{"id":57071,"date":"2017-01-03T02:06:47","date_gmt":"2017-01-03T09:06:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/midvalleysports.com\/?p=57071"},"modified":"2017-06-10T11:03:19","modified_gmt":"2017-06-10T18:03:19","slug":"the-peterson-principle-132016","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/midvalleysports.com\/?p=57071","title":{"rendered":"The Peterson Principle: 1\/3\/2017"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Tim<\/a>

Tim Peterson<\/p><\/div>\n

By Tim Peterson<\/p>\n

Unless you’re a fan of the Texas Longhorns, or the Penn State Nittany Lions for that matter, this had to be the greatest Rose Bowl ever right?<\/p>\n

It had everything –\u00a0big comebacks\u00a0(by both teams),\u00a0controversial calls (on both sides), questionable coaching decisions, several huge\u00a0plays, great performances and in the end a\u00a0game winning 46-yard field goal as the clock hit zeroes. USC led by 13 points\u00a0twice in the first half\u00a0while Penn State was up by 15 as late as the fourth quarter.<\/p>\n

USC quarterback Sam Darnold, a redshirt\u00a0freshman, put on\u00a0a show worthy of a senior Heisman Trophy winner as he threw for\u00a0453 yards and a Rose Bowl record five touchdowns.<\/p>\n

Penn State running back\u00a0Saquon Barkley wasn’t bad either with 194 yards rushing\u00a0and\u00a0a pair of scores.\u00a0He also had 55 yards receiving and\u00a0a touchdown.\u00a0And how much pressure was Matt Boermeester under when he lined up for the\u00a046-yarder with seconds left? Not much apparently\u00a0as his kick sailed though the uprights at 00:00 giving the Trojans a 52-49 victory.<\/p>\n

\"tdchristmas10\"<\/a>By the way\u00a0the 101\u00a0points scored in the game\u00a0was also a Rose Bowl record. Darnold’s\u00a0TD strike to\u00a0Deontay Burnett to get USC even in the fourth quarter was a thing of absolute beauty.\u00a0It was one of those passes that just made you stand up and take notice.\u00a0Another one to JuJu Smith\u00a0down\u00a0the right sideline\u00a0was near perfection as well.<\/p>\n

The referees missed that call ruling that Smith was out of bounds. But after a review of the play they got it right.<\/p>\n

And for all of you local high school and USC football\u00a0fans did you notice that\u00a0Leon McQuay\u00a0III, who picked\u00a0off\u00a0Trace McSorley’s pass that led to the game wining field goal for the Trojans\u00a0was wearing number 22, which was former Temple City\/USC\u00a0star Desmond Reed’s old number?\u00a0How cool is that?<\/p>\n

I may be biased\u00a0but the ejection of USC linebacker Cameron Smith for targeting\u00a0in the second half\u00a0was…how shall I put it?…well…horse crap. How can you throw a guy out for making a play? So now a coach is supposed to tell his players “Ok son, make sure you tackle\u00a0him but just don’t hit him too hard.”\u00a0Ridiculous.<\/p>\n

The targeting rule\u00a0should be eliminated completely in my opinion. It’s way too subjective and the punishment doesn’t fit the crime. I don’t know, how about a 15-yard penalty?<\/p>\n

But hey what’s a great game without a little controversy?<\/p>\n

What\u00a0does Texas\u00a0have to do with anything? Texas was the\u00a0other team involved in what many consider the greatest\u00a0Rose Bowl of them all.\u00a0In the 2006 game the Vince Young led Longhorns beat USC 41-38\u00a0to win the National Championship. Texas was down by 12 in the fourth quarter before rallying to win. Stars like Young,\u00a0Matt Leinart and\u00a0Reggie Bush graced the field that day in what became an instant classic.\u00a0It was also ABC broadcaster Keith Jackson’s last game as an announcer. Great game?\u00a0Yes.\u00a0But the 2017 edition was better.\u00a0Why? Well for starters the Trojans won.\u00a0I’m not rooting for no Texas!<\/p>\n

Besides if this year’s Rose Bowl wasn’t the best ever than it\u00a0was the 1975 game\u00a0when Pat Haden\u00a0hit Shelton Diggs\u00a0for a two-point conversion to give USC an 18-17 win over Ohio State.\u00a0The Trojans were crowned National Champions.<\/p>\n

**<\/p>\n

Alabama’s win over Washington\u00a0surprised me only because it was\u00a024-7 instead of 42-7.\u00a0Clemson’s\u00a031-0 rout of Ohio State was stunning. Some thought, including myself,\u00a0that the Buckeyes would win.<\/p>\n

Speaking of Alabama,\u00a0what did Lane Kiffin do that ticked off Nick\u00a0Saban to the point\u00a0that he would send him packing before the championship game and put Steve Sarkisian\u00a0in charge of the offense? Isn’t that a huge risk with a title on the line?\u00a0All things considered I’ll take Clemson in an upset.<\/p>\n

**<\/p>\n

Is there anybody hotter in the NFL right now than the Green\u00a0Bay Packers? They should take care of\u00a0the Giants this weekend at home\u00a0while\u00a0the Lions, Green Bay’s latest victim, will fall to Seattle in the other NFC Wild Card round game. In the AFC I\u00a0like\u00a0Pittsburgh to end Miami’s season.\u00a0In the other game the Oakland Raiders have\u00a0problems.\u00a0Matt McGloin, who was playing in place of\u00a0the injured Derek Carr, went down with a shoulder injury. If he can’t go the Raiders will turn to rookie Connor Cook who replaced him Sunday in a loss to Denver.\u00a0The Carr injury\u00a0was devastating. The McGloin injury could be fatal.\u00a0Does anybody have it as bad as the Raiders?<\/p>\n

Well yeah, there’s the Los Angeles Rams…<\/p>\n

That’s my principle.<\/p>\n

Tim can be reached at tim@midvalleysports.com\u00a0or on Twitter @tspeterson40<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Tim Peterson Unless you’re a fan of the Texas Longhorns, or the Penn State Nittany Lions for that matter, this had to be the greatest Rose Bowl ever right?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[6,12817],"tags":[8409,12536,12543,10030,12295,10412,1479,8551,8869,6513,10819,12544,7882,12542,12294,4251,12545,12539,8001,8033,3443,8183,8484,12537,5718,12127,12540,12535,7949,10791,12541,8137,12538,8150],"class_list":["post-57071","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-fanview","category-petersonprince","tag-alabama-football","tag-clemson-football","tag-connor-cook","tag-denver-broncos","tag-deontay-burnett","tag-derek-carr","tag-desmond-reed","tag-detroit-lions","tag-green-bay-packers","tag-heisman-trophy","tag-juju-smith","tag-keith-jackson","tag-la-rams","tag-leon-mcquay-iii","tag-matt-boermeester","tag-matt-leinart","tag-matt-mcgloin","tag-ncaa-national-championship","tag-oakland-raiders","tag-ohio-state-football","tag-pat-haden","tag-penn-state-football","tag-pittsburgh-steelers","tag-reggie-bush","tag-rose-bowl","tag-sam-darnold","tag-saquon-barkely","tag-shelton-diggs","tag-temple-city-football","tag-texas-football","tag-trace-mcsorley","tag-usc-football","tag-vince-young","tag-washington-football"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/midvalleysports.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57071","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/midvalleysports.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/midvalleysports.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/midvalleysports.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/midvalleysports.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=57071"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"http:\/\/midvalleysports.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57071\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":57077,"href":"http:\/\/midvalleysports.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57071\/revisions\/57077"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/midvalleysports.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=57071"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/midvalleysports.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=57071"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/midvalleysports.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=57071"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}