Can USC freshman QB Matt Barkley handle the pressure of a big time road game? Can Ohio State QB Terrelle Pryor beat USC with his feet? (He is not capable of beating them through the air in my opinion)
I understand that Terrelle Pryor is a year older and most of USC’s defense that held Ohio State to 3 points last season is now playing on Sundays but I don’t see Ohio State winning this game or even covering for that matter. Ohio State could not stop the run against Navy last week and USC has a fleet of talented tail backs.
Kevin NYC, NY, USA
It is difficult to predict how a freshman will handle the pressures of a road game of this magnitude. The “Horseshoe” at Ohio State with 100k+ fans (who may have a had a beer or two by the 8pm kickoff) is as imposing as it gets. With the revenge factor from last year’s throttling you know the Buckeye players and fans are going to be highly motivated. I agree with you though as I think the talent level still favors the Trojans heavily. When I answered the question about Notre Dame, I talked about how Big Ten country (I lumped ND in there due to geography) doesn’t nearly have the talent Southern California, Texas or Florida does. These Big 10 teams (and ND) haven’t been able to recruit talent from these regions as they have in the past. That has created this imbalance that has put the Big 10 and their best team (OSU has been the class of the Big 10) at a huge disadvantage.
It does all seem to be on Terrelle Pryor, who has to have a big game with both his feet and his arm. They cannot win with out making a couple of plays in the passing game. I think the Ohio State run defense will be better this week. It was surprising how close the game against Navy was, but they are a good team and I’m sure OSU was looking ahead to USC. I think it should be a low scoring game. This is a tough one as I hate to go against the revenge factor, the crazed crowd for a night game and with a freshman QB. However, until Ohio State can prove they can beat a top team in a big game I wouldn’t back them.
