A light morning jog...

We all knew that Vince Young could play a great football game. We didn't know how easy he could make it look against #1 USC Trojans in a national championship game.

He threw for 267 yards and ran for 200 even. He averaged 10+ yards per carry, and completed 75% of his passes. He was never sacked, although one defensive back stuck to him once like a bug on a windshield.

Texas Defense
Texas' defense had the daunting task of stopping two Heisman trophy winners (Leinart and Bush), and their supporting all-star supporting cast. The Longhorn defense only stopped USC's offense a few times in the game; their defense forced USC to punt once, throw one interception, and miss two 4th-down conversions. Also, luckily for Texas, this years Heisman trophy winner, Reggie Bush made a poor decision and he attempted a lateral to a receiver that was expecting it less than even all the fans watching. Texas recovered. Also Texas had a pick that was erroneously called an incompletion. That one irked me since the ground can't cause a fumble. There was no official review of the play, either.

USC Defense
USC's defense performed: forcing and a few fumbles and recovering only one, forcing one turn-over-on-downs, forcing two punts, and forcing three field goal attempts (two were successful). The secondary of USC was surprisingly quiet. Please don't complain about the knee-down lateral in the second quarter. It would've changed very little in a game where Vince rushed 10+ yards per carry, and Texas would've had first and 10 from USC's 11.

Looks like the one turnover that counted most of all was the failed 4th-down conversion in the 4th quarter. Two yards were needed, but the Trojans were stopped by the All-American Longhorn defense for the second time on 4th down.

Pete Carroll
I'm going to defend USC's coach Pete Carroll on the 4th down and 2 conversion attempt; if they punted, they were only giving Texas bad field position. Vince Young won't be affected much by that. Pete had to go for it if he wanted to clinch the win, and Lendell White had rushed for 5+ yards per carry at that point.

Even then USC had a chance to stop Texas. After USC's drive (missing their second 4th-down conversion) and with seconds left in the game, on USC's 8 yard line, his team down by 5 points, 4th down and 5; Vince dropped back to pass. A quick scan revealed to him that he would have to "scramble" for the a first down. The team was risking turning the ball over on downs back to USC and a national championship loss. Anticlimactically, Vince jogged untouched for 8 yards and a touchdown.

"Gliding"
The thing is Vince Young scrambling should not be called "scrambling." The word scramble never jumps into my mind. Many quarterbacks run like their very lives are on the line; rushing in a hasty and undignified manner. Vince runs with fluidity and with unwavering confidence: a football god. It's almost like he has some kind of magic to keep the defense from moving quickly. They should call it "gliding" for him. Vince glided for 200 yards tonight.

Vince at quarterback had more total yardage (467) than the sum of Leinart's passing and Bush's rushing (365 + 82 = 447).

Heisman Recount, Anyone?
If the Heisman voting were next week, then would Vince or Reggie win? I'd vote every vote I had for Vince after last night.

Vince has many more stages on which to dominate.

Only 12 teams [this year] averaged more than 467. And Young went out and got that by himself — against a team with a 34-game winning streak.

Obviously, USC's defense is not on the same level as its offense. But it is still plenty good. And Young chewed it up like Juicy Fruit.

http://msn.foxsports.com/cfb/story/5222774