I agree with your assessment on both USF and Rutgers. The pressure mounts more and more as the weeks go on, and you tend to get tight in pressure situations. They both will lose at some point. Looks like a 3 teamer in OSU, OU and LSU.
USC got hurt by a lot of things: Their 24-27 win over a 2-4 Washington team, their win at Nebraska is looking less and less impressive each week as the Huskers got hammered by Okie St. 45-14; another win, Washington St, is 2-5; Idaho is 1-6; a loss to Stanford. In fact, instead of saying they got penalized for playing poorly, I think it would be a fairer statement to say they've been rewarded for nothing. Bad thing for them, they’ve lost some more starters this past weekend and some USC fans are thinking the game against Notre Dame, this weekend, could be dropped.
Do you remember CLM's instinctive response to the media after LSU blew out Virginia Tech? "We're so far away from being the #2 team in the nation, it isn't even funny!" Anyone who watched the sadness in Lexington on Saturday would have to concur. Let's worry about Auburn.
Apparently everyone in the country watched a different game than you did. We played poorly, and yet a top 17 team, with a top 12 offense, and a Heisman candidate at QB needed 3 overtimes, the home crowd, and a couple of close calls to go their way to beat us. Anyone of a handful of plays go our way, and we win on the road in the SEC against a ranked opponent without playing even close to our best game.
I guess, then, Coach Miles was wrong when he said his team wasn't even close to being the #2 team in the nation. You should call him out for that, Nutria. :shock: