Welcome to the party, Matt Barkley.

The freshman quarterback completed 19 of 29 passes for 380 yards and two touchdowns on Saturday in USC’s thrilling 34-27 victory over Notre Dame. Irish quarterback Jimmy Clausen was also solid while completing 24 of 43 passes for 260 yards and two touchdowns.

The Trojans made several stupid mistakes in this game, including a couple of costly and near-costly penalties in the second half. But Pete Carroll’s squad racked up 501 yards on the road in a hostile environment, which is incredibly impressive.

Pundits had been waiting for USC’s offense to break out of its shell with Barkley under center and that’s exactly what they did today. At one point in the third quarter, Barkley completed seven straight passes for 195 yards and connected with Damian Williams on a 41-yard touchdown pass midway through the third quarter to give the Trojans a 20-7 lead. That scoring drive was huge because its defense had just stuffed James Aldridge on a fourth-and-one-attempt inside the Trojans’ 30 and it was key to USC stealing the momentum.

While it’ll be hard for Charlie Weis and the Irish to stomach yet another loss to USC, Notre Dame has nothing to hang its head about. In the past, the Irish would have simply given up in the second half and allowed the Trojans to crush them. But Weis’ group kept fighting back on Saturday and even had several cracks inside the red zone to tie the game with seconds remaining in the fourth. This is a tougher Notre Dame team than we’re used to seeing.

With this win, USC keeps its national title hopes alive. Of course, the Oregon State team that has given the Trojans fits the past couple years is the next team on their schedule and then USC has to travel to Eugene to take on Oregon. So while this was a huge win for the Trojans, they’ve got a long way to go.

The unexpected happened today in Dallas. What was supposed to be a grudge match between quarterbacks Colt McCoy and Sam Bradford was anything but after Bradford was knocked out of the game in the first quarter. And what was supposed to be an offensive slug fest actually turned out to be a defensive struggle.

Some may say it wasn’t pretty, but Texas earned a hard-fought 16-13 victory over Oklahoma in the Red River Rivalry on Saturday. Bradford only attempted six passes in the game, completing two for 77 yards before suffering another injury following a first-quarter sack. On the other side, McCoy was just 12 of 39 passing for 127 yards with one touchdown and one interception.

This game turned on the first possession of the second half. After Oklahoma took a 6-3 lead into halftime, the Longhorns came out in the third quarter utilizing a hurry-up offense that allowed McCoy to finally get into a rhythm passing. While the drive only produced a field goal, it instilled confidence in McCoy after the Sooners had frustrated him in the first half. This was the second straight year in which OU’s defense got the best of McCoy.

Freshman receiver Marquis Goodwin also played a huge role in the Longhorns’ victory. Oklahoma completely took emerging Heisman candidate Jordan Shipley out of the game by blanketing him in coverage, but Goodwin hauled in three passes and caught a 14-yard touchdown pass from McCoy midway through the third quarter to give Texas its first lead. With Shipley held in check, Goodwin came up huge.

Read the rest of this entry »

After turning in one of the more pathetic offensive displays in recent memory, No. 7 Ohio State was shocked in West Lafayette on Saturday as Purdue beat the Buckeyes 26-18.

His final numbers (17 of 31, 221 yards, 1 TD, 2 INTs) don’t do justice to how bad sophomore quarterback Terrelle Pryor was today. Midway through the third quarter, he was just 7 of 14 passing for 84 yards with interceptions. And his fumble in the second quarter killed a potential scoring drive.

Pryor has all the physical tools to succeed, but Jim Tressel was wrong when he said this summer that the sophomore was developing as a passer. He’s not. His decision-making isn’t very sound and he’s not good enough to overcome turnovers, which was evident today.

That said, Tressel hasn’t helped Pryor in his development. His play calling and in-game decisions are often befuddling and he clearly isn’t the right person to nurture a quarterback as skilled as Pryor. Also, Ohio State’s running game was non-existent on Saturday, which is staggering considering Purdue was allowing over 160 rushing yards per game coming into today.

This was a sad offensive display by the Buckeyes and they deserved to lose with the way they played. But let’s give credit to a Purdue team that took advantage of the opportunities that it was given. They could have opened the door for an Ohio State comeback when the Buckeyes added a field goal early in the fourth to cut the Boilermakers’ lead to 23-10. Instead, Purdue added a field goal of its own to all but put the game out of reach.

This was a nice victory by a Purdue team that many people figured would just play dead today.