Different year, same old story for USC

It's a different year, but the song remains the same for Pete Carroll and the Men of Troy. USC lost another winnable road game against an inferior Pac-10 opponent for the third straight year. In 2007, it was Stanford at the Coliseum, last year, Oregon State upset the Trojans on a Thursday night in Corvallis, and this year? A Washington team that was one game removed from the nation's longest losing streak held the Trojans to only 13 points.

Sure, you might say that USC's poor offensive play can be attributed to the play of back-up QB Aaron Corp and the injury to Joe McKnight, but a national title contender SHOULD NOT lose this game. Troy's defense did it's job up until the final Washington drive and game-winning field goal, and the special teams weren't bad, but the offense was absolutely abominable.

3 turnovers inside the opponent's 35, 0-10 on third down efficiency, 0-1 on fourth down, 13-22 passing for 110 yards and 25:49 time of possession? Without knowing the outcome of this game, one would probably think that was the stat sheet for Washington, but no, it's that of mighty USC. The offense was held to it's fewest point total since a 13-9 loss to UCLA in 2006, this against a Washington defense that allowed 412 yards to Idaho last week.

Jake Locker played great, and Steve Sarkisian did a great job of calling plays, but USC has superior athletes and play-callers than Washington. It's becoming a trend for the Trojans to gag in a game against an inferior team under Pete Carroll, this just shouldn't happen. This isn't on the level of Oklahoma losing Heisman Trophy winner Sam Bradford against a good BYU team, this is all-powerful USC with countless all-Americans dropping a cupcake conference road game to Washington.

Every year this happens. Every year, the Trojans lose to a mediocre team with far less talent at the skill positions early in the conference schedule. And every year, the Men of Troy win the PAC-10 title, massacre a menial team from the Big-10 in the Rose Bowl, and kick and scream about why they aren't in consideration for the BCS Championship game. Well, it looks like the Trojans are well on their way to another Pac-10 and Rose Bowl title.