The Rose Bowl

Much of the pre-game talk about USC and Penn State has revolved around how very different their games against Oregon State turned out. Penn State thumped OSU 45-14 while OSU beat USC 27-21. These two games against the Beavers are very different for myriad reasons:

1. Penn State was playing at home. This shouldn't be discounted the Beavers historically don't play well east of the Mississippi as evidenced by their recent trips to Cincinnati and Louisville attest. The exception to this have been in 2002 when they played Temple who weren't any good to begin with. Also Oregon State's QB was making his 5th career start. Of those starts only the Civil War game the previous season was played in a difficult environment, but with it being an in-state game there was a sizable OSU contingent at the game. Playing in Pennsylvania there weren't nearly the same supportive crowd. Thus this was by far the most difficult place that the Beavers had played in a long time. 
2. OSU didn't know how good Jacquizz Rodgers is. The Beavers figured this out during the Penn State game, notably during his first TD run, but by that point it was already 28-0
   
3. It isn't like the Beavers haven't beaten USC recently. The Beavers previously beat USC in Corvallis in 2000 and 2006 and played USC tightly in 2004. Had the Beavers capitalized on some USC mistakes, notably Reggie Bush muffing a punt, and gotten touchdowns instead of field goals on their trips to the red zone, the result may have been different. But once again all of those games happened in Corvallis. Recent games in LA haven't been nearly as competitive. 
4. The Beavers tend to get better as the year goes on. Especially this year as they were breaking in an entirely new front 7, had big changes on the offensive line and they didn't know how Jacquizz's skills would translate onto the college stage. These things took about a month to work out, just in time for the USC game.

It also is interesting why the discussion isn't centered around the other team that both Penn State and USC played, Ohio State. Penn State eeked out a close win on the road while USC blasted Ohio State at home, which seems much the same way that things probably would have worked out had the locales of the games with Oregon State had been flipped.