Carroll Pinpoints What Makes Big Plays Work

When the USC players review film of last weekend’s game against Arizona, Coach Pete Carroll will make a big deal about the big plays they made to pull out a wild, uneven victory in the desert night.

At the same time, Carroll will tell them it was nothing special.

“We’ll show the guys they can make a big play by doing their assignments,” he said Sunday.

That goes for an offense that took advantage of its opportunities to score on three consecutive possessions in the first half. It goes for defensive linemen Lonnie Ford and Shaun Cody sacking Wildcat quarterback Jason Johnson to seal the 41-34 victory. The last play, in particular, was helped by blockers having to deal with a blitzing cornerback, Chris Cash.

Even cornerback Kris Richard said his interception and 58-yard return for the winning touchdown was a product of the defensive scheme.

“I was just doing what I was supposed to do,” he said. “I made my read.”

And while the team recaps lessons learned in Tucson, Carroll also might want to mention what happened in other Pacific 10 Conference cities on a weekend when front-runners Washington State and UCLA lost, and Arizona State nearly upset Washington.

The moral of the story?

“There are going to be surprises,” Carroll said. “It’s going to be hard to predict who’s going to win.”

That means two things for the Trojans. First, with a 3-5 record, 2-3 in conference, they still have a chance to claw their way up the standings and into consideration for a bowl game if they win out and teams ahead of them beat up on each other.

Carroll is not pitching that idea too hard, wanting to keep his team focused on the cliched one game at a time.

However, he said, “I’m sure the kids like to talk about it some.”

The coach would rather use the Pac-10’s unpredictability to keep his team honest as it begins preparation for a homecoming game Saturday at the Coliseum against Oregon State, also struggling at 2-3 in conference.

“I don’t know how I can emphasize that any more,” he said. “We’re not in the position where we can even begin to think we can take anybody lightly.”Watching film of the Beavers’ surprisingly close 19-10 victory over winless California on Sunday, Carroll noticed that Oregon State had difficulty dealing with Cal’s aggressive, blitzing defense. So the USC players might want to keep in mind some of what they see on those Arizona game films, especially in the final minutes.

“It was a great finish,” Cody said. “Our last drive was great.”