So what'd you guys think about the USC vs UCLA game last night?

[Suspicious-Teach8788]

Here's my summary:

With USC up 21-7 and 52 seconds left. Matt Barkley takes a knee on first down. UCLA Coach Rick Neuheisel (Slick Rick) calls a TO which draws boos from the SC crowd (it's in the Coliseum). On 2nd down Pete Carroll (Chetey Petey) gives the goahead for a 48 yard TD pass and SC goes up 28-7. There's a penalty on the extra point too against UCLA for leaping and then on top of that USC is celebrating wildly on the sidelines. There's probably some taunting too.

UCLA sideline goes WTF and walks towards the SC sideline ready to fight. USC players flex their muscles as the LA players are controlled and pulled back to the sidelines

Video: http://www.bruinsnation.com/2009/11/29/1178145/if-someone-has-a-better-video-of

My take: Teams call TOs frequently even if it's over. UCLA wasn't exactly wrong for doing it. In one way their coach is teaching them that the game is 60 minutes, not 59 minutes. Sure, fight to the end. USC should've just taken a knee. Pete Carroll was being a bitch for calling the TD pass. I wouldn't have a problem with that if he didn't whine about losing to Stanfurd 2 weeks ago. So Furd can't do a 2pt conversion to score 50 in the Coliseum, but you can now throw a TD pass when the game is over already? So I guess it's ok to pile on extra points if you're winning, but if you're losing, no one should be doing it to you? Classless Pete.

SC's reasoning that "if you call a TO and want to play on, then we'll play on too" is only half acceptable. You can say that, but it's a douche move still. BTW as a Cal fan I hate both teams. SC more, but I honestly laughed my ass off when the play went down. I love seeing UCLA (and SC) owned. But I still found it douchey.

But what's MORE douchey is that if you watch videos, Pete Carroll is dancing around like he won the Super Bowl and the rest of the SC team is just going wild. But I guess that's what I did when I laughed like the announcers did and I said "OWNED" out loud during that play.

I saw Twitter and most people sympathized with SC. Sad, but I figured it's the bandwagon people going crazy. Meanwhile, BruinsNation, which is known as one of blogs with the least tolerance for failure goes WILD. People are screaming their heads off in rage vowing to beat the crap out of SC and stuff. It's just funny. We at Cal blogs just kept quoting BruinsNation for hilarity.

Bruins Nation in RAGE MODE
More RAGE

I just withdrew my application to USC medical school with this listed as the reason

(was going to do it anyways, since I just got into a top 10)

That one made me laugh.

 

[abaez]

Both sides were douchey, but Carroll is the bigger douchebag for whining about it two weeks ago and doing the same thing now.

 

[goog40]

My take: Teams call TOs frequently even if it's over. UCLA wasn't exactly wrong for doing it. In one way their coach is teaching them that the game is 60 minutes, not 59 minutes.

Looks like the players didn't get the message. USC was ready to end the game in victory formation, and by calling the timeout Neuheisel's forcing them to keep playing. You don't just kneel down two more times in that situation and give the ball back to UCLA.

It's not the same as Stanford going for two a few weeks back, because in the normal course of the game you would never go for two except in certain situations where it might make sense with the score differential (i.e. to go up by 3 instead of 2 in the latter parts of the game).

 

[Kirby]

Looks like the players didn't get the message. USC was ready to end the game in victory formation, and by calling the timeout Neuheisel's forcing them to keep playing. You don't just kneel down two more times in that situation and give the ball back to UCLA.

It's not the same as Stanford going for two a few weeks back, because in the normal course of the game you would never go for two except in certain situations where it might make sense with the score differential (i.e. to go up by 3 instead of 2 in the latter parts of the game).

USC didn't have to kneel and turn over the ball. Just run it a few times and run down the clock instead of throwing a bomb TD just to piss them off. But then again, I just watched the video and don't know anything else about it.

 

[Suspicious-Teach8788]

Looks like the players didn't get the message. USC was ready to end the game in victory formation, and by calling the timeout Neuheisel's forcing them to keep playing. You don't just kneel down two more times in that situation and give the ball back to UCLA.

It's not the same as Stanford going for two a few weeks back, because in the normal course of the game you would never go for two except in certain situations where it might make sense with the score differential (i.e. to go up by 3 instead of 2 in the latter parts of the game).

Well it's commonplace enough where teams call TOs even if they're going to lose and there's no chance at coming back. I've seen cases where it happens and where teams just let the other team run out the clock like that.

I think there's a difference between throwing a 48 yd TD pass and running the ball or using a shorter pass. I do equate this with the Stanfurd's going for 2 situation because in both scenarios it's unnecessary.

I think the worst part of this all is the fact that USC players and Pete Carroll himself acted like little kids celebrating on there, taunting, and jeering at the UCLA side. The TD pass itself isn't so bad and I had my laugh, but to embarass a losing team like that... I can understand why emotions can run so high especially in a rivalry game.

 

[esun]

As a Cal and UCLA fan (well alum anyway), who the hell cares? This has been overblown tremendously. We're supposed to hate each other, we're supposed to rub it in when possible; we're not supposed to be cordial. And even if we were, it still wouldn't be a big deal.

Then again, I suppose that's part of this whole aftermath. Because we're supposed to hate each other, we must necessarily make a big deal out of this thing so we can pile on more hate. I guess that's how it goes.

 

[lykaon78]

UCLA got what they deserved. They shouldn't have called the time out if they weren't going to defend.

USC inflamed the situation by jumping around and taunting. The stupid part about that is you just gave your cross town rival a full year of bulletin board material.

 

[SP33Demon]

They're rivals, you stick the knife in... and then twist it. Nothing to see here, move along folks.

 

[bignateyk]

I dunno. I hate USC, but I think it's pretty funny. Pete Carrol is a huge classless douche, but I can't fault him for this one.

edit: Although he still attains his big douche status by celebrating like they just won the NC game afterward.

 

[HopJokey]

They're rivals, you stick the knife in... and then twist it. Nothing to see here, move along folks.

This.

You call timeout, this means you still want to play for real. Even UCLA's coach said he was disappointed to give up the TD after the timeout. His team was in a Prevent defense and still allowed a wide open receiver down the field.

 

[Muse]

I'm a Cal grad and fan but I have to root for USC (not when they play Cal, of course). They didn't this year but they usually just take the conference year in year out. The dumb Cal players were finishing their practices this season with a "Pac Ten Champs!" cheer every time and that was the dumbest thing I've ever heard of. Their stupid fairy tale notions were stomped by USC and Oregon in a 7 day span in which they had their butts kicked to the tune of 70+ points to 6. If I hear one more "I smell roses" cheer from Cal fans I'm going to puke. Pete Carroll is a genius and a super star next to Jeff Tedford, who in comparison is just a down depressing loser. Yeah, that's how it looks to me.

 

[Muse]

This.

You call timeout, this means you still want to play for real. Even UCLA's coach said he was disappointed to give up the TD after the timeout. His team was in a Prevent defense and still allowed a wide open receiver down the field.

Yeah, they had it coming. That timeout was a dumb move. Uh, and I went to UCLA for a year....

 

[CRXican]

it wasn't that much of a dbag move

the UCLA players should have stayed off the field, babies

 

[ElFenix]

urb taking the knee with 53 seconds left in the first half against floriduh state was more insulting.

 

[her209]

Damn it, I turned off the game with 1 minute left. Damn it, damn it, damn it.

 

[aleckz]

Bruins should've been ready to play, but they weren't so it was their own fault. Crosstown rivals doesn't make the situation any better, but I think Pete needed to control himself and his team more towards the end, I'm a USC fan and I find that very immature.

The Bruins have a lot of fuel towards the next time they meet though!

 

[JS80]

As a UCLA alum, I applaud Pete Carroll for letting the shitty school know how shitty they are. UCLA has been on a downward spiral in both athletics and academics. This is just the epitome of how pathetic UCLA is.

 

[Queasy]

I think this ad from earlier in the year might have had a lot to do with the decision to run up the score.

http://img263.imageshack.us/img263/8619/uclaad.jpg

Both sides acted like douchebags though.

 

[her209]

Video
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zT_T50MV2pI

 

[palswim]

I started laughing. As soon as UCLA called the timeout, I half hoped for something like that to happen. But, am I glad that I watched the whole game!

 

[a123456]

I'm generally okay with teams running up the score, if the teams are approximately equal in talent. Basically, this means I'm okay with it in the NFL and "top tier" college games. Seriously, it happens enough in college where it's just not that big a deal anymore. The top teams always run up the score a bit to get slightly higher in the rankings. I do think the current BCS/bowl system is retarded, though.

In the NFL, sometimes, it's desirable for fantasy purposes.

If it's some top high school people beating the tar out of some no name high school 100-0, then yeah I could see some type of mercy rule in that situation but when it's basically a full time job, then the two teams should be equal enough to play the full 60 minutes.

I don't really follow college ball that much but I didn't really mind Stanford's going for it either. However, it goes both ways. If your offense runs it up, then your defense has to put up with it if your team is getting blown out.

As far as the celebration goes, I have no idea what went on but it's a huge annual rivalry. People get excited about the Cal game too, even if both teams suck that year. If they just beat University of Nowhere 28-7, then it's just another game. I don't get why teams celebrate any extra at all after winning the first round of the playoffs, with the whole champagne gig and everything but hey it's what they do.

 

[Legendary]

UCLA got what they deserved

 

[Genx87]

I thought the response by USC was appropriate. What slick rick basically wanted USC to do was continue to play football. Well USC did and UCLA didnt cover. What Rick essentially taught his players is dont be a dumbass in front of thousands of people in the stadium and millions across the country. And accept defeat when you are defeated.

 

[Genx87]

Well it's commonplace enough where teams call TOs even if they're going to lose and there's no chance at coming back. I've seen cases where it happens and where teams just let the other team run out the clock like that.

I think there's a difference between throwing a 48 yd TD pass and running the ball or using a shorter pass. I do equate this with the Stanfurd's going for 2 situation because in both scenarios it's unnecessary.

I think the worst part of this all is the fact that USC players and Pete Carroll himself acted like little kids celebrating on there, taunting, and jeering at the UCLA side. The TD pass itself isn't so bad and I had my laugh, but to embarass a losing team like that... I can understand why emotions can run so high especially in a rivalry game.

Typically when that happens the team losing is on offense and wants to get their kids work. Either with the 2nd stringers or a 2 mins drill against a real defense. I rarely if ever have seen it being called while the losing team is on defense with little hope for a win. Coaches want to end the game and get their kids out uninjured.

 

[Genx87]

urb taking the knee with 53 seconds left in the first half against floriduh state was more insulting.

Yup, as a Noles fan I had to laugh and actually Meyers earned a little respect from me on that. Basically he said you guys suck so much ass we will kneel with 1 min left in the first half. Much more insulting but I loved it.