Tailback U. Might Have New Home

Was this a case of a great running back having a great day or a case of a defense not being able to tackle him?

Or is there any difference?

In their silent locker room Sunday at Giants Stadium, USC defensive players and coaches charitably gave Curtis Enis his due, but also lamented their inability to tackle him.

“Enis is definitely a strong, physical, fast back, but we didn’t tackle well,” said defensive coordinator Keith Burns.

USC’s senior defensive tackle Matt Keneley, who had 11 tackles, said it was a case of a great back running against a defense having a lousy day.

“He’s a great back, I take nothing away from him . . . but a lot of those runs he made, we should have tackled him,” he said.

“I’m really disappointed. Coach Robinson told us he looked to us [the defensive line] for leadership on this team, and for us to play like that in the opener. . . .”

Said middle linebacker Taso Papadakis: “He really brought it, that’s for sure. They had a good blocking scheme for him, but at the same time we just didn’t wrap him up like we had to.

“Some of it was my fault. A couple of times I failed to go over the top when I could have stopped him.”

Said defensive end Darrell Russell: “It’s not like we didn’t know anything about him. We saw him on video, and I saw him on TV last year. We knew he was a great back.

“A lot of those yards he got today were on broken plays. We’d have him trapped for a loss, he’d change direction, and get six.

“I can honestly say I had him wrapped up a couple of times and he just broke away. On some other plays, I’d get in their backfield, see him cut toward my direction, I’d get ready to bring him down, and he’d slide off someone and go the other way. It was really frustrating.

“I mean, we were there, in the right place. . . . We just weren’t wrapping him up.”

Linebacker Sammy Knight: “Yeah, I missed some tackles on him, we all did. He’s a great back, but a guy like that . . . you have to tackle him.”

As for USC’s running game, guard Chris Brymer saw a long journey in the offing.

“We’ve got a long way to go, that’s for sure,” he said.

“We just didn’t have that feeling. . . . We’d get a couple of good gains, then a loss or no gain. Our pass protection wasn’t consistent. . . . We weren’t getting long blocks on their pass rush. I never felt like we had any chemistry out there.”

Missed holes, as well as missed tackles.

“The holes were there for me, but I missed some of them,” tailback LaVale Woods said. “Our line did great, we just have to run harder when they give us the holes.”