Live From The Rose Bowl: Cloris = Star Power

Talk about some big time star-power. Anytime you can get Cloris Leachman to be the Grand Marshall of the Tournament of Roses and then have her at the 50 to flip the commemorative coin, you know you’re in for a good game. Apparently, Estelle Getty and Bee Arthur were busy. Also, a great Stealth Bomber fly-by in pregame. Even if the military does decide to retire the plane, maybe we can keep a few in working order, as it’s a great touch for a big football game.

After the first couple drives, it looked like the commercial breaks were wining the first quarter. Both Penn State and USC were happy feeling out the other team’s defense, with Penn State mixing in Evan Royster, while USC moved Mark Sanchez in the pocket while feeding the ball to the trio of CJ Gable, Stephon Johnson, and Joe McKnight. But after both teams tried a little something called the forward pass, the game quickly opened up.

Sanchez has to be the early favorite for MVP honors, as he’s 7 of 9 with a pretty TD pass to Damian Williams, and he just snuck in a draw from the six-yard line for the Trojans second TD. The Nittany Lions put together a nice drive themselves after self-inflicted wounds hurt both their defense and their offense in the first quarter. It looks like Penn State is going to have to rely on the passing element of their HD offense if they’re going to hang with the Trojans. While they’re moving the ball okay on the ground, they aren’t going to be able to keep going three-and-out if they want to hang around in this one.

In other news, Joe Paterno is enjoying a pudding snack in the coaches box.

Just kidding.

This post originally appeared on the Sporting Blog. For more, see The Sporting Blog Archives.