October 8, 2006 at 5:29 PM
The LA papers were full of takes on the end to Saturday’s game.
Again, I’ll reference the Daily News mostly because it requires no registration.
Most eye-catching may be the quote from USC LB Oscar Lua saying he wishes UW would have been able to run the last play because “it would be a lot more interesting for the fans and the players.”
That’s how I feel — it simply seemed like the game deserved to have one last play.
That said, I thought the Daily News was a little harsh in naming Isaiah Stanback as the game’s goat, something that I think is available only in its print edition, which I picked up at the airport.
Said the DN about Stanback: “He leisurely called out signals as the clock started for some reason, apparently thinking he had plenty of time on the last play.”
Certainly, after watching the replay a few times, I thought the Huskies should have been in a little more of a hurry to get that play off. (I also agree that there should have been at least four seconds left on the clock).
But given the situation they had, is it all Stanback’s fault that the play didn’t get off? It seemed to me as if everybody wasn’t as ready as they should have been. Hopefully we’ll learn more Monday at Tyrone Willingham’s press conference.
And it can’t be forgotten that UW isn’t in the game at all if not for Stanback, who was far from perfect, but whose style really gave USC fits. USC’s linebackers had to account for Stanback’s running, which created a lot of those short and intermediate passing lanes that UW exploited all game long.
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