Ducks Send Trojans South

I was not surprised the Ducks beat USC at all.
I am not even surprised Oregon hung all those yards on 'SC.
I wasn't surprised the fans were totally nuts and stormed the field it didn't surprise me that Kyle wound up in the middle of that human blender.
I WAS surprised at some of the decisions USC players made on the field.
There was a big opening to the right on the opening kick return and later, another clear lane that would have sparked the Trojans.
But the fans rained down on USC and so did the weather at times.
USC didn't tackle well and when Matt Barkley had open receivers, he missed them.
The whole scene so totally overwhelmed everyone and I'm pretty sure the Ducks could have beaten anyone Saturday night.
Another surprise: the calm confidence the team showed after the game.
Jeremiah Masoli cracked a few smiles and a reporter asked him about an emotional moment in the tunnel between Masoli and an old friend, but other than that, not a single player I saw was giddy (at least on the outside) about the win.
Flask back to 2000 when Joey Harrington beat Marques Tuiasosopo and the Huskies at Autzen. A straight-faced Joey told me, "I'ts not more special because it was Washington." Then his face broke into a big smile and he changed his tune, "Yes, its much bigger because it was the Huskies."
That was Joey. This is now.
These guys are cold and calculating on the field and they love to cut teams up. I mean they LOVE LIFE when things are going like they are.
For these coaches and players, days like Saturday are the REASON THEY EXIST.
And we all got to enjoy it with them.

A few Tailgate Evaluation Experimentation notes:
At about 11, I started thinking we needed to be on the road, but Kyle and I had settled on 1:30. That way, he could see his daughter's soccer game.
To the surprise of few, the media parking lot was full.
We had to park in the Chevy Chase neighborhood down the road and fortunately found an open section of curb right away.
We hiked the extra half mile in the rain and wandered through the tailgating area like a couple of lost kids.
We were, too because we could not find the Roseburg fans who invited us to their parties.
The parking lot reminded me of Woodstock, without the dancing hippies.
Mud puddles and burn barrels and people dressed like this guy:

We bailed on our plan and insisted on getting a better start in the future.
I also learned a few things about tailgate organizers.
First, if they have an awesome setup, they are fighting people off, not inviting more folks in.
Second, they aren't in it to win some prize from a couple of radio hacks.
They are in it to have something to do after arriving hours ahead of kickoff AND having a distraction in case the game turns sour.
Third, they don't care what other people think about the way thry go about their bid-ness.
In otherwords, we need to rethink the whole thing despite the amount of fun we were hoping to generate.
I guess tailgaters around here are satisfied that they already have about as much fun as they could have without our help.
And that should not be a surprise to me.