3^rd quarter

14:50: Another play action completion by Barkley. He wasn’t on a bootleg here, sets his feet and finds an open guy. One area where Barkley has looked good is in play action.

14:27: Barkley throws it up to a 6-4 receiver, who has to go high to get it, but it’s a completion.

13:51: Barkley with a quick check down Robert Woods open in space on 3^rd and 2. It goes for the first.

12:43: Barkley finds Woods again, this time over the middle for about 20 yards.

12:16: The wind cooled down at half time and Barkley heated up. Barkley finished a 5-5 drive with a touchdown to Marqise Lee, who makes a nice catch it reel it in. Barkley put it where only his guy could get it, which is key in the end zone, and they get 6. It’s now 21-16 Arizona State.

11:35: TJ McDonald comes in to make the tackle after the receiver makes a big catch for a big gain.

10:26: Barkley off of play action again. He throws it on the money and allows the receiver a chance to try to do something with it. He’s really in rhythm now.

8:39: Barkley throws a beautiful deep ball, just overthrown to Marqise Lee. That’s still a great throw for how under pressure he was, even if it was just overthrown.

8:30: Marc Tyler is USC’s starting running back and a projected day 3 pick. He finally has a big run, going for 26 yards. His previous high was 9 for the game. He doesn’t have a lot of speed, but he’s got good size and he’s shifty and powerful. He’ll be spotlighted at a later date.

8:01: Barkley just floats one out of the end zone. Not even close.

7:40: Tyler this time for 14 yards. He’s looking good.

6:41: Tyler on the misdirection run for the touchdown for 10 yards. He’s at 91 yards on 17 carries today.

1:05: Barkley on the play action bootleg again, not set on the move, but he’s strong enough to throw an accurate pass there to Robert Woods, who makes a nice catch against single coverage.

4^th quarter

14:14: Barkley connects to Lee, who can’t get anywhere. Barkley was under pressure and needed to get it out and he gets it to Lee short in stride, but Lee isn’t able to break it.

13:33: Barkley to Woods again. Barkley leaves it a little high and Woods takes a big hit in the air, but still a nice throw for the first down. Woods has 7 catches for 122 yards tonight.

13:04: Barkley with a completion in the flat, but it doesn’t go for much.

12:19: Tyler with a big run powered by a Matt Kalil block. I haven’t said much about Kalil, but he’s very athletic. He’s done a great job keeping guys off of Matt Barkley, who has had a very clean pocket tonight. Kalil had an excellent block here on the outside. He moves well for his size and will obviously be spotlighted at a later date as a potential top 5 pick in the draft. He’s had a couple awesome blocks like this today, but this was his best and it opens a huge lane for Kalil.

10:29: Barkley pressured for one of the first times tonight and he’s hit as he throws. The ball comes out and Arizona State recovers the fumble. USC has not been good in the end zone tonight. This one was as much on Barkley as it was on USC’s right tackle, who allowed the quick pressure. Barkley needs to get that out quicker. He loves pump faking and double clutching, but at a certain point, he needs to be able to get the ball out quick.

9:32: TJ McDonald with a late hit out of bounds. This guy is having a terrible night. 3 personal foul penalties tonight to go with a few missed tackles. Other than that, he really hasn’t had much of an impact tonight in any way. He’s not been an asset to USC’s defense tonight.

8:00: McDonald on the quarterback pressure, but Osweiler gets the ball out quickly. Osweiler is having another nice night today. He’s not coming out this year so I won’t spotlight him this year, but it’s nice to see him bounce back after a poor showing last week. He was good when I watched him against Missouri as well.

6:41: Earlier today I said Barkley needs to get the ball out quickly under pressure. He does that here. The problem, he made a very poor decision. Pick six. 43-22 Arizona State. Safe to say, there’s a huge difference between Barkley and Andrew Luck.

6:30: Barkley under pressure again and throws an off balanced pass that’s not able to be reeled in by the check down man.

6:17: Barkley finds Woods again for a 9 yard completion.

5:51: USC can’t complete the 3^rd and 1 with Marc Tyler. Too much dancing at the line and doesn’t find a hole that was there. 4^th down.

4:58: Barkley on 4^th and 6 after a false start penalty is incomplete. Just an inaccurate ball this time on the outside. Too far outside for the receiver to reel it in.

0:00: There’s a big difference between Andrew Luck and Matt Barkley. Matt Barkley has the talent and the upside to be very good, but it’s clear he’s got a lot to work on. He struggled whenever he was pressured and the difference in pocket presence ability between him and Luck is night and day. He’s got a nice deep ball, but needs to be more accurate with it.

Barkley finished 21 for 33 for 227 yards, 1 touchdown, and 2 picks. One of those picks came when he was pressured and just trying to make something happen that wasn’t there. The other pick was when he lost Vontaze Burflict who had dropped into an under zone and made a great play on the ball. Both were by linebackers. Both were on short stuff and both were absolutely avoidable. Andrew Luck is my #1 quarterback. Matt Barkley and Landry Jones are tied for #2. I need to see Landry Jones this season before I can make a decision between the 2. I also want to see a 2^nd of Barkley’s games in the future. I don’t feel this was all he had to offer.

Barkley also lost despite getting a lot of help by his running game, his offensive line, and his wide receivers. He wasn’t pressured until late when USC was down and it was obvious there were going to pass. Matt Kalil had an excellent game with a couple highlight reel blocks. Marc Tyler had for 147 yards and a score on 22 carries. The big, powerful back could be moving up draft boards if he keeps this up. True sophomore Robert Woods looks like a first round pick, but he’s not eligible until 2013. After leading the nation and setting a USC record with 33 catches in his first 3 games, he had 8 catches for 131 yards tonight despite the fact that Barkley wasn’t playing particularly well.

As for the other side of the ball, TJ McDonald sucked. He has very poor fundamentals. He doesn’t always wrap up on tackles and he prefers to go for the big hit rather than the safe tackle. This will lead to a lot of broken tackles and personal foul penalties at the next level as it did today. He also wasn’t great in coverage and frequently took plays off. He certainly didn’t look like a day 2 pick. He looked more like a late rounder tonight.

On the Arizona State side, Vontaze Burflict had a huge game. He wasn’t great in his first 3, because he was trying not to be a so called “dirty player” and it was throwing him off. However, tonight he had 5 tackles and a pick to give him 22 tackles, 4 sacks, and a pick in 4 games. I don’t think he’s a dirty player. He just tries hard and has an amazing motor. He even helped Matt Barkley up after Barkley tackled him on an interception return. I’ll definitely be spotlighting him at a later rate, but he looks like the best linebacker in this class. I’ve seen Manti Te’o and didn’t come away impressed, though I’m going to have a 2^nd look at him at some point. I also need to spotlight Luke Kueckly for some comparison.

Arizona State quarterback Brock Osweiler did a great job of game managing. He bounced back after a tough game last week against Illinois. He was good against Missouri in a game I watched two weeks ago. He’ll come out next year and I’ll spotlight him then, but he has a lot of promise. He was helped up by Cameron Marshall, a stud junior running back, who should come out next year as well. He has a lot of promise as well with 141 yards and 3 scores on 25 carries. He also caught a couple of passes.