 4, 2007 at 7:19 pm

Robert, do you understand the phrase “inexplicable lack of confidence in Sieverson”?

My point was to refute your assertion that the O-line was so bad they couldn’t run the ball either…you are wrong, we ran the ball fairly effectively, we just didn’t stay with it enough, for some unknown reason.

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Robert says:

November 4, 2007 at 7:25 pm

Giles, Sieverson was injured in the second half. And I beg to differ, we did nothing fairly effectively.

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admin says:

November 4, 2007 at 9:55 pm

Rob,
Yvenson Bernard should be able to play, coach Mike Riley told me Sunday night. All the injured guys are OK, with the exception of QB Sean Canfield and DE Dorian Smith. See my latest post (Sunday night) or ready Monday’s regular GT site.

My thoughts of Canfield and the recievers: Canfield was coming along steadily. I thought he would be farther along, being in the system for so long. I covered him in high school and thought he was going to be a good one. The WRs, are not doing that great. The young guys are doing fine for young guys. Anthony Brown, Brandon Powers and Chris Johnson should do more.

As for the young players who are ready to play right away, they are usually the better athletes. And to get them, you have to move OSU to Portland. We go over this all the time on this blog, but I believe that Corvallis is the middle of nowhere for 4-star and 5-star guys. And those guys mostly come from big cities.

Recruiting is doing fine for what OSU is. (OK, here comes the hate posts.) But Brooks Hatch put it right at some point. He said something like if OSU played in a league with 35-year-old fathers it would win the national title every year.

- Cliff

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GilesB says:

November 4, 2007 at 11:42 pm

Over 4 yards per running play is pretty effective.

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matt says:

November 5, 2007 at 5:42 am

Giles, what was the ypc average when you throw out Rodgers big run to start the game? Sometimes stats can be a little misleading.

OSU’s offense looked slow, compared to USC’s defense. You can’t pin the O-line’s performance on Bernard not playing…that simply doesn’t make any sense. They blocked ok last year without Bernard playing.

If you need another source to back up Robert’s point just read big Roy’s comments about the O-line play. Even he said they played terrible.

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mike says:

November 5, 2007 at 9:46 am

In college football, coaching matters. WSU under Mike Price went to the Rose Bowl, while USC (until Pete Carroll) and UCLA floundered. UW recruits 4 and 5 stars, want to look at their record?

ASU was mediocre until DE arrived-I will grant you the circumstances favored him, but the man can coach college ball.

Ever been to Oklahoma? Think college kids would like Corvallis compared to the pit that is Soonerville?

Quit making excuses. Coaching matters. And frankly, exept for Hass, our receivers have stank since DE left. Coaching or recruiting needs to be fixed.

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mike says:

November 5, 2007 at 9:49 am

PS Give the ball to Rodgers. Screen passes, hand offs, kick off returns, I don’t care if you make him quarterback, the kid has amazing talent.

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Eric says:

November 5, 2007 at 11:08 am

Mike… Stroughter? Think before you blow off. UW is in Seattle, the largest City in the Northwest.

We have come a long ways and I think we have a ways to go, but everything we do is twice as hard as schools/cities with more people, money and history of winning.

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Matt Bixby says:

November 5, 2007 at 12:18 pm

With respect to “All Hail” Dennis Erickson, let’s talk about his marquee receiver recruits:

Chad Johnson – one-year wonder who left a tremendous impact (but never attended a class)
TJ Houshmandzadeh – originally a Riley recruit (DE can’t take credit)
James Newson – a Mike Riley recruit
Josh Hawkins – four-star out of Long Beach Poly (played as a true freshman – didn’t pan out to be anything special)
George Gillette – occasional production, but nothing out-of-the-ordinary.
Kenny Farley – blocked a few kicks, made one big play vs ASU in ‘93, then flunked out
Cole Clasen – a DE walk-on who was a pretty good punt returner
Jayson Boyd – a promising freshman showing moments of electricity turned OSU drop out
Seth Trimmer – can’t remember if he was recruited by MR or DE, but he was never anything other than all-academic, if memory serves
Mike Hass – the one actual long-term stud WR DE can take credit for (and he was a walk-on)

That’s the list, Mike. Who did Dennis Erickson recruit that impressed you so much in his receiver class?

I firmly believe Dennis Erickson is a great one-to-two year coach, but so many of his recruits are risky (from an academic or commitment standpoint) that his teams are not developed for the long-haul. ASU will be special next year, too, but I bet you 100 bucks that he’s sunk to mediocrity by 2009 and 2010.

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Jeremy says:

November 5, 2007 at 3:13 pm

Matt-

I’ll be the first to admit that I think DE was/is a better coach than Riley both in the short and long-term. However, That is in the past and DE is not coming back and we are going to have to live with Riley in the present. Let me say that I don’t think Riley is a bad coach, I just don’t see him as a great coach. There are a multitude of reasons but I’ll just present a few.

1. We rarely lose by a narrow margin. All four losses this year have been blowouts (I’m including the ASU game). 4 blowout losses are too many in 3 years let alone in 1 season (and there will be one more when we play the Ducks). This is not a trend successful coaches/programs often display.

2. Lack of depth at critical positions. I hate the ducks but I have to hand it to them this year as they have been able to overcome injuries because of good depth. We on the other hand are seeing our season unravel because we have a lack of depth at WR, RB, QB. I have to trace this back to poor performance in recruiting.

3. QB development. I hate to even bring this up because it seems as is it has been beat to death but it is a very real issue. It’s not good enough to have your starting QB in the program almost 3 years (he left high school early) and still be perforoming at this level.

These are just a few of the issues I have with Riley. You can dismiss me as an “All Hail” Dennis Erickson guy but it’s not going to change the issues.

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