Did anyone else notice that Pete Carroll and USC's defensive coordinator did a terrible job of continually pressuring Young?

With a quarterback as outstanding as Young is, you have to apply consistent pressure to beat him. That means lining up five defenders on the defensive line or blitzing.

Whenever USC did this last night, they were almost always successful. Young threw incompletions after hurried throws, was forced to dump it off to running backs for short gains or was made to scramble haphazardly for equally short yardage.

The problem however, was that USC's defense was only allowed to apply pressure in this way, on every 4th or 5th play or so, not on every down. I am flabbergasted that Pete Carroll and the defensive coordinator would make such a huge blunder at this level of play, but there it is.

Putting up only four lineman and falling back with their linebackers, safeties and cornerbacks, as USC did for most of the night, merely allowed Young the time to pick apart 'SC's secondary, or when his receivers were covered, to choose a running lane and go for big yards.

By the time USC's defenders got to Young in these running lanes, he was already at full speed and was thereby able to force USC's defense to make open field tackles against one of the fastest quarterbacks in the country.

STUPID!!!

USC even went into a prevent defense for one play on Texas' final, game-winning drive, which of course backfired badly, as Texas got a huge gain. But USC's four man front, with everyone else set back, which they played in for 80% of the game, amounted really to nothing more than a soft prevent defense for Young to rip apart.

Had USC applied consistent pressure all game long, Young would have been contained to a much greater extent than he was. He would have broken a few for big yardage, to be sure, but as we saw last night, whenever USC did apply pressure, it would have been for much fewer yards than what he got last night.

And with his running lanes blocked by oncoming rushers and/or blitzers, Young would have been forced to scramble in the backfield, and either take a loss, dump the ball off to a less-talented teammate or throw it away.

Had USC done this, they would have won by two touchdowns, regardless of the bonehead decision against USC on the crucial Texas catch, then fumble, that was ruled an incomplete pass, which would have effectively sealed the victory for the Trojans.

History shows, over and over, that the only way to beat a great quarterback with tremendous skills, is to apply consistent pressure. Apparently Pete Carroll and his defensive coaches, forgot this fact or never learned it in the first place.

I just feel sorry for USC's players. They did a fantastic job. It was their coaches who let them down.

Thanks KStone for the confirmation on 'SC's defense. It is truly unbelievable that Pete Carroll, famous for his halftime adjustments, did nothing to change USC's defense at some point in the game last night, after watching Young run all over his zone defense.

And you're right about the nonexistent "spy" on Young. It's a no-brainer that you get someone, anyone, on defense who is responsible for a running QB of that caliber, to shadow him. It's exactly what 'SC needed on Young's final scramble into the endzone from the 10 yard line on 4th down, which sealed the Texas victory.

Orbitboy, this isn't after-the-fact second guessing. I was saying this in real-time, while the game was occuring, not in hindsight.

And if you go back and look at the film, if you recorded the game, you will see that nearly every time 'SC brought pressure on Young, it paid off, and nearly every time they did not, it hurt them badly. Those are the facts--rewatch the game for yourself.

Secondly, look at other games, look at football history: the same results occur time after time, in game after game. You beat a great QB by bringing pressure.

If you want an example from the pros, look at the great Bill Bellichek of the New England Patriots. How does he always beat Peyton Manning (at least when N.E. is healthy), one of the games greatest QBs?--by bringing pressure, and forcing Manning to make mistakes (i.e. interceptions or fumbles) or incompletions.

It's a no-brainer. Now, that's not taking anything away from Texas, which I have a feeling you were rooting for last night. They are a great team. But they would have lost handily last night had 'SC played smart defense.