For Pete's sake coach Carroll, it's "we" not "us"

University of Southern California football coach Pete Carroll on the Trojan's defeat by Oregon State:

"They played better than us. They played harder than us. They made all the plays they needed to make...and they deserve a tremendous amount of credit. It's a great win."

All true, Pete, except for your use of pronouns, which rings untrue concerning their case. Should have said: "They played better than we" and, "They played harder than we." That is, They played better than we played. Coach Carroll needed to use a pronoun in the subjective case according to the syntax that he chose.

The conjunction "than" sets up a comparison: "They played." and "We played." Not, "They played..." and "Us played." Yes, we played, but they played harder.

As for Coach Carroll. He will rally his boys. Fight On!

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