My summation of attending the game (long rant)

First, the new tron at the Coliseum is awesome.  It was clearer than watching the game from my seats through my binoculars, which I always bring to USC games since the visitors seats are so bad. Hope ours in the new stadium will be even nicer. 

(Check for more great observations after the jump)

2.  Watched the team walk by the Husky rally at SW corner of stadium.  I remarked to son in law that we looked fearful.  For some reason, there wasn't the look of resolve that I had seen in watching this team in the walk through's on 6 previous occasions.  They actually looked in awe of their surroundings.

3.  Talked to Morgan Roseborough at rally. He is huge and a great guy.  Quincy Pondexter was also there.

4.  Like everybody else, I was very disappointed with results. But both teams were not sharp, way too many false starts and holding by both teams and several non holding calls during both team pass rushes.  To have that many false starts in your 10th game of season is not good.  Absolute momentum killers and another reason why I thought the offense couldn't get rolling.

        4a.  Wish Sark would have run Polk more and stayed with it.  Also kept trying to throw the bubble screens, wished we would have gone more to ASJ and WR slants across the middle.

        4b.   The fake punt killed us and it was pretty much over after that. The teams demeanor just seemed to deflate.

        4c.   Schaefer's high snap for the safety didn't help either, but we noticed in the Oregon game that his snaps were anti Juan Garcia, high and up rather than in the dirt.  His snaps have been poor since he hurt his right hand, and he has been snapping with his left.

        4d.  Koehler is not a tackle, but he is the best we have right now at that position.  Maybe Hatchie gets the start this week, and we can get someone else snapping until Schaefer's hand heals.

        4e.  The KOR followed by the long TD run after we blitzed and USC got past the first line contributed to the rout. BTW, did anyone notice  Barkley still in the game until 3 minutes or so left, plus being up by 30 at the time. Early in 4th quarter and Kiffin calls for a deep pass.  At least Chip took the gas off the pedal, but not Kiffin.  After that attempt I was hoping Barkley would get hurt to teach Lane a lesson. Dick

5.  There is a lot of hand wringing going on at all  Husky boards.  I look at it this way, we are where we should be at this point.  We lost to 4 teams that have better depth in the talent level (bigger, stronger, faster).  My regret is that we did not play better against three of them (Neb, Ore, USC), and the margin even final outcome might have been different.  Stanford I concede just ran over us.  I wish we could play more error free in the big games and then perhaps the final score wouldn't be such a blowout.

6.  This game at Ore St  this weekend is crucial toward our rebuilding.  We need to win and it would help to win convincingly.  We have only won once (2003) at Reser  since 99, losing in 01, 07, and 09.  We used to own these guys, and its time to reestablish that dominance.  RUN THE BALL, Sark.  Run Polk, Callier and Sankey.

7.  We are who we are.  We are in the upper half of the PAC12, not ready this year to play with the big 3 of USC, Stan, Ore just yet.  We are moving past Cal,  Az, and Ore St. Hopefully, USC will  drift pack toward the pack in 2014-2018 when depth becomes an issue.  I believe Stanford will also come back to the pack  Oregon we are going to need help with USC type sanctions from the NCAA as they are out-recruiting everybody.

8.  Our team needs to get more of  a cornerback mentality. Instead, mistakes eat them up and it compounds the errors and ultimately the rout begins, see Sankey at Nebraska.  When we get past that, we will make the games much more competitive.

9.  This team needs to hit the weight room even harder, and Ivan needs to put higher demands on them.  We have been manhandled by Ore, Stan, Neb and USC.   When we get bigger and stronger, we will be able to slug it out with and return to being an elite program.