My oh my. Dilbeck nails it (emphasis mine throughout):
So last year the Bruins lost to the Trojans 29-24, and it was praise to Odin!
Only fell by five points. Gave 'em a real game. Why, if Maurice Drew didn't get hurt early or Spencer Havner gets that fumble, it's the unimaginable - UCLA might have actually won!
This is extremely dangerous territory for the Bruins. A place to avoid at all costs. A place that doesn't level the playing field, but helps elevate USC into another stratosphere.
Has USC been so good for so long that UCLA followers get all giddy at the mere prospect of playing the Trojans tough
Is that what losing six consecutive times, while USC went on the past two years to be crowned national champion, does to a team's fans? Lowers its expectations to where just making USC sweat a little is some kind of poor-man's victory?
This is rivalry week. A week where anything can happen. Where 9-1 UCLA, ranked 11th in the country, is only expected by the oddsmakers to lose by - three touchdowns
Duke Cunningham gets more respect, not to mention yachts. Bush has a higher approval rating.
UCLA should have a one single goal Saturday: To beat the living snot out of USC.
Not to hang with them, not to make them nervous a few quarters, but to send them into the Coliseum tunnel with heads dragging, stunned that their mighty winning streak has come to a crashing halt at the hands of their hated rival.
Oh Dilbeck is not done there. He absolutely crushes the notion of taking joy and comfort out of a "moral victory":
Only fell by five points. Gave 'em a real game. Why, if Maurice Drew didn't get hurt early or Spencer Havner gets that fumble, it's the unimaginable - UCLA might have actually won!
This is extremely dangerous territory for the Bruins. A place to avoid at all costs. A place that doesn't level the playing field, but helps elevate USC into another stratosphere.
Has USC been so good for so long that UCLA followers get all giddy at the mere prospect of playing the Trojans tough
Is that what losing six consecutive times, while USC went on the past two years to be crowned national champion, does to a team's fans? Lowers its expectations to where just making USC sweat a little is some kind of poor-man's victory?
This is rivalry week. A week where anything can happen. Where 9-1 UCLA, ranked 11th in the country, is only expected by the oddsmakers to lose by - three touchdowns
Duke Cunningham gets more respect, not to mention yachts. Bush has a higher approval rating.
UCLA should have a one single goal Saturday: To beat the living snot out of USC.
Not to hang with them, not to make them nervous a few quarters, but to send them into the Coliseum tunnel with heads dragging, stunned that their mighty winning streak has come to a crashing halt at the hands of their hated rival.
The Bruins can be thinking of nothing but defeating USC. Of pounding them. Of putting them on their heels, leaving them flummoxed and suddenly hoping for a Fiesta Bowl berth.
There is real peril in lowering expectations. It's self-defeating. It's crippling.
"That's not how we look at it," Dorrell said. "That's an interesting dynamic. The reason I say that is, we might have surprised people by as close a game as we had last year.
"But we were disappointed. We honestly felt we had a chance to win that game."
Whoopee, they had a chance. There are no points for that. There's no 1-A to the Trojans No. 1 because they won by less than a touchdown.
Yeap, a moral victory or being close or showing heart ... none of that nonsense will work this time. We want nothing short of destruction of Troy tomorrow at that hellhole of a stadium in South Central. BEAT SC.
There is real peril in lowering expectations. It's self-defeating. It's crippling.
"That's not how we look at it," Dorrell said. "That's an interesting dynamic. The reason I say that is, we might have surprised people by as close a game as we had last year.
"But we were disappointed. We honestly felt we had a chance to win that game."
Whoopee, they had a chance. There are no points for that. There's no 1-A to the Trojans No. 1 because they won by less than a touchdown.