Putting Down a Wounded Animal at Autzen

[Ducktails]

With all the talk about how we were inevitably going to beat the pants off the Trojans I was reminded of the old sheriff in No County For Old Men, who admonishes Llewelyn's girlfriend that "Even in the contest between man and steer the issue is not certain." 

 

Even a strung up slab of beef can cause a lot of damage in its death throes.  And that's how I saw the Trojans going into the game last night.  Wounded, dying maybe, but dangerous all the same in spite of themselves.  

 

Caleb Williams certainly proved that.

 

We should have blown them out.  And were it not for a litany of penalties totaling 120 yards, including a highly questionable PI call on Tysheem Johnson that bailed USC out of a failed 4th down conversion attempt on their own 31 yard line, we would have.  It should have been Oregon ball, up by 22 points, with just a couple of first downs away from putting the game away 43-14, with an emphatic blowout victory to broadcast to the College Football Playoff Committee.

 

I could rant and rave at length about the could, shoulda woulda's about how we should have blown them out and failed, but instead I'll highlight the positives.   Bo Nix outdueled Heisman Winner Caleb Williams to the tune of 414 yards and 4 TDs, and "Bo Nix delivers 'Heisman-worthy performance' in win over USC" is plastered on ESPN's front page.  We hung over 550 yards on them and despite the last desperate comeback bid by the Trojans this game was never really in doubt.  Oregon dominated them start to finish.

 

The team fought through the adversity, the bad breaks, injuries, penalties, and an overall "B" performance, and still dominated the erstwhile blue blood of the PAC.  This was a team that used to dominate us, that lorded over us, that thought they were too good too play in the same conference with us, and they destroyed our beloved PAC-12 conference thanks to their insufferable vanity and arrogance.

 

They clearly still had hope going into this game that they could turn things around and win the PAC in it's final year.  The carcass was still thrashing around in a desperate attempt to stay alive and relevant, and we had the satisfaction of being the team to finally put 'em down for good.

 

While I am not usually one to revel in schadenfreude I hope Caleb had a good cry afterward, and I hope this loss sticks with the U$C  fanbase long after the lights are turned off on the PAC:

 

That it was Oregon that finally put the lights out on them...