College Football News’s take on USC’s loss to UCLA:

Inspired by the fires of rivalry but coached up by new defensive coordinator Dwayne Walker, UCLA’s defensive front lit up the Trojans on almost every snap. Justin Hickman and Bruce Davis, along with the rest of their teammates, outhit and–yes–genuinely intimidated Troy’s offensive line, which was tentative, soft and uncertain throughout a glistening afternoon in the shadows of the San Gabriel Mountains. John David Booty never felt comfortable in the pocket, which meant that Steve Smith and Dwayne Jarrett were never able to make even one home run play, just one long ball that would have turned the tide in a contest that ended with a four-point margin. USC’s offense was sloppy and distracted in the Trojans’ previous loss at Oregon State; this time around, and for the only time in 2006, USC’s point-producing outfit was truly outworked and punched in the mouth. The Trojans threatened on their final drive, but when the time came to define champions, Booty couldn’t get a ball over the UCLA defensive line, and senior Eric McNeal, in a play he’ll tell his grandchildren 50 years from now, made a spectacular tip-and-pick to give SC its second straight stomach-punch loss in the very stadium where the Trojans will now play on New Year’s Day. Yes, one of the many ironies in the aftermath of this shocker is that USC will be disappointed–sorely disappointed–to have attained its annual preseason goal: making the Rose Bowl.

We Are SC says, “We got beat. The USC Trojans did not lose this football game, we got beat. There is a difference.” I agree. I also agree with this:

First of all, the opportunity to play for a national title is gone. To be honest, this team probably exceeded expectations to even be in that position but the opportunity was still there to earn a spot in the title game and it slipped through our fingers. With the competitive nature of our players and coaches, there is no way to minimize that lost opportunity. More than anything, however, it also just hurts to lose to the Bruins. It’s one thing to lose to a Texas with a great player like Vince Young or to get surprised in Corvallis by a team like Oregon State. To lose against the Bruins, with so much on the line, it just really hurts. I’m sure they will get a lot of pleasure out of the Trojan angst this game will cause. I know I celebrated in 1999 when we broke their eight game win streak and I was also a huge Canes fan on the day that Miami beat them to keep UCLA out of the national championship game the year before that. To lose a game to the Bruins that costs USC both the win streak over their rival and an opportunity to play for a national title, you can’t deny how much it hurts.

I’m much more upset about losing to UCLA than I am about not going to the title game. Obviously, as things worked out, the two things are one and the same, but it’s the losing to UCLA part that really gets me. Not getting to play, and probably lose to, Ohio State? Eh. Sucks, but oh well. Losing to UCLA, especially under these circumstances? Really, really, really sucks.

Says the L.A. Times’s Bill Plaschke:

On a finger-tingling December Saturday, after seven years of taking a physical and emotional beating from the cross-town Goliath, David finally stood up and punched back.

UCLA 13, USC 9, a city breathless.

“The Bruins were probably tired of hearing seven years’ worth of stuff from people,” said USC’s Ryan Kalil. “So they took it all out on us.”

In other news, I know I said earlier that allegations of opposing teams/fans not being “classy” are getting a bit old around these parts, but um… Bruins Nation? Wow. Just wow. (Warning: profanity, and lots of it.)

Later today, Notre Dame will play North Carolina for the women’s soccer national championship. The game is at 12:30 PM, and will be aired live on ESPN2.

GO IRISH!!! BEAT TAR HEELS!!!

West Virginia and Rutgers are in triple overtime.

Win the game, and the Scarlet Knights are BCS-bound. A win by the Mountaineers would send Louisville to the BCS.

UPDATE: Dammit! West Virginia wins, 41-39 in triple overtime, as Rutgers can’t convert the two-point conversion. Louisville wins the Big East.

Can everyone please agree, though, that Rutgers is for real? Coming within two points in three overtimes of beating West Virginia at Morgantown is damn impressive, and much better than many of the “experts” thought they’d do.

38-28.

Let the debate begin.

P.S. Rich Tellshow says the computers will be a dead heat, so it’s up to the voters.

Conquest Chronicles: “Yes, I am disappointed. We did not play well today. This does not hurt as much as the Texas game but it is a disappointment. … UCLA won more than USC lost. They just played great. Congrats to them. This is what this rivalry should be.”

Displaced Trojan: “As is our way, we give credit where credit is due: Congratulations to UCLA, in particular the Bruin defense… I’m sure we all have our different ways of dealing with things like this. I for one will let the shock sink in for a few hours, sitting motionless without blinking, while my wife points out all the good things about USC Football that remain. Hopefully, I’ll be able to listen to her. Regardless, this wound is going to take a while to heal.”

It was requested that I post the final score, so there it is. Here’s the article. And here’s a photo:

I hate UCLA.

A few random, disjointed thoughts:

• Wow. Great game by the Bruin defense. Amazing job. Hats off to them.

• Along those same lines, I clearly underestimated UCLA when I criticized Notre Dame for not playing well against them. That defense is very good when they play up to their potential. If they were consistently as good as they played tonight, they’d be a damn good team.

• All that said: John David Booty, WTF? 23/39 for 272 yards doesn’t look awful, but there were some horrible decisions and throws in there.

• Mike Tran owns me.

• Speaking of which, yes, I will fulfill the terms of the bet, obviously. Stay tuned. Seeing me try to fit into Mike’s medium sweatshirt should be entertaining.

• You think Karl Dorrell might keep his job?

• Is it just me, or did some USC player almost catch that Hail Mary pass? And it just me, or did he have a pretty decent chance of running it in, if he had caught it? Man, that would have been the most awesome thing in the history of the world if it had happened.

• It didn’t happen, though.

• People who are happy about UCLA’s win, in order of happiness: 1. UCLA fans; 2. Michigan fans; 3. Florida fans; 4. CBS executives. I’m guessing the ratings for Arkansas-Florida tripled when the clock hit 0:00 in Pasadena.

• If Florida wins, I think they should go to Glendale ahead of Michigan. The Wolverines already had a chance against Ohio State, and based on their resumes, Michigan isn’t clearly more deserving than Florida. (Remember, it isn’t who’s better, it’s who’s more deserving.) Between two teams that are approximately equally deserving, I think the fact that Michigan already had a shot at Ohio State should be the tiebreaker.

• That said: GO ARKANSAS!!! I want the Razorbacks and Nebraska to win, so that USC will have beaten three BCS-bound teams this season. Also, I want USC to play LSU in the Rose Bowl, not Michigan. A matchup between the Trojans and the Wolverines would be a rematch of the 2004 Rose Bowl, and not just any rematch, but a pale shadow of that game, when a national title was on the line. On the other hand, a matchup between the Trojans and the Tigers would be fun. Obviously, it wouldn’t settle anything, football-wise, regarding the 2003-04 championship debate — but after the way USC and LSU fans have been sniping at each other for the last three years, it would be awesome for the fans to actually have that game.

• Notre Dame just clinched a spot in the Sugar Bowl. The notion of the Rose Bowl choosing an ND-Michigan rematch wasn’t totally implausible; the notion of them choosing an ND-USC rematch, I have to think, is.

• Wow. I can’t believe we lost to UCLA.

• Come to think of it, this is the first time I’ve ever seen USC lose to UCLA. I wasn’t a USC fan until I went to college there, and my freshman year was the first year in the 7-year winning streak.

• At least Gonzaga won.

• And yet, somehow, that doesn’t really make me feel better.

• I said weeks ago — not sure if I said it on the blog, but I know I said it aloud to several people — that, looking ahead to USC’s brutal last four games in consecutive weeks against Oregon, Cal, Notre Dame and UCLA, the team I was most worried about was Cal, and the team I was second-most worried about was UCLA. Why? Because while Cal was the only team with the talent to hang with USC if both teams played their best, I was more worried about USC not playing its best against UCLA than I was about USC not playing its best against Notre Dame. It was always going to be tough to win at the Rose Bowl against UCLA after playing such an intense stretch of games. A letdown was always a serious worry. And it happened. Of course, it wouldn’t have mattered if UCLA’s defense hadn’t played its best game of the season.

• Did I mention I hate UCLA?

• Dammit.

And now a bit of news from the “oh yeah, something exists outside of football in LA” file: a typhoon has totally beat the crap out of the Philippines — the fourth in as many months. Over 300 people have been killed in the past few days, and the toll keeps rising. From CNN:

MANILA, Philippines (CNN) — The deadly typhoon that slammed into the Philippines has killed at least 303 people and injured 163 others, officials said Saturday.

The National Disaster Coordinating Council said another 293 people were missing in the wake of Typhoon Durian, which triggered massive flooding and volcanic mudslides.

Officials said 38,473 were being housed in evacuation shelters.

You can now return to chatting about how the USC ‘powerhouse’ lost to a team with a barely better-than-50% win record.

DAMMIT

DAMMIT

DAMMIT

DAMMIT

P.S. DAMMIT

P.P.S. DAMMIT!!!!!

It’s UCLA 13, USC 9 with seven minutes left and the Bruins have the ball. If they score a touchdown on this drive, it could be game over for USC.

UPDATE: HUGE hit on the QB to end UCLA’s drive, and the Trojans have the ball back with 5:52 left.

UPDATE 2: Uh-oh… another potentially game-deciding 4th and short at the Rose Bowl…

UPDATE 3: They got it this time! (Barely.) Woohoo! Whew! 1st and 10 from their own 39, 4:02 left.

But, what the hell is up with Booty today? What kind of a throw was that?

UPDATE 4: F**K!!!!

Interception.

Bruins win.

UPDATE 5: Well, it’s not quite over yet. 4th and 5 Bruins with 31 seconds left, they’ll punt it with 13 left…

BLOCK!!! THAT!!! KICK!!!

Lots of good stuff over on Casey’s blog.

ARRRGHH!!! Why is it that, whenever USC steps into the Rose Bowl, they can’t stop quarterbacks from running the ball???

No score yet, but the Bruins are threatening.

UPDATE: 7-0 Bruins on — what else? — a running TD by the QB. 4 rushes for 55 yards by UCLA quarterback Patrick Cowan.

On the bright side, Gonzaga beat Texas, 87-77. And it wasn’t that close — the Longhorns finished the game on an 18-0 run. The Zags led 87-59 with 5:24 left!

UPDATE 2: Safety! And it’s 7-2.

UPDATE 3: It would help if the Trojans could stop committing penalties. Bah.

At least USC isn’t the only Pac-10 team struggling against an inferior rival. Cal is only up 23-17 over Stanford.

Elsewhere, in the ACC, a “thriller” in Jacksonville: Wake Forest 9, Georgia Tech 6, final. No touchdowns scored by either team. But Wake Forest is going to the Orange Bowl, where they’ll probably play either Rutgers or Louisville (depending on whether the Scarlet Knights win tonight at West Virginia).

UPDATE 4: It’s 9-7 at halftime. Trojans lead on the strength of the safety. Now it’s time for some Pete Carroll Second-Half Magic^TM.

UPDATE 5: USC didn’t score on the first drive of the second half. No magic yet. Michigan fans are getting excited. Ooh, ooh, can we crush their dreams and Bruin fans’ dreams, all at once, with a big late third-quarter/fourth-quarter run? Can we, can we?

In other news, Cal beat Stanford, 26-17.

I could go for another scene like this:

Although I suppose this would suffice:

FIGHT ON, TROJANS!!! Let’s make it eight in a row!!!

P.S. Much more here. And here’s a video to help all you fellow Trojans get psyched up for the game:

P.P.S. Here’s another video, from the Brendan Loy archives:

That Russian spy wasn’t poisoned by Vladimir Putin; he was poisoned by aliens in UFOs! (Hat tip: Fark, via Becky.)

The invasion has begun… which means there is only one question that needs to be answered: where is Tom Jones?!?

Here is today’s football schedule. USC-UCLA is at 4:30pm EST. BEAT THE BRUINS!!! Mike is going to look great in my XL Trojan sweatshirt… :)

The other game I’m acutely interested in, Rutgers-West Virginia, is at 7:45. And wouldn’t it be cool if UConn stunned Louisville at home in the day’s first game (starts at noon)? If they did, the evening Rutgers-WVU battle would effectively become the Big East championship game. Meanwhile, Notre Dame’s likely bowl opponent will be decided by the Florida-Arkansas game at 6pm. Oh, and at 3pm, in basketball action, it’s Gonzaga vs. Texas! GO ZAGS!

Unfortunately, because of that 30-page paper I keep alluding to, blogging will be unusually light for such a big game day. Guestbloggers and commenters are encouraged to keep the party going, though.

Now this is starting to get Serious. :>

LONDON — The wife of an ex-KGB agent fatally poisoned in Britain and the Italian security expert he met the day he fell ill both showed traces of the same radioactive substance found in the dead man’s body, friends and officials said Friday.

The inquiry into the death of Alexander Litvinenko widened with the new positive test results, the evacuation of a hotel in southern England, and the sweep of an Irish hospital that treated a Russian opposition leader for what his aides described as poisoning. In Italy, the government sought to reassure the public there was no danger.

…In Ireland, meanwhile, authorities tested Dublin’s James Connolly Memorial Hospital, which treated former Russian Prime Minister Yegor Gaidar after he became violently ill during a conference last week — an incident his aides have described as another poisoning.

Irish health officials said tests were carried out to gauge any risks to public health, but said they found no traces of radiation.

Gaidar, 50, who served briefly as prime minister in the 1990s and is one of the leaders of a liberal opposition party, began vomiting and fainted during a conference in Ireland on Nov. 24.

His daughter, Maria, said in Moscow that his life was no longer in danger and he was slowly recovering.

“It seems to me that it’s probable that he was poisoned. I think that it could be somehow connected with Litvinenko, I don’t know how, but it seems so strangely connected in the time and even geographically connected,” she told AP Television News.

Irish police have launched an inquiry into Gaidar’s illness, but they said the investigation was routine and should not worry the public. “Tracing the movements of the subject and establishing the facts is the focus” of the investigation, police said.

Traces of radiation have been found at a dozen sites in Britain and five jetliners were being investigated for possible contamination…

Read the whole thing, for much more on this ever-Ramifying international murder mystery. (Irrelevant Footnote: the fellow Memorialized by Dublin’s James Connolly Memorial Hospital, himself died suddenly of Lead poisoning ~ in a manner of Speaking ~ administered by British firing squad on May 12, 1916.)