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It finally happened! The road losing streak is over and life is revitalized into Beaver Nation. The Beavers can ride this momentum into a home game which should be loud following a conference win. In comes a USC team that is down a starting QB and is very beatable this year. They are coming into some bad weather in Reser which gives the Beavers an early edge. If they hope to knock of the PAC-12 powerhouse here is what the Beavers will need to do.
Key 1: Start Jake Luton
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It’s easy. Changing a QB at this point, or trying to create a controversy is the last thing the Beavers need to do. The whole team is behind Jake as he lead the immaculate come back against Colorado last week. They need to keep riding that success and get their passing game going. Jake can spread out the defense and truly make the offense two-dimensional. They will need to keep the USC defense on their heels if they hope to keep rolling and score. They will need to put up a good amount of stats to be able to keep up with USC.
Key 2: Repeat the second half of defense
The defense got it together in the second half. They showed what they had shown glimpses of all year. It was only a matter of time with coach Tibs to get them rolling. Now the key is to not be complacent with one win and keep building off this. This defense should come in confident and be powered by a rowdy Reser home crowd. If they can jump on USC early and set the tone it should allow them to make their job easier as the game goes. USC has shown to never give up in games so it will be tough, so the defense will have to play a complete game and not give up if we have the lead.
Key 3: Don’t get complacent
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The Beavers finally won. Morale is high. Very few people expected them to beat Colorado, and they had very little reason to believe they would, especially in that fashion. The Beavers feel on top of the world. Coach Smith got his first conference victory and ended the losing streak on the road. With this, it would be easy for the Beavers to come out content with that victory and go back to their old ways. They can’t expect their past success to scare anyone or somehow win them another game. Trying to lead big comebacks is not a good game plan and not sustainable. They will have to realize it shows teams that the Beavers are not just an easy win and will get a team’s best effort. This team needs to step up to the challenge and try to do something the Beavers haven’t done in too long, have a two-game winning streak.
The Beavers can’t be fooled by this struggling USC team. Don’t let the horse through the gates. They are still a very good team if they put it together. With this said, they are very beatable and are in a down year. The Beavers need to play a very good game to win and keep to their winning ways. Go Beavs.