A Hollywood Story in South Central L.A.

STANFORD 24, USC 23

Stanford pulled off one of the biggest upsets in Pac-10 history, and we were there! I had the great fortune to broadcast KZSU's coverage of the Cardinal's 24-23 win - I will link the broadcast mp3's tomorrow.

More later (we just got back to Palo Alto after a long drive north), but suffice it to say that it was a surreal experience to watch a team coming off a 1-11 season, winless in its last five Pac-10 games, hold its own and out-execute the country's top program for the final 11 minutes. Oh, and doing it with a bevy of injuries on the road, where USC hadn't lost since 2001. With a sophomore quarterback who had never started a game before and whose career passing line coming in was 1-for-3 for 10 yards.

Sunday, I was honored to be on EDSBS Live to deliver a garbled and discursive description of the final moments.

On what ABC (lamely) nicknamed Gut Check Saturday, Stanford showed guts. Is there anything more to say?

FLOPPYCOCK OF THE WEEK

USC coach Pete Carroll - does anyone have to ask? The Trojans were poorly motivated, they had weak gameplans, they got weak playcalls from the coaching staff, and they wilted under a red-and-white assault that outhustled them, particularly on defense.

As an example, the Man in the Black Shoes was seen in warmups tossing the ball around with one of his assistants. In the game, he had quarterback John David Booty tossing the ball around with a six-point lead (and a broken finger), needing two first downs to run out the clock. Booty threw his third interception of the day and Stanford was in business for a wild touchdown drive that pushed the teetering Trojans off the edge.

Then Carroll and his team shuffled off their own field without shaking hands with any of Stanford's players (or head coach Jim Harbaugh). Smooth. Carroll gave a lame excuse along the lines of "our players haven't lost on this field, they didn't know what to do." Like it's any different from losing on the road - you give the opponent a cursory congratulation before bolting the scene of the crime.

Runner up: UCLA coach Karl Dorrell, whose ill-prepared team choked away a tie ballgame against one of the country's worst offenses by asking a third-string walkon quarerback to throw the ball deep in his own territory. More on the ugliest game of the weekend later this week.

Stand-In For Missing Week 5 Analysis

A weekend trip and some other personal business took me away from the brewhouse last weekend. This post will be updated with an ex post facto analysis. Expect an ominous discussion of USC's lackluster 27-24 win at Washington.