USC to ‘own the mistakes’ after uneven win at CU
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Paolo Uggetti, ESPN
BOULDER, Colo. — After dominating the first half of Saturday’s much-anticipated matchup between USC and Colorado, the Trojans saw their comfortable lead nearly evaporate in the second half as their defense once again struggled to contain a dynamic offense in a 48-41 victory over the Buffaloes.
The result left head coach Lincoln Riley and the rest of his team in a familiar place: celebrating a win — their fifth of the season — while also bemoaning their shortcomings after they were outscored 27-14 in the second half. Overall, USC allowed over 500 yards of offense (more than their own offensive unit had), including 371 passing yards and four touchdowns by Colorado quarterback Shedeur Sanders, who excelled when moving outside of the pocket and finished with 50 net yards on the ground.
“We didn’t play a very good second half really on any of the three sides,” Riley said after the game. “We’re going to own the win, we’re going to own the mistakes, we’re going to own the good, we’re going to go back to work.”
Riley’s refrain has been a common one this season, and while there has much been consternation about the Trojans’ defensive struggles and defensive coordinator Alex Grinch, Riley reiterated his commitment in Grinch when asked whether he still had faith in the coordinator.
“Yes, I do,” Riley said.
Safety Bryson Shaw went a step further. The junior was adamant Grinch was not to blame for any defensive failures, saying it was instead the players who haven’t executed in games this season.
“Coach Grinch, he’s doing a great job. I mean, we’re letting him down,” Shaw said. “That’s point-blank period. We’re letting him down. I don’t know what to tell y’all. As players, we are letting him down. I mean, he’s putting us in the right spot. We’re not making plays. We’re missing tackles. We’re not doing our job. I’m not doing my job. We’re letting him down.”
Shaw called the second-half performance “embarrassing” and said the defense needs to do whatever it can to fix it. One of the issues the unit appears to have is dealing with mobile quarterbacks. Sanders thrived when he stepped out of the pocket and found an open field in front of him, gaining chunks of yards and keeping several of Colorado’s drives going.
“Coach Grinch, he’ll sit in the meeting room. He’ll preach it the whole time, ‘Can’t let the quarterback out the pocket, can’t let the quarterback out the pocket,'” Shaw said. “What do we do? We let him out the pocket.”
Shaw remained convinced the Trojans have the right players, coaches and scheme to fix things before it’s too late. Linebacker Mason Cobb, echoed the sentiment, noting that what felt like a complete game in the first half is not going to be good enough to win going forward, but that the defense is committed to fixing issues and committed to Grinch.
“There’s no other coach we’d ever have,” Shaw said. “He’s doing his job. We’re not doing ours as players. That’s all there is to it.”
Riley, for his part, praised his players for their performance in a daunting road environment and was staunch in his belief that any failures this season are different than they were in his debut season with USC last year.
“When something doesn’t go our way, it doesn’t look like last year. Not to the trained eye, not to a coach,” Riley said. “Now, we still got plenty to correct. There’s a lot that’s improved and we’ve obviously got to put it all together.”
While the defense has allowed at least 349 yards in every game this season, any shortcomings haven’t hurt USC’s results. But as tougher opponents and more explosive offenses await, the urgency to correct and improve is high.
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Greg Wyshynski
After making NHL history during the regular season, Washington Capitals star Alex Ovechkin made some personal history in his team’s Game 1 win over the Montreal Canadiens on Monday.
Ovechkin scored the first playoff overtime goal of his career to propel the Capitals to a series-opening 3-2 victory at home in his 152nd career postseason game.
“A goal is a goal,” Ovechkin said after the victory. “Good things happen when you go to the net.”
Ovechkin is the all-time leader in regular-season overtime goals with 27 in 1,491 games. They’re part of his career total of 897 goals, having broken Wayne Gretzky’s NHL record of 894 goals this season.
“The guy’s the best player in the world. What else can you say?” said Capitals goaltender Logan Thompson, who made 33 saves in the win. “He comes in clutch. All game. It’s a privilege to be his teammate.”
After an icing call, Capitals forward Dylan Strome won a faceoff, with Montreal forwards Patrik Laine and Ivan Demidov failing to clear the puck. Winger Anthony Beauvillier collected the puck for a shot on goal and then tracked down his own rebound to Montreal goalie Sam Montembeault‘s right. Montreal’s Alex Newhook and Kaiden Guhle went to defend Beauvillier, who slid a pass to an open Ovechkin on the doorstep for the goal at 2:26 of overtime.
The overtime tally completed a monster night for Ovechkin.
He opened the scoring on the power play at 18:34 of the first period and then assisted on Beauvillier’s second-period goal to make it 2-0 before finishing off the pesky Canadiens in overtime. It was the 37th multipoint performance and 10th multigoal game of Ovechkin’s playoff career.
Ovechkin also had seven hits in the game to lead all skaters.
Ovechkin is the oldest skater in Stanley Cup playoff history to factor in all of his team’s goals in a game. He also became the fourth-oldest player in Cup playoff history to score an overtime goal at 39 years and 216 days. Detroit’s Igor Larionov was 41 years old when he scored a triple-overtime goal in Game 3 of the 2002 Stanley Cup Final against the Carolina Hurricanes.
With his first goal, Ovechkin passed Patrick Marleau and Esa Tikkanen (72) and tied Dino Ciccarelli (73) for the 14th-most playoff goals in NHL history. Ovechkin’s 74th career playoff goal put him in a tie with Joe Pavelski for the 13th-most career playoff goals.
The captain’s overtime heroism rescued Game 1 for the Capitals. The top seed in the Eastern Conference watched the Canadiens rally in the third period on goals by Cole Caufield and Nick Suzuki 5:13 apart to send the game to overtime.
“You can see why they made the playoffs. That team doesn’t quit,” Thompson said. “In the third, they didn’t go away. We’ve got to respect them. They took it to us in the third.”
But rather than give Montreal some much-needed confidence and a series lead in its upset bid, Ovechkin shut the door in overtime.
“He played a hell of game tonight,” Beauvillier said.
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