Winning a Road Game Against a Winning Team?

by Nestor on Oct 10, 2006 4:46 PM PDT in Football

Back to reality:

0-7

That is Karl Dorrell's record on the road when his takes on a team with a winning record (his over all road record is also a pathetic 7-10). Take a look. It's not pretty:

Year	Opponent	Record	Result
2003	Oklahoma	12-2	24-59 (L)
2003	Washington St.	10-3	13-31 (L)
2003	Southern Cal	12-1	22-47 (L)
2004	California	10-2	28-45 (L)
2004	Arizona St.	9-3	42-48 (L)
2005	Southern Cal	12-1	19-66 (L)
2006	Washington	4-2 (to date)	19-29 (L)
2006	Oregon	4-1 (to date)	?
2006	Notre Dame	5-1 (to date)	?
2006	California	5-1 (to date)	?

The only close loss (a moral victory as some Dorrell apologists would call it) was the one against ASU in '04 during which a wonderful prevent defense (and 4 Drew Olson ints) helped the Bruins to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory.

So we are now in year 4. Dorrell's team has already blown its first chance to pick up a win over a team with winning record on the road, when it gave the game away to Washington. Now it will have three more chances.

This week we get Oregon, a team which was somewhat exposed by Cal, and then ND with a vulnerable defense. Will Dorrell be able to finally win a road game against a legit team with a winning record?

From Bruin columnist Charles Chiccoa on BRO (free article):

UCLA does seem to have got the knack of winning at home, but in order to get where they want to go, where we need them to be, they're going to have to finally come up with a big win on the road, something they haven't shown any talent for. Just during the KD years, they've blown the Colorado opener at Boulder, lost at Stanford, lost badly at Washington St., blown it against Fresno St. (wherever the wretched Silicon Bowl is played), got killed in Berkeley, blew a game at Arizona St. and another to Wyoming in the wretched Vegas Bowl... and of course that awful performance in Seattle a few weeks ago. We don't even need to talk about the SC experiences. Which is not to say the Bruins haven't won some big games, and some games on the road, only that they haven't won big enough to be taken seriously. "We're number 28!" doesn't quite get it.

Since former UCLA defensive coordinator Nick Aliotti still has a job, Oregon is certainly beatable. It's good this game precedes the game in South Bend, which should be the tougher of the two. Cal stuffed the very dangerous Jonathan Stewart and apparently forced Dennis Dixon to beat them. Result: three picks. Dixon seems to me a prototypical running quarterback, a short passer who throws hard but without a lot of touch downfield. Sure it'll be loud up there, but at least Cowan shouldn't be going against some kind of suffocating defense in his first start, which is always a more difficult proposition than coming off the bench. I notice the line opened too heavily in Oregon's favor and immediately dropped a few points. We'll see.

I hate waiting 'til next year, mainly because it's hard enough to count on this year, never mind who might not be around next year, or who might get hurt, or how the schedule might shake out, or God knows what other unwelcome surprises. I want it now... squeeze every once of juice from this season. The next four games should decide whether the SC game will be meaningful in the very best sense, or whether the Bruins will just be right back in their old place trying to ruin the Trojans' season while making their season with this one game (a loser's proposition). This game in Eugene is a sort of elimination game between UCLA and Oregon, and one more chance again for the Bruins to get some much needed attention. It's about time they come through.

Just like CC we are sick of waiting till next year too.

We need to make something happen this Saturday or in our next two road games.

Oh and moral victories will not cut it. We've had more than three years of that spin.

GO BRUINS.

0 recs | Comment 19 comments

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Comments

0-7 against winning teams? a little misleading

0-5 against teams with 10 wins. 0-1 against teams with 9 wins. and 0-1 against a team that was one play away from beating USC.

by guttylittlebruins on Oct 10, 2006 3:29 PM PDT 0 recs

Not really

Dorrell hasn't beaten team with winning records on the road. That is fact. And if we want to be charitable, he had two golden opportunities to pull out wins against either ASU (04) or Washington (this year). His team blew it both times.

Dorrell was brought in to have our team fire out in all the games, compete for the conference titles. Well for him to do that it is imperative he wins at least 1 or 2 of these big games.

He has 0 big wins in his 3+ coaching careers in Westwood.

He is getting yet another chance against perhaps on over-rated Oregon team, which was exposed by Cal, and is not playing without a number of its starters on its DL and defensive backfield.

As CC says now will be a good time for him to come through.

So far he hasn't.

by Nestor on Oct 10, 2006 4:51 PM PDT up 0 recs

KD has had 1 big win....

I agree that 0-7 is worth talking about and shows poorly on Dorrell. However, I will give him credit for his 1 big win, Oklahoma, last year. You could argue that OKs O-line hadn't gelled when we played them last year, but we did stuff a healthy AP. Also, anyone at the game knows that there was an electricity in the air after that win that we haven't experienced since we bitch-slapped Washington at home in '01(?).

by bornagainbruin on Oct 10, 2006 7:13 PM PDT up 0 recs

Nope

I don't consider that win over hobbled Sooners team all that big. Sooners were playing with an injured Peterson and a freshmen QB. That win was expected. And OU was not all that great last year.

Those wins should be expected at the Rose Bowl.

by Nestor on Oct 10, 2006 7:18 PM PDT up 0 recs

Nope, right back at ya :)

With all due respect, I don't agree.

You cannot tell me that last year's "hobbled" Sooners team was more "hobbled" than us when we met last year.
AP said he wasn't injured for the UCLA game.
OU last year was 8-4, and that was with getting screwed against Texas tech. Maybe they weren't the dominant OK of previous years, but they were still very good.
So what if the win was "expected" by Bruin faithful because it was at the rose bowl. Does that mean it can't be considered a big win? Of course not.

Look, I'm laughing as I write this because I don't think KD is a good head football coach, but it seems that you are so biased against the guy that you can't even give him a little credit where it is due. Another example of this is your negatively toned post right after the AZ win.

by bornagainbruin on Oct 10, 2006 7:58 PM PDT up 0 recs

The win against OU

was a good win. But it was an expected win over a good top-20 team (not an elite one) at the Rose Bowl.

I expect UCLA to beat every good top-20 teams at home. So yeah it was a good win but not a break out one.

A break out win is a huge win which is somewhat unexpected. Although Bruins have a good chance to win this weekend's game, given the odds it'd be unexpected.

KD still hasn't won any of these break out games. OU game last year wasn't a break out win.

by Nestor on Oct 11, 2006 4:15 AM PDT up 0 recs

Oklahoma (and Cal) were not Top 20 teams last year

Oklahoma was #22 & Cal was #25.

Those are the only ranked teams KD has ever beaten.

by McCloskey on Oct 11, 2006 9:01 AM PDT up 0 recs

It was big at the time

However, after all was said and done, that OU team really wasn't that good.

by Ajax on Oct 10, 2006 10:07 PM PDT up 0 recs

What are we?

Oregon State?

I think it is pathetic that some us don't have the expectations we beat good/great team on the road.

Dorrell needs to break through in these big games.

There is a reason no one mistakes him for being a big time coach because he has not won a single big time game.

These are all big time games and Dorrell has badly failed in every single of these opportunities.

Now would be a good time to break this streak.

by bluestreet on Oct 10, 2006 5:53 PM PDT up 0 recs

Comeon bluestreet

"Dorrell not a big time coach?"

Don't you know the KC Chiefs had the unenvieable task of choosing between Karl Dorrell and Herm Edwards?

by Ajax on Oct 10, 2006 10:09 PM PDT up 0 recs

Not sure what the point is

It still adds up to 0-7.

Bottom line, when a Dorrell team is expected to lose, they usually do.

by Ajax on Oct 10, 2006 10:06 PM PDT up 0 recs

How about this then...

The wins last year over Cal & Oklahoma (both at home) are the only two wins KD has over programs with fewer than 5 losses.

Or put it this way...
KD's record against teams that didn't lose at least 6 games, is 4-11

2003
Oklahoma (12-2) LOSS
WSU (10-3) LOSS
Oregon (8-5) LOSS
USC (12-1) LOSS
Fresno St. (9-5) LOSS

2004
Oklahoma St. (7-5) LOSS
Cal (10-2) LOSS
ASU (9-3) LOSS
USC (13-0) LOSS
Wyoming (7-5) LOSS

2005
Oklahoma (8-4) WIN
Cal (8-4) WIN
ASU (7-5) WIN
USC (12-1) LOSS
Northwestern (7-5) WIN

by McCloskey on Oct 11, 2006 8:58 AM PDT up 0 recs

i hate html

oops.

by guttylittlebruins on Oct 10, 2006 3:33 PM PDT 0 recs

THIS YEAR WE TURN IT AROUND!

I tuly believe we are going to win more then we lose on the road this year against the all mighty three...Oregon,cal,ND! Lets be positive. Our "D" is real this year. Pat Cowan will play lights out. GO BRUINS!!!!

by bruinelder on Oct 10, 2006 8:34 PM PDT 0 recs