Oh How The Mighty Have Fallen

After 34 consecutive games, The Southern Cal Trojans finally lost a game, and I'm a SO HAPPY ABOUT IT! I cannot express how badly I wanted Texas to beat USC. I saw a graphic on the pregame show that was kind of a no pun intended graphic of which states favored Texas, and Which ones favored USC. And the (hopefully) unintended pun was that Texas states were red, and USC states were blue. And if it weren't enough to do that, the map was just about the same appearance of the Red and Blue election maps of late 2000, and 2004. Now that I think of it, USC was doomed from the start because ABC called Florida for USC long before the game started.

Now I will say, I was expecting a blow-out, and it would have happened if the Texas backs had learned how to hold onto the ball! They coughed the ball up 4 times but fortunately only one was turned over. After that the sure handed Young pretty well took over the game, racking up a total of 467 combined passing and rushing yards, and 3 scores.

I would have liked to see the game a blow-out also to shut up the people who are going to complain about the missed review of Young's lateral for a touchdown, instead of being stopped at the 12 yard line. However there was an equally important play that could have turned the tides of the game as well that wasn't reviewed. It was the missed interception of Matt Leinart where the Texas defender jumped up, caught the ball with possession, and fell to the ground. When his back hit the ground, the ball fell out, which by NCAA rules, is considered a complete pass. The announcers called it as an interception, but the play went unreviewed. That call eventually turned into USC's only Field Goal of the game.

And one last thing. The only holding call I saw was on either a kick off or a punt return. Has anyone ever seen a game where there wasn't a single call of holding on either team's offensive line? Seems fishy to me, because I saw USC doing a LOT of bear hugging.