Month: September 2024

USC vs. Michigan: That’s Not Very Lincoln of You

Posted on by commbro

#18 Michigan vs. #11 USC
September 21, 2024 at 12:40pm
Michigan Stadium, Ann Arbor, MI: 110,702 (of 109,901)
Total Time: 3 hours 35 minutes

CommBro Breaker

The real CommBro Breaker of the week was that Miller Moss completed passes to only nine receivers this game. Apparently his power is only activated when that 10th receiver catches the ball. Not only have we figured out the exact reason USC lost, we have uncovered the mystery of the conspiracy. I can now safely end this post.

 

 

 

 

 

No, of course that wasn’t actually the end. No matter how much I wish I could end it that quickly with how little time I have, I could never do that. I’d rather not post anything at all (a habit I got too comfortable with the past five years) then make a joke of a post like that, but I digress…

USC took on its first conference game as a Big Ten member and it had to be on the road against the defending National Champs. It wasn’t any regular road game either, as the Big House boasts the largest official capacity in all of the United States—and their reported attendance numbers were even higher than that. Luckily, the Trojans an entire bye week to prepare for the game, but it really didn’t look like they took advantage of it.

The offense didn’t just come out looking flat, but the offensive line spent a good amount of time flat on the ground. So much so, they substituted players in the second half and proceeded to…spend slightly less time on the floor. Tack on the receivers dropping passes again, they had Miller Moss feeling more harassed than a sea turtle hatchling crossing the beach.

Miller Moss after every change of possession

Outside of three blown plays, the defense did decently (runs of 53 yards, 41 yards, 63 yards, which total to about half Michigan’s total yards). Two were due to poor positioning and one due to poor tackling. In the end, that’s pure copium though. Michigan scored as a result of those three plays and gave them enough to win the game. Besides, is it really a brag to allow a one-dimensional team run for 290 yards? Don’t get me wrong, being the first year of this defensive turnaround, the change is still impressive, but there are still things for them to work on.

Even the bright spots had some blemishes. Halfway through the third quarter, Michigan still had not managed to score (or really move the ball) that half, but Moss helped them along with an interception on the perimeter. The quick pick six to put the Wolverines up two scores again. Woody Marks decides to take the ball down to the 2-yard line with a 65-yard run, which the offensive line botched with a false start. Costly when the offense had to fight for every yard. The ensuing crucial 3rd down play resulted in a sack/fumble that was very nearly returned for a game-clinching touchdown. Woody Marks saved the day again with not only stopping the defensive lineman from scoring, but doing a clean strip and recovery that looked straight out of a video game. The double possession change even reset it to first down. It’s sad that’s what it took to finally score.

Then towards the end of the game, on the second to last USC drive, they picked the wrong time to dip back into all their problems: poor OL play leading to rushed (incomplete) passes, false starts, and, ultimately, a 3-and-out. The outcomes likely would’ve been better if they kneeled it three times. At least they would’ve burned more time and put more pressure on Michigan to throw with under 3 minutes to go.

The officiating was also subject to some criticism. There were definitely a few obvious missed facemask penalties, horse collar tackle, delay of game on 4th-and-1 that allowed a conversion, and some no-calls that might’ve even led to the injuries. They were egregious enough that the broadcast commentators made mention of several. In a game this close, every bit matters, and those very well could have been difference makers. You could argue they should have just played better and it wouldn’t have mattered. But of course we have to point it out.

Given the total penalty yardage for both sides in the game was 57 yards, the refs probably just let everything play out—Or we can claim our favorite thing here: CONSPIRACY. One of the refs, Chris Coyte, is actually a Pac-12 transplant. HMMM.

Good/Badisms

Good: Blocking the PAT after Moss’ pick six could have been huge, since a field goal at any point could have sent this game to overtime. It also provided a morale boost after a rough play

Bad: That being said, not being to drive down the field at the end to get into field goal range and taking a sack just outside of field goal range at the end of the first half could have gotten that aforementioned overtime.

Bad: Despite the blocked PAT, there were still some errors with special teams (too many people on the field, too few people, etc.)

Bad: Continued red zone scoring issues. USC currently sits at #77 (of 134) on red zone touchdown percentage

Good: Eric Gentry forcing and recovering the Donovan Edwards fumble that set up the go-ahead score. He also led the team in total tackles (12), tackles for a loss (3), and tied on sacks (1).

Bad: 8 tackles for a loss, 4 sacks, and a countless number of QB hits and pressures allowed by the offense.

Bad: Not being able to pick up a first down until the second quarter.

Push: Woody Marks got his second 100-yard rushing game in a row, and fourth of his career. More than half the yards came from that one run though.

Good: The USC defense impressively held Michigan to a 4th down from 1st and 6 at the goal line. If only they were able to finish that last play (or get the holding call, if you want to argue that).

Good: The #4s on both sides of the ball were extremely impactful. Woody Marks for the aforementioned reasons, and Easton Mascarenas-Arnold with some key tackles that weren’t flashy, but were crucial open field tackles that stopped first downs in the first half.

Really Bad: I didn’t proofread this time…like at all

Double CommBro Breaker

Somehow a Lincoln Riley team became a lower scoring, defensive team. While the whole team has things to improve on (including Riley’s own decision-making), a consistent offensive line would instantly make this a playoff team without any other changes.

Uplifting (?) Stat of the Week: Czaplicki has cemented his spot at #1 average yards per punt, more than an entire 2 yards per punt higher than the #2.

Uplifting Stat of the Week #2: While they allowed 3 big plays this game, the USC defense sits #13 nationally in allowing plays of 10+ yards

Semi-misleading Stat of the Week: The USC offense had an astounding 9 drives of four plays or less. Only semi-misleading because most of them were bad, but it’s inflated by two and three play touchdown drives.

Useless Stat of the Week: On that crazy fumble off of fumble drive, it went 6 plays for 66 yards. Are you superstitious?

USC vs. Utah State:

Posted on by commbro

#13 USC vs. Utah State (Home Opener)
September 7, 2024 at 8:10pm
Los Angeles, CA: 68,110 (of 77,500)
Total Time: 3 hours 27 minutes

On a week where many top 25 teams either fell or struggled against far less talented competition, the Trojans didn’t fall victim to the classic “trap game” scenario—a G5 team on a short week, sandwiched between two ranked matchups. Instead, they shut out the first opponent since 2011’s famous 50-0 season closer against UCLA. It’s always a good feeling when your team is playing third-stringers in the second quarter, doing mass substitutions by the third quarter, and still managing to score over 40 points.

Yeah, sure, it’s “just” Utah State, but a shutout against anyone, especially in the current day college football should be cause for celebration. I’ll probably spend 90% of this post emphasizing that. There’s a reason it hasn’t happened in 13 years. This was actually the first time a Lincoln Riley coached team has shut out against FBS opponent (other non-FBS shutouts include FCS teams Missouri State in 2020, Western Carolina in 2021 when Riley was at Oklahoma). Just take a look at the last couple of similar tier games from Riley’s past two years at USC.

TeamPoints ScoredYear
Rice142022
Fresno State172022
San Jose State282023
Nevada142023

None of these teams scored less than two touchdowns. The hard part when you’re blowing apart another team that badly is that your backups need to come in and continue carrying the shutout. A simple field goal kick could end that, much like the 19-3 score USC ended with against Utah in 2013. Since we’re on the topic, let’s think about the kickers for a second.

If you ever thought that placekickers don’t really ever get to do much, know that Utah State kicker, Elliott Nimrod, had even less than what you’d expect. He almost had the minimum amount of kicking done in a legal game of football. After the opening kickoff, he disappeared for nearly 59 game minutes before they trotted him back out to attempt a 53-yard field goal. In real time, that’s probably like 3 hours and 20 minutes—enough time for him to run to the locker room, complete two full REM cycles or the entire theatrical release of The Return of the King and still have time to warm up before that final kick. That’s participation prize level of play. In comparison, the USC kicker, Michael Lantz, had to kick 17 times (9 kickoffs, 6 PATs, 2 field goals), which is more times than Woody Marks ran the ball and only 1 less than the number of passes completed by Aggie quarterback, Bryson Barnes. Maybe that name sounds familiar to you…

If it doesn’t, Bryson Barnes, is the name of the Utah backup quarterback that (in)famously came off the bench to beat USC in 2023. The big storyline was that he was a pig farmer prior to playing at Utah. He transferred to Utah State in the offseason and was probably hoping for a repeat experience. Instead, the only thing repeated is the familiarity of the dirt of being a pig farmer, as the USC defense picked up its first three sacks of the season. Now that Utah is no longer on the schedule, perhaps this will provide the team some measure of revenge (or if you want to approach in a healthier way: catharsis).

Good/Badisms

Good: Receivers blocking, tight ends blocking and….even the starting QB blocking. It helps spring bigger plays and shows the cohesiveness of the team culture

Good: Redshirt freshman tight end, Kade Eldridge, dragging a man across the first down line

Good: The defense holding Utah State to 101 yards in the first half and the subs holding them to even less in the second half (89 yards).

Good: In the waning moments of the second quarter, causing Utah State to burn 3 timeouts just to throw an interception

Bad: The heat, the lighting problems, and a sad reality that the torch was almost left unlit for the fourth quarter.

Good: Backup quarterback, Jayden Maiava, out there playing backyard football against the Aggies.

Bad: Injuries and poor OL depth, leading to playing a walk-on center

Good/Bad: Former QB Matt Barkley getting so hyped that he headbutted someone…that had a helmet on and started bleeding

Good: When the team is running so well, they put the third string running back in during the second quarter. At one point, both Quinten Joyner and Woody Marks averaged over 10 yards per carry.

Bad: Receivers dropping some easy passes that would have been touchdowns.

Bad: The fumble by Lake McRee…although it was a very good punch by the defender

Good: The USC defense only allowed 2 out of 11 third down conversions and 0 out of 2 fourth down conversions

Good/“Bad”: USC’s first and only punt wasn’t until the 4th quarter—which ruined Czaplicki’s average punt yardage since it was a short field. His previous 55.3 ypp, would have been good for #2 in the nation. After it dropped to 50.25 ypp, he now sits at 5th.

Good: Seeing eight banners for the retired numbers of Heisman trophy winners.

CommBro Breaker

In case you’re wondering whether the blank subtitle was a mistake, it isn’t. The blank space exists as a way to sandwich the post in a meta reference to shutouts (and find another way to sneak in a sandwich reference as a call back to all such references I snuck into my grad school speeches).

Conspiracy Watch Stat #3: For the third game in a row, Miller Moss has completed passes to 10 different receivers. What is he trying to tell us? Is #10 Kyron Hudson his favorite receiver? Is he going to win Heismans #9 and #10 for USC? TELL ME

Ridiculous Stat of the Week #1: USC has only had to punt an average of two times per game, which is tied for #9 in the nation.

Ridiculous Stat of the Week #2: For the second week in a row, the old Pac-12 teams only had one loss (11-1 last week, 10-1 this week).

Interesting Stat of the Week: USC is #14 in the nation in opponent penalty yards per game (81.5)

USC vs. LSU: Battle of LA Schools

Posted on by commbro

#13 Louisiana State University vs. #23 USC
September 1, 2024 at 4:44pm
Allegiant Stadium, Las Vegas, NV: 63,969 (of 65,000)
Total Time: 3 hours 30 minutes

On a sweltering normal temperature day in Vegas, the marketing team for the Modelo Vegas Kickoff Classic would have you believe this was the beach vs. bayou showdown.

Instead, they had a really huge missed opportunity in not calling it LA vs LA. But for the fans, the true matchup was Miller vs. Modelo, as they stumbled drunk to and from the Strip. The game also boasted a record crowd, which, statistically, also probably means record number of drunks in attendance. However, I was unable to find evidence to support that claim. Apparently they don’t keep track of important stats like we do here at City of Angles. And there are none more important than the pettiness of proving people wrong.

Lincoln Riley had become the target for a lot of hate in recent years. Some of the common ones were some form of:

  • Left OU because he was scared of playing against SEC teams
  • Begged to back out of the LSU game
  • Can’t play defense
  • Needs transfer QBs that were developed by someone else

It really only took one game to shut all of those up. Maybe LSU collapses somewhere down the road or maybe they were pretenders all along, but you can’t honestly tell me that the defense of last year wouldn’t have let this LSU team score 40. The LSU offensive line returned four starters, with two that are projected to be top 10 draft picks. These were the same four that blocked for 2023 Heisman Trophy winner Jayden Daniels. Regardless of how you cut it, this was a convincing victory against a tough SEC opponent that could’ve easily been lost by a mediocre team.

This B1G-SEC matchup proved that USC was always being held back by the Pac-12…even though there really hasn’t been time for the change in conference to make a material difference in the program. This is basically equivalent to Chuck E. Cheese going by Pasqually’s Pizza & Wings on food delivery apps. They had quality, but the brand had a poor image that they needed to get rid of. I just wish we didn’t have to get rid of all the traditions and good parts of the Pac in order to get rid of the (numerous) bad parts.

Speaking of bad parts, this game was not without them. The sketchiest part was when LSU scored their first touchdown of the second half to take the lead. This was followed by: a botched reverse that resulted in a fumble (luckily, an attentive offensive lineman was there to recover it again), a false start, which all ultimately led to a three-and-out. It seemed like the team was on the verge of an implosion. With the still lopsided time of possession, the defense had every excuse and reputation of collapsing. They held out not just once, but with a three-and-out of their own the second time. The offense not only squandered it the first opportunity, but managed to burn two timeouts in what we all knew would be a very close game. Being able to rely on the defense to only give up 3 points on those last three to four drives (does the final 4 second drive count?) was a huge difference maker.

Good/Badisms

  • GOOD: Punter, Eddie Czaplicki, averaging 55.3 yards per punt (#3 in the nation)
  • GOOD: The coverage team able to limit a punt return to 1 yard despite the 57 yard kick
  • GOOD: A very casual sub-two minute drive, capped off by the former SEC running back, Woody Marks, scoring the go-ahead touchdown
  • GOOD: H-backs showing springing big plays, like the aforementioned touchdown run. You all know how much a like fullback usage, but H-back is close enough
  • GOOD: Miller Moss in his two total starts, had to throw under duress into tight coverage against top 15 teams yet managed to throw 370 yards a game and only one total interception. His quick thinking and ability to release the ball quickly and accurately, earned him Big Ten Offensive Player of the Week.
  • GOOD: Defense able to make lots of open field tackles, limiting potentially large plays
  • BEST: Kyron Hudson’s amazing catch making the ESPN Sports Center Top 10…as the top play
  • BAD: Offense centering the ball for a short field goal try in the middle, which was missed. Could have been costly in such a close game
  • BAD: No offensive rhythm at the beginning, which made them grow dependent on explosive chunk plays to score
  • BAD: Offense wasn’t able to establish run game early on
  • “BAD”: Zachariah Branch getting tackled by the kicker on the big kickoff return. Remember when Baxter told Robert Woods “never let the kicker stop you“? Joking though, that was a great play.
  • GOOD/BAD: Bad is a player getting hit in the head. Good is Kyron hanging on to a 20-yard pass to get an additional 14 yards tacked on by penalty, a free time out, and ejection of their redshirt junior starting safety.
  • GOOD/BAD: Good is me making a post again after 2 years. Or maybe that’s bad LOL. Bad is I make absolutely no guarantees for consistency during this season. I will publish as my schedule allows. Or, again, maybe that’s good.

CommBro Breaker

“Here’s to the ones who dream
Foolish as they may seem”:
Notre Dame-Texas A&M
Georgia-Clemson
USC-LSU

Kudos to all these teams taking on tough matchups in their first game despite it being historically more beneficial to play a cupcake to bolster their playoff chances, especially in the expanded 12-team playoff format.

Misleading Stat of the Week #1: USC is undefeated against SEC teams in the ’20s (both the 1920s and 2020s combined!). They have literally only played LSU in those two decades.

Obscure Stat of the Week: In both starts. Miller Moss has completed passes to exactly 10 receivers, with none getting 100 or more yards. There must be some conspiracy theory we can contrive from this.

Misleading Stat of the Week #2: The defense has allowed 18 plays of 10+ yards, which is 114th in the nation. Luckily allowing some larger plays doesn’t necessarily equate to allowing points