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Trojans have right formula for Win (D + CP) - (O + CP') = W By: Richard Linde, Posted 19 October 2002 After playing five straight games at home, the Washington Huskies' offensive juggernaut took to the road and ran straight into Pete Carroll's Big Mac Truck. Something had to give as the conference's number 1 offense collided with its number 1 defense. In this case, the Trojans' lightning-fast defense prevailed, and its offense rode the arm of Carson Palmer for 4 touchdowns and 348 yards passing, posting a 41-21 win for good measure. Washington quarterback Cody Pickett was picked off twice, but threw three touchdown passes, in a game played before 55,000 fans at the L.A. Memorial Coliseum; it was televised regionally by ABC. The Dawgs had a chance to take a quick lead in the game. After winning the opening coin toss, Washington deferred to the second half and kicked off to USC. On the first play from scrimmage, corner back Sam Cunningham intercepted a Palmer pass and ran it back to the USC 35-yard line. After the Washington drive stalled on the USC 23-yard line, John Anderson attempted a 40-yard field goal, which was blocked because of a bad snap from center. To start the second half, the Huskies went three and out. Starting from its own 37-yard line, USC drove 63 yards for a touchdown, scoring on a 14-yard pass from Palmer to Mike Williams. And, seemingly, the rout was on. In the fourth quarter, Pickett narrowed a 27-point deficit to 34-21 by passing for two touchdowns, completing a four-yarder to Kevin Ware and a 27-yard pass to Reggie Williams. But then USC tailback Justin Fargus added an insurance touchdown with just 3:33 left in the game, running 13 yards for the score. Because of the dangerous Sultan McCullough, Washington chose to cheat up on the run in the early going, which gave Palmer enough time to let his receivers run to daylight. Palmer threw one touchdown pass that went for 41 yards and another for 61 yards, both occurring in the first half. Both times, Washington's pass defenders were badly out of position, as the two passes came off play action. Without the threat of a running game, Pickett, on the other hand, had to be content with a short passing game. Coach Rick Neuheisel said that the Huskies were tired of home cooking, after playing five straight games at home, and needed a change of venue. They might as well have had a case of food poisoning, considering the distasteful menu the USC defense dished up. After all was said and done, the Purple and Gold has turned into gangrene, while the Cardinal and Gold has become sanguine. The sanguineous winner stays in the hunt for a Rose Bowl trip and a top-twenty ranking, while the loser adopts the role of a spoiler. Going into the game, the Huskies ranked 107th in the nation in rushing offense and 96th in pass efficiency defense. Those numbers will worsen after the Division 1A statistics are released sometime next week. Over the past two years, the Huskies have been blown out in four of its last five road games, losing to UCLA, OSU, Miami and, now, USC. In each rout, the Huskies failed to run the ball effectively, the effect of which put way too much pressure on quarterback Cody Pickett--limiting him to short passing attempts and forcing him to run for his life on occasion. The Washington defense didn't help his cause. The Dawgs had -5 yards rushing. Twenty-seven of Washington's thirty-eight completions were for less than 10 yards. Rick Neuheisel post game comments: "It's very demoralizing...being unable to stop big plays. Minus five yards rushing isn't who we are or who we can be." Neuheisel on the first play of the game. "Sam came up with a big play and I hoped that would be a big day for (sic) he... After the missed field goal, it just didn't go well at all after that. We need to figure out a new course of action in strange environments." --------------------- Down in the dumps and as dispirited as any Husky fan, I needed to add some impartiality to this column. You know, present an objective analysis. :) So is having a strong defense a better formula for winning than having a strong offense? Yes, and here's why, mathematically stated. (D + CP) - (O + CP') = W D=defense, O=Offense, where CP and CP' represents the quarterbacks' initials. Well, it explains my headline, anyway.
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