Halftime: Oregon 18, USF 14
Another impressive drive stalled in the red zone, with USF getting to the Oregon 10 but settling for a 35-yard Delbert Alvarado field goal as time expired, cutting Oregon's lead to 18-14 at halftime.
What a different Matt Grothe in the second quarter -- after going 3-for-8 for 42 yards in the first quarter, he went 10-for-17 for 126 in the second, with a touchdown pass. USF hasn't had much of a running game, so with Oregon piling up 276 yards, the Bulls are somewhat fortunate to only be down four at the half.
Consider the disparity in rushing -- Oregon has 202 rushing yards, while USF has 26. Bulls backs Mike Ford and Ben WIlliams have a combined 10 yards on nine carries, with Grothe mustering 22 yards. The difference in the game right now is Jonathan Stewart's 71-yard touchdown run -- the key for USF is eliminating those kinds of big plays in the second half. USF had the ball nearly twice as long as Oregon in the first half, with 19:16 in time of possession compared to 10:44 for the Ducks.
And yes, the two teams already have set a Sun Bowl record with 167 penalty yards, and matched another mark with 18 flags. Oregon's doing its part with 11 for 108 yards -- including five USF first downs -- while USF has a comparably tame seven flags for 59 yards.
Times sportswriter Greg Auman, who covers USF, will post news and thoughts on the Bulletin and we invite your participation in the comments area.
Grothe's really playing with fire today. Too many close calls. The run defense looks terrible (just like the Rutgers and UCONN games) and the running game is useless once again (Walt Walker is just so vital to the offense- his absence is pronounced). I think we'll pull this out with a turnover or two.
Posted by: Dave W | December 31, 2007 at 04:17 PM
Not to restate what was previously pointed out, but it was an obvious fumble on the 2 pt conversion. Actually the penalties should be worse, as I saw a blatent block in the back on two of the returns: including the one where Oregon retuned the ball to the 40 after USF's FG.
Not to complain about our defense, because the have been our backbone all year but...does anyone know why we are running a nickel defense with the linebackers shifted out of the middle. It seems like stopping the run and rushing the QB from a 4-3 would be more prudent when considering that Oregon's using a redshirt freshman back there.
Posted by: | December 31, 2007 at 04:17 PM
Call me when we can stop the run -- it is so obvious that we can't stop the run.
I have no idea why a team wouldn't just stack it up and run it right down our throats.
So tired of seeing us give up 5 yards everytime their RB touches the ball.
Posted by: Ari Hinkelberger | December 31, 2007 at 04:20 PM
watching this team trying to stop the run is worse then watching the stupid basketball team try to make free throws.
this is awful.
Posted by: Ari Hinkelberger | December 31, 2007 at 04:47 PM
Whoa, Ari, I thought we were doing a lot better on free throws. Way late for this comment, but things were looking a lot better in the second quarter, but we made no (useful) adjustments, and they just killed us in the second half. One guy in the elevator thought it might have been the elevation here (3500 feet) bothering us in the second half, but that seems lame to me.
Posted by: Ken | December 31, 2007 at 08:09 PM
Elevation??
HA HA HA..
I think it had to do with that 230lb black guy with the name tag stewart on his jersey.
Elevation?
I got your elevation right here.
To much vacation - not enough prepartion.
Really really awful
Posted by: Ari Hinkelberger | January 01, 2008 at 12:43 AM