it was a classic... choke job

Texas got a late Christmas gift tonight from SC as So. Cal. gave away the national championship. Texas played a great game tonight no doubt, but they should be thanking Pete Carroll though for some boneheaded play calling including not kicking the chip shot field goal to go up 10-0, not running LenDale White 3 straight times on the last possession (which resulted in at least 10 yds ALL game long), passing the ball on second down at the end instead and stopping the clock, and going for it on 4th and 2 at mid-field when running 3 times and punting (if it was still needed) would have made Texas go 80-90 yds with at most 90 seconds. If you use more clock, punt it deep on 4th if you're short and leave less than 90 seconds for Texas, you make Vince beat you with the pass, not the run. Knowing that, USC has a better chance of stopping Texas and they probably win. Sure it was a gutsy call by Carroll, but a bad one on 4th and 2 on the 45 with over 2 minutes left in the game.

SC came out and thought it could play Texas like they did everyone else, show up and win instead of playing smart. It was a great game to watch and Texas brought their best, though I would have to agree with Matt Leinart, SC is the better team, but the better team doesn't win if they don’t bring their A game in the championship game. They came in with that SC swagger that just stepping on the field would let them win, but that doesn't happen against a good team like Texas. Probably the most amazing thing to me was that Mack Brown out-coached Pete Carroll, which I would never have expected.

Finally, shame on SC if they didn't know Vince was going to run it on 4th down. I bet the thought of throwing the ball never even crossed his mind. He hadn't hit a receiver that wasn't wide open all game and with the end zone working as an extra defender and shortening the field, no one was going to be wide open. The Vince run was more obvious than the Leinart sneak on 4th down early in the game yet SC was dropping back and playing pass. Too many gifts, not to even mention the bonehead pitch by Reggie Bush after he had already made a big gain, to overcome just by showing up. I won’t even go into how bad the replay booth was, that was simply horrible with two plays clearly going against SC that were wrong, one taking a turnover away.

It was a great game to watch, Vince Young played a great game as did Matt Leinart and LenDale White, but the best team didn’t win.

USC's Pete Carroll