Anything Can Happen on a Thursday Night

You never want to mess with sasquah; that's what I've learned from the commercials. But, you also never want to mess with teams or people on a thursday.

See, thursday night is a special time because everyone knows tomorrow you will wake up and it will be Friday - the last school day/work day of the week. After work/school, it's the weekend, and everyone is dying for that.

So when USC marched into Oregon to face off against the Oregon State Beavers, they should've been more careful. Because USC underestimated the fire the Beavers would bring to the game. No team wants to lose Thursday Night. Because if you lose, then your Fridays SUCK.

When USC headed north to face off against Oregon State, they thought it would be a walk in the park. A non-ranked AP Top 25 team who was 1-2 seemed like an easy Pac 10 win for #1 USC. Even though on the road, the Trojans were 20+ favorites to win. They must've felt confident because no #1 has ever lost on a Thursday Night. And yet, the Thursday Night ghosts were out to get the Trojans.

Much has been said about the Trojans' defense, and because of their dominance on the defensive side of the ball, they are ranked #1. But, this USC's D let up 343 yards along with 176 rushing yards, 11 more yards they gave up more than passing yards (167). Lyle Moevao completed 18 passes out of 28 attempts, had 167 yards and 2 TD's.

But the game ball had to go to Jacquizz Rodgers, the Beavers' freshman running back, who had 186 rushing yards along with 2 TD's. USC's Defense has not seen a running attack like this since Vince Young ran his way to a BCS Championship. Rodgers, like the rest of the Oregon State team, wanted to party on Friday night, and didn't want to lose on Thursday night. Which is why they were beating USC at halftime, 21-0.

This teaches a lesson to all the teams that are still undefeated: Do not play on Thursday night, but most importantly, play every game like it's an important game. This isn't College Basketball where a team can afford to have a couple of losses. With a couple of losses, a college football team wouldn't be in the Top 25 Polls. With one loss, a season could be over. Especially for USC, who doesn't play another Top 25 team that is currently positioned in the AP Top 25.

So, to especially Oklahoma, Georgia, LSU, Florida, Missouri, Texas, Alabama, Wisconsin, Texas Tech, BYU, Penn State, South Florida, Wake Forest, Utah, Boise State, Vanderbilt, and TCU: Don't get confident. Put this newspaper article on the bulletin board reminding every player what happened to USC this year, and last year when they lost to Stanford.

And, please, don't play on Thursday Night.