2013 National Championship – #2 Colorado vs. #1 USC - rudyjuly2's Blog

rudyjuly2's Blog

2013 National Championship – #2 Colorado vs. #1 USC

Posted on December 8, 2008 at 10:30 AM.

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Both Colorado and USC enter the championship game as the only undefeated teams in the country. Both were ranked #1 and #2 in both overall defense and run defense. There was one key difference though as USC also lead the nation in scoring offense while Colorado’s conservative offense lacked the playmaking wide receivers that USC had.

The game started poorly for Colorado. With USC up 3-0, Colorado’s quarterback Earl Herron threw a curl route that was jumped and returned for a score. It was a good read but a better play by the DB, who jumped the route, spun off the tackle of the QB and then broke one more tackle to score. (See my arena for a video). Herron was benched after his second pick.

Colorado was down 10-0, which was not a good sign. They did get a safety after pinning USC on their two-yard line and were able to score a TD to pull to 10-9. However, the USC impact running back broke a 45 yard TD run in the third quarter and after more interceptions from CU, tacked on another three points to lead 20-9 going into the fourth quarter.

CU’s offense came to life and a great run by their young RB Chad Reid (who won the Maxwell award) brought the game to a 20-15 deficit. But the two point conversion failed after the ball was thrown behind the open TE. Then the defense allowed a deep out to turn into a TD as the USC receiver raced up field for another touchdown.

Final score 30-15 for USC.
Rudy’s bowl record through six years: 1-5.

Key Stats from the game for Colorado:
4 INTs (one returned for TD)
2 for 15 on third down
4 drops by receivers
6 punts

Comments

# 1 rudyjuly2 @ Dec 8

My passing game has gotten worse but I'm done with this team. The last two years have been all about trying to win a national championship with a team better than most. Six years is enough. Time to start a new dynasty with Iowa and try my hand at building a new team. I really need to focus on bigger, faster and better receivers.