Pete Carroll on the Flexbone Offense

Pete Carroll of USC was asked today about why Navy was able to go toe to toe with Ohio State. His answer is great.

Q. Coach Tressel indicated that it was close because he has a young team, and that option attack was something they rarely see. From your standpoint, why was the Navy game so close?

COACH CARROLL: Navy presents so many problems for the defenses that you just can't prepare for at the same speed and tempo. They're so good and so disciplined in what they do, that they take advantage of every miscue and it's a nightmare playing against them.

It's so elaborate. The triple option and so many different directions and formations can totally offset the physical match ups and they've been able to do that highly successfully, that's what happened in this game. They moved the ball pretty consistently against them although they couldn't ever break out, but they still could make first downs. That made for a difficult game.

They made a couple of big plays on defense to get the interception to set up the opportunity to tie the thing up. You know, and they did enough to keep it going. So I think, I don't know that everybody appreciates it from the coaching standpoint particularly from a defensive coaching standpoint, that's a nightmare game to prepare for. And that's I wouldn't be surprised that Navy has a really big year offensively. They really look like they know what they're doing. They're really good at it.