We had some people tell us on Twitter, after the Arizona State game on Saturday night, that our harsh view of USC’s performance is just an outsized reaction meant to get clicks. Wait a minute: You mean a harsh view of this performance isn’t warranted? You mean USC shouldn’t aspire to high standards? You mean this performance was acceptable and okay under the circumstances?
Sure, this was the first road game of the season, but it’s not as though USC was playing at Utah or Oregon. This was Arizona State. The Sun Devils beat Southern Utah at home by only three points. They lost by 29 to Fresno State at home. They got shut out by Fresno State at home. Tempe is not a very intimidating place to play when ASU is bad.
This Arizona State team was missing 10 starters and four starting offensive linemen. It wasn’t a good team to begin with, and it was missing lots of key players at important positions.
USC was favored by 35 points.
ASU had the ball early in the fourth quarter with a chance to take the lead.
We shouldn’t be harsh toward the Trojans? We’re doing this just for clicks? I thought we aspired to championships and championship-level greatness at USC. This was plainly unacceptable, and if you think that’s being too harsh, we don’t know what else to tell you.
Let’s open up the report card. It’s not going to be pretty, and it shouldn’t be: