Author: commbro

USC vs. Michigan State: Errors by All

Posted on by commbro

USC vs. Michigan State
September 20, 2025 at 8:11pm
Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum, Los Angeles, CA: (67,614 of 77,500)
Total Time: not sure

You may be curious as to why the total game time lists not sure.

If you were to believe the official stats, then the game ended at 7:39am and the total run time at 11 hours and 28 minutes. Although it felt that way from all the penalties, I’m pretty sure we got out of there right as it hit midnight and we all turned into pumpkin spice lattes. Those refs really like to extend these late night games. Are they taking revenge on the whole stadium because they had to work the late shift? At a certain point, we needed a penalties per drive stat, which we will coin as PPD. According to Google’s AI, it’s an existing acronym for postpartum depression or paranoid personality disorder, both of which can be glibly twisted to fit the situation.

And just to point out another strange thing, one of the referees is named Marcus Allen…but wasn’t the USC Heisman winner.

You’re looking for the wrong Heisman winner on the sideline

Another mistake I found was that USC is written as having 22 fair catches from kickoffs this game. The total number of kickoffs between the two teams was 13. Someone was definitely tired out of their mind while typing this thing up. Do the referees have penalty flags for the stats people? Errors seem to be coming from everyone. Now, to the real content…

The game was another one that felt a bit uncomfortable as the Michigan State took the lead early in the first quarter and kept it close at times. It makes one eager to criticize, but it’s quite the luxury of being able to complain about only having a 7 or 14 point lead in the fourth quarter. Those are Alabama dynasty kind of problems. Even in the Pete Carroll glory days, sometimes they’d be losing at the half. 

One particularly bad area was in the third quarter. The Trojans had them at a three-and-out. Somehow they turned that 4th-and-7 into a first down with penalties. First was the running into the kicker, then an illegal substitution penalty of all things. The renewed drive led to a touchdown. The immediate follow-up was not a score, but a fumble (not to be confused with the butt fumble) at their own 32, leading to another touchdown drive (which featured its own SC penalties). These are the kinds of mistakes that will cost you against a better opponent. Yet, at no point in the game, did it feel like the Spartans had control over the game. Being able to win soundly with a negative turnover against the best competition so far is not a bad place to be. 

Now on to Good/Badisms, because this post looks like it’s about to finish up later than this game did.

Good/Badisms

Good: The Trojans amassed 289 yards of rushing yards—more than their passing yards. It also helped their totals to not take a single sack

Good: Jayden Maiava’s top tier fakes and decision-making on read option plays

Good: 66.7% on third down conversions (8 of 12)

Bad: Failing a fourth down conversion, so now they’re not perfect anymore!

Bad x 3: The same few issues keep happening. The defensive backs let big plays through, the front seven let some runners slip past after contact, and penalties. I guess that’s part of this season’s identity at this point. The big question is if they can keep it together enough against the next three teams that will presumably be ranked (or perhaps even four if Nebraska gets through a very winnable set of games)

Good: USC was able to burn through half the fourth quarter on a touchdown drive to put the pressure back on the Spartans when they came within one score

CommBro Breaker

While USC is still #1 in average yards per play, they have dropped to a paltry 9.19 ypp. Not even getting a first down every play on average. It’s almost as low as the #2 in ypp (8.90 ypp), Florida State, and they just lost to an unranked team tonight. Who wants to be that?? We basically lost already.

Depressing Stat of the Week: The Trojans dropped even further in penalty yards per game (#125 to #129) in the nation for penalty yards a game (80.3 to 80.8)

Depressing Stat of the Week #2: USC is #110 in passes defended per game (but somehow #3 in the nation for interceptions)

Depressing Stat of the Week #3: USC is #98 in fumbles lost and also have lost 100% of their fumbles, making them dead last in that category. Should they start doing recovery drills? Kidding—I don’t think it’s that dire.

Depressing Stat of the Week #4: I’m only doing so many depressing stats because they’re still undefeated. Anyway, USC is #134 in punts per game. Who needs to be fired for this? They’re only punting once per game. How much are they paying Sam Johnson in NIL money to sit on the bench? PUT HIM IN. FREE SAM JOHNSON

Weird Stat of the Week: All three rushing touchdowns in this game weren’t from running backs. They got their revenge though, with two of them being tied for #2 in receptions this game

Uplifting Stat of the Week #1: USC is #3 in the nation in yards per run (7.06) and tied for #3 in rushing touchdowns (15)

Uplifting Stat of the Week #2: The Trojans have retained their spot of most sacks in the nation (16).

 

USC vs. Purdue: PP Rain

Posted on by commbro

Purdue vs. USC
September 13, 2025 at 3:45pm (Lightning Delay)
Ross-Ade Stadium, West Lafayette, IN: (58,065 of 61,441)
Total Time: 3 hours 16 minutes

The first road game of the season ended in victory, but probably sloppier than most hopefuls would like. However, as the resident pessimist, I’m here to temper that with some optimism. By the end of the season, we may see that this isn’t the same Purdue team that went 1-11 and had the 5th worst scoring offense and 4th worst scoring defense of the 2024 season. Three games into head coach Barry Odom’s tenure at Purdue, he has them with more wins than last year already!

Joking aside, Odom actually has a decent resume. He took over a UNLV team that hadn’t had a winning season since Lane Kiffin was still at USC (three interims, and two head coaches ago!) and immediately took them to the conference championship and a 9-win season. He followed it up with their first ever 11-win season before leaving for Purdue. He’s also responsible for 25% of their bowl appearances and bowl wins…so he could have very well had an instant impact with the Boilermakers. Aaaaand I could be eating my words as soon as next week when an angry 0-2 Notre Dame team boils them alive.

By the way, were you wondering what a Boilermaker is?

Purdue Pete, better known by his nickname: PP

Anyway, now that you’re done looking into those soulless eyes, we can do a quick foray into homerism. The broadcasters definitely felt more than a bit biased. Gary Danielson I get, being the former Purdue quarterback, but Brad Nessler? What’s his angle on this? Then there were those random penalties like the jumping penalty on the punt that led to Purdue’s first three points. Then a random defensive holding call on a lineman during a run play that was trying to make a tackle?

Even the biased commentators didn’t like this call

You can try to argue there was a penalty there, but it sure seems like nothing. Even if there was, they are enforcing it with the stringency of the Purdue Owl attacking you with MLA.

The deadly Purduo staring into your soul. Wait…there’s another owl associated with a duo…Duolingo. Conspiracy uncovered

By the way, Purdue had more first downs by penalty (5) than by rushing (3). There’s always stuff to criticize though, and there might be no-calls that USC got away with, so let’s just move on. I’ll admit that I’m such a homer, that I could’ve wrote the Odyssey.

Good/Badisms

Good/Bad: Jayden Maiava showed greatly improved deep ball accuracy, hitting receivers in stride downfield. However, he also still had some risky passes thrown up under pressure that easily could have been interceptions if bounced a bit differently…luckily, most of it was concentrated into one bad drive.

Good/Bad: A fluky play like the double pass trick play that went from a dropped interception, to fumble, and miraculously to touchdown. It’s bad because it happened, but also it means it won’t be happening often. They only allowed one other touchdown.

Bad: They need to clean up the tackling a bit still. USC was in Purdue’s backfield a lot, which showed how well they sniffed out plays. However, they didn’t bring them down in many cases, leading to large gains

Good: Okay, but five sacks and ten tackles for loss…so clearly it worked sometimes.

Goodish: Another zero punt game, but need more drives to translate to points

Good: Three interceptions, two by Bishop Fitzgerald and, of course, the fan favorite by Jamaal Jarrett. That one by number zero was especially meaningful since mid-third quarter, USC only made a field goal, Purdue was in the red zone and could have brought the game within one score (23-10), but the 70-yard pick six by Jamaal Jarrett bailed them out, bringing it back to a 3-score game. That moment was quite the swing.

Bad: Scoring zero offensive touchdowns in the second half

Good: 10:55 time of possession in the third quarter to really put a team away. Shows the team has the ability to do it and Lincoln Riley has grown as a coach.

Bad/Good: Poor 3rd down conversions, but made up with perfect on 4th down conversions.

Good: Red zone defense: two scores out of five attempts allowed and only one TD

Good: Ryon Sayeri made all but one of his field goals in rainy conditions, including a long 48-yarder

Good: Eli Sanders and Waymond Jordan both decent running. King Miller getting meaningful carries outside of garbage time and making them worth it. The running backs have USC at #8 in the nation for runs of 10+ yards (23).

CommBro Breaker

So all in all, it was a messy game with some missed opportunities on offense and defense, but it was a weird game and there’s still a lot of stuff that can’t be extrapolated from it due to that.

Along with the lightning delay and rain, the Purdue coaching staff carried both the former USC offensive line coach and Maiava’s former coach at UNLC. Also, as the broadcast mentioned, the last time USC won in the Eastern timezone was also when Kiffin was still here: 2012 against Syracuse. It was also the last time a USC game featured a weather delay. And lastly, let’s be honest, if this was last year’s team, they would’ve found a way to lose this game too. So let’s appreciate it for what it is.

Weird Stat of the Week: USC and Purdue both sit at #41 in scoring defense with 16.7 points per game allowed

Uplifting Stat of the Week #1: USC is tied for #2 in the nation in interceptions (6) and tied for #1 in pick sixes (2)

Uplifting Stat of the Week #2: The Trojans have the most sacks in the nation (14) and are two-thirds of the way to last season’s total (21) with 9+ games to go.

Depressing Stat of the Week: The Trojans sit at #125 in the nation for penalty yards a game (80.3)

USC vs. Former FCS Teams

Posted on by commbro

USC vs. Missouri State
August 30, 2025 at 4:35pm
Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum, Los Angeles, CA:  (62,841 of 77,500)
Total Time: 3 hours 16 minutes

USC vs. Georgia Southern
September 7, 2025 at 4:35pm
Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum, Los Angeles, CA:  (66,514 of 77,500)
Total Time: 3 hours 35 minutes

A nightmare ended

So yeah, another season and I’m back out here making compromises again. It would’ve been nice to have completed a post last week, but here we are with me combining the past two games into one former FCS showdown post. On top of that, I’m mostly going to be offense focused here since that’s more of my expertise and I don’t have time to run all these analyses on both sides of the ball. So you’ll get half the posts and half the content, giving you the same experience as the average grocery store these days. Don’t get offended.

Missouri State may have joined the FBS just this year and Georgia Southern has barely managed a decade at this level, but you only have to look around the nation to see what could have happened. Last week, FCS teams Austin Peay and Tarleton State picked up some FBS wins and North Dakota only lost by 3 after a late touchdown by Kansas St. At the end of the day, USC is 2-0. That being said, you really can’t really tell much except they’re not bad enough to lose these cupcake games.

We’ll focus on some of the positives first. It’s not often you can just sub out the entire team for the whole second half like in the Missouri State game. Maiava got the Big Ten offensive player of the week honors while only having half a game’s worth of stats. The Trojans also managed two plays over 70 yards, which tied last season’s total in just one game (and surpassed it after the GA Southern game). Pretty great to see 600 yards of offense, over 70 points, and a 60-point margin of victory.

Then somehow, they managed 755 yards of offense the next game against a better team. Sure, the point total is less, but it’s still pretty difficult to outgain your kickoff yards (649) when you’re kicking off 10 times. Even better that it happened to a Helton coached team. There’s no way Lincoln Riley would’ve survived the long term if he had lost this one.

With all the blowout action, backup true freshman QB, Husan Longstreet, got to get some development as well. He seems to be the opposite kind of passer from Maiava. He holds the ball way too long rather than the other extreme of slinging it up for a pick or a touchdown. If we were somehow able to average the two of them out, we would have the perfect quarterback.

I’d feel bad if I didn’t include a token about of analysis on the defense, especially when I’m about to hit you with some ridiculous math for offense. Some of the cornerbacks rotating in need some work, or they’re going to get picked apart. The front seven also need to do a better job of stopping the run. On the positive side, they are generating more pressure on the quarterback and getting sacks compared to last year. But again…all insights need to be tempered until we see them against better competition.

CommBro Breaker

So the Trojans are currently the #1 scoring offense in the nation. They’re also the leading the nation in total offense. Third down conversions? #5 with 68.75%. They’re leading all sorts of offensive metrics. Where are the negatives though?

Look how weighted things are towards long plays.

National Rank Play Yardage # of plays
#1 (tied) 70+ 3
#1 60+ 6
#1 50+ 7
#1 (tied) 40+ 8
#2 (tied) 30+ 10
#3 (tied) 20+ 17
#9 (tied) 10+ 42

USC has some of the longest plays in the nation while somehow having run the least number of plays in the nation as well. (They are #114 in offensive plays with 120). Their average yards per play is 11.27, fully 2 yards per play higher than the #2 team at 9.14 yards per play.

The average average yards per play in the nation (if that’s not confusing hahaha) is at 5.97 yards per play with a standard deviation of 1.35. If you’ve ever had the misfortune of slogging through a statistics course, that one standard deviation encompasses 68% of the population, while two is 95%, and three is 99.7%. The worst team in the nation at yards per play (#136), Ball State, sits 2.44 stdevs away and the #2, Georgia Tech, is at 2.35 stdevs. That puts them both at a bit less than one percent: .73% and .94% respectively. USC, at nearly four entire standard deviations away, sits at .0042%, less than one hundredth of a percent. This underscores the absolute statistical anomaly that is happening right now.

Remember Sark’s offenses in 2014 and 2015? They could score 21 points a quarter across multiple quarters and broke the record for most touchdowns thrown in a single game (that still holds)—but anytime they didn’t have an explosive play, their offense sputtered out. We don’t want that. At the end of the day, they have to be able to score on long, sustained drives because better defenses are going to force that. Not saying that they won’t be able to necessarily, but we will have to see.

Anyway, not my best work, but I had to get it in before the gameday started. I feel like a college student bungling my way through a midnight deadline while infected with senioritis.

Stat of the Week: What, diving into standard deviations wasn’t enough for you?

A Decade of Angled Takes

Posted on by commbro

 

It’s April 29th! That marks 10 years since inception of this ill-conceived rag (a UK slang term for a trashy newspaper). As a throwback, we’ll sprinkle some of our favorite edited images and memes that are completely irrelevant to the written content!

Actually, this one still might be relevant to the B1G

You can look back at our first post here https://cityofangles.net/2015/04/29/welcome-to-la/

I didn’t even remember saying how, “Whether I or anybody else likes it, Sark will have the next two seasons, at the very least (barring some huge…scandal).” He didn’t last 6 more months since that statement…because of a scandal. We’re glad to report that we’re still scandal free here at City of Angles. Nobody has found out about it yet.

Yeah, I might just be being mean at this point

It’s kind of cheating to claim the decade since I basically abandoned the poor thing for a few years, but hey, the calendar says it’s been 10 years and we’re all about Misleading Stats here anyway.

Anyway, there wasn’t really any direction for this post other than drawing attention that this thing managed to survive for a decade. 

“Fool me once, shame on you, fool me – You can’t get fooled again”

For perspective, roughly 10 years before I started this blog, many of my peers were mouthing off on blog sites like livejournal, Xanga, MySpace, or whatever your go to millennial privacy-invasion of choice was. Sad to say that there wasn’t as big of a maturity jump from those 10 years as there was to these 10 years. But decade has been a wild one. Taking a look at some major things during these years:

  • Barack Obama was still the US president when this started
  • C.L. Max Nikias was still USC’s president
  • Sam Darnold, Ronald Jones, Adoree’ Jackson, Juju Smith-Schuster’s 2017 Rose Bowl thriller happened less than two years in
  • Caleb Williams had his Heisman winning season
  • The return of Reggie Bush’s Heisman trophy finally happened
  • Half of the blog’s life was pre-COVID, when we still didn’t know what true pessimism was
  • I hadn’t even applied to grad school yet, let alone started or finished
  • You didn’t waste 10 years of your life following this blog

To be fair, you should’ve expected for me to keep going at this point

Thank you for continuing (or starting) to read! I don’t know what shape this blog will take as we limp into the next decade, but it’s been real. Feel free to send feedback in whatever form pleases you most.

CommBro Breaker

<BLANK>

So you can imagine a reality without content from this blog. Who am I kidding, you all already know what that feels like after I disappeared for years.

REAL STATS:

  • 145* Published Posts (*1 Guest Post)
    • 104 USC Football Posts
    • 38 Movie Posts (Remember when I had time for those?)
    • 2 General USC Posts
    • 1 Uncategorized (this one is the uncategorized one)
  • 16 Unpublished Super Secret Files 
  • 0 Hate Mail ☹ (Please send some)

USC vs. Texas A&M: Portal Potty Bowl

Posted on by commbro

Texas A&M vs. USC (Las Vegas Bowl)
December 27, 2024 at 7:40pm
Allegiant Stadium, Las Vegas, Nevada: 26,671 (of 65,000)
Total Time: 3 hours 37 minutes

In the latest edition of business as usual, this post is definitely not late. The plan was always to post this at the end of the postseason. Just kidding. We don’t do lies here, only jokes. Without further delay:

Two teams wracked by mass transfers in the transfer portal faced off against each other in the SRS Distribution Las Vegas Bowl. What started out as a defensive battle in the first half, ended in a shootout and a comeback for the ages just to narrowly avoid a losing season. TAMU? more like TEMU, am I right??While that hardly seems like an accomplishment, we can’t miss the greater picture here: Lincoln Riley is 2-0 against the SEC this season. 

——skip up to the next indicator if you don’t feel like reading about my random rants on college football——

These ain’t just any SEC teams like 1-7 Kentucky or 0-8 Mississippi State. They’re in the tier of the 3 (SEC)-loss teams that finished just outside of the playoff contention. All of them sit in a six-way tie alongside Alabama and Ole Miss. Going back to what I was saying earlier, the real joke is that there wouldn’t be any more delays. I’d rather go on this tangent about the SEC.

Remember the narrative that Lincoln Riley ran away from Oklahoma because he’s afraid of the SEC? He took a “bad” USC team and went undefeated against the “best” conference in college football. Meanwhile, Oklahoma’s first season in the SEC had them winning only just as many SEC matchups as USC. This is a conference that plays 7 or 8 home games and only have to play one or two tough teams out of conference. This USC team might’ve been 10-2 and getting blown out in a playoff game if they were in the SEC. Then again…they didn’t get blown out by either of the two currently live playoff teams they played (Notre Dame and Penn State). 

Since I waited for the end of the postseason, I’m also going to insert my comments about the system. I’m not even going to get into the need for more guardrails and standardization regarding NIL and the transfer portal…or anything about the impending super conferences, playoff structure, and how teams are selected. But at the very least, shouldn’t all the conferences play the same number of conference games? But anyway, I digress…

—–start here if you are purely here for the game recap——-

As great as it was to witness the largest bowl comeback in USC history, it was not without some of the same issues we’ve seen all season. There was some weird time management at end of half that ended in a field goal attempt, which, as expected, did not make it. Then there were some really bad decisions by Jayden Maiava, some resulting in picks. One particularly bad choice was when he didn’t want to take a sack, so he ran backwards then attempted to throw the ball away and could possibly have been flagged for intentional grounding or have it be ruled a fumble. “Luckily”, it only resulted in a 13 yard loss on 1st down. 

In a much later driver, Makai Lemon, as much as he has been an improvement over Zach Branch at the return game, made a less than ideal situation to fair catch a punt at one point that forced the team to start from the 4-yard line. That put some extra pressure on Maiava to throw the ball from the end zone, which led to a poor throw and interception. Somehow, the defense held on and the team benefitted from the error of Texas A&M missing their field goal.

Even in their shining moment they were not able to act without error. The delay of game penalty at the goal line due to substitution could have been a backbreaker. While that rule is also some garbage that they need to revisit, it’s been that way for years, so Riley should have been aware of how it would play out. Luckily, they were still able to score the touchdown to put them up.

Just to finish up the last bit of negativity, they could have incorporated more read options plays than the two they used. If you’re going to replace Miller Moss with a running QB, then you might as well take advantage of it, especially if the running QB turns the ball over a lot. But it’s hard to be too harsh on them after such a large comeback win.

Regardless of the struggles, this team hasn’t given up on games this season. Down as much as 17, they found a way to get back in it even after all the mistakes that began to pile up. It’s impressive that they were able to score more in the fourth quarter than they did the rest of the game.

Good/Badisms

  • Good: Bryan Jackson earning some hard fought yards with both the #1 and #2 running backs gone
  • Bad: Eddie Czaplicki’s injury in first half after being hit by a Texas A&M player for a penalty.
  • Good: Ryon Sayeri carried on the Ray Guy winner’s legacy with a 57 yard punt
  • Good: Makai Lemon’s 46-yard kick off return
  • Good: Lemon’s behind the back stiff arm after the catch and run, as if he had a camera on the back of his helmet
  • Bad: Being down to having walk-ons in the rotation on the offensive line
  • Good: Akili Arnold and Kamari Ramsey with their interceptions in back-to-back drives that kept the score close in the first half
  • Good: Ja’Kobi Lane with 3 touchdown receptions in the second straight game.

CommBro Breaker

Couldn’t help myself. Just a tad bit more negativity. This game was probably rougher for TAMU since they it would’ve been 9:30PM to 1:30AM in their home time zone. 

I don’t know what kind of stat this is stat: Maiava somehow completed almost every kind of stat this game with a pass, run, reception, interception, and tackle.

Confusing Offensive Stats: USC was 16th in first downs, 23rd in Total Offense, 25th in third down conversions, but 51st in points per game. Confusingly enough, their 70.91% TD percentage in the red zone is good for 23rd in the nation as well. All those yards and conversions somehow weren’t turning into points. I think what tells more of the story is that they were 93rd in fourth down conversions, failing 9 out of 17 times and 108th in field goal percentage, missing 7 out of 21. That’s at least 16 drives there that failed to score. USC averaged 11.4 drives per game (when removing OT and garbage time), so that means that’s a game and a half worth of failed drives. Throw in the 21 turnovers lost…that was exactly 25% of their drives failed to score points

USC Football Valentine’s Day Guide

Posted on by commbro

Valentine’s Day will be upon us soon and, as far as I can tell, there’s a real dearth of USC football-related Valentine’s content. Don’t hit me with some trite “Trojans” joke, because that stuff is so played out. We need to be a bit more creative here. For that reason, I have provided some helpful lines for your local USC fans. USC is out there picking up chads left and right, but why should they have all the fun? 

Start with writing them a nice poem like:

Roses are Bowls
bruins are blue
I’d score a goal
just for you

Or maybe you’d like some old-fashioned pick-up lines:

  1. Around you, my heart is like Alex Grinch’s defense
  2. You’re the Bear Alexander to my NIL
  3. I’d hold you like a Big Ten offensive line
  4. When you’re away, I’m a placekicker and you’re the goalposts in a close game: I’ll miss you
  5. I’ll treat you like the USC defensive line: I won’t pressure you
  6. Without you, I’d be a Big Ten road game: lost
  7. You’re my Toa Lobendahn
  8. Your feelings are like an FCS team, I’d never play with them
  9. Girl, I’m like USC during the sanctions. There are no backups for you.

CommBro Breaker

DISCLAIMER: We are not responsible for any slaps, cops called, HR incidents, or any adverse results whether covered by these terms or not. We are not certified dating advisors and this is not dating advice. However, if you are successful, we will take credit.

USC vs. Notre Dame: The QB Debate (Yes, it’s Clickbait)

Posted on by commbro

USC vs. #5 Notre Dame (Senior Day)
November 30, 2024 at 12:41pm
Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum, Los Angeles, CA: 73,241 (of 77,500)
Total Time: 3 hours 38 minutes

Every kid whose favorite number is 13 and wants to play at USC had their dreams destroyed by this man

Another regular season has come and gone far too quickly. Now all there is to do is await whether USC gets invited to the Souplantation Bowl or Kenny Roger’s Roaster Bowl (they’re not real bowls, but these fake names should trigger a few people). Although the season would have been disappointing regardless (especially compared to how it started), being able to sweep the rivals would have been nice. Having a shot to end at 8-5 also would have been nice. Instead, the game ended in two pick sixes to send us to a 6-6 finish. 

It’s kind of crazy when you look back at it, because Jayden Maiava’s stats to Notre Dame DBs are 198 yards and 2 TDs. Meanwhile, Notre Dame’s own QB was only at 155 yards for 2 TDs. Maiava built up enough stats to play for both teams. The bill had to come due eventually: live by the Maiava tricks, die by the Maiava tricks. 

On the other side of the ball, the defense gave up a season high of points, even if you remove the two pick sixes from the scoring total. The previous given up was 33 in OT against then #4, playoff bound Penn State. The Fighting Irish didn’t punt until 4th quarter. Still better than last year, I guess. 

In the end, it was tough for both teams to play defense. While Notre Dame tried to confuse the new starter with constantly shifting the defensive line and getting some rushes way outside the tackles and the tight ends, Maiava was able to keep the wheels on the bus until the late in the fourth quarter. The constant fade routes would miss sometimes, but he would complete enough of them to move the offense and score points against a defense that ranked well, statistically. But let’s not go too far with the compliments for the offense…

We saw some weird cooking this game was well. Bringing Jake Jensen in at the goal line for a run coming out of a timeout. Why in the world did Riley decide to bring in the third stringer to run a read option the ended with him diving for a 1 yard loss? On the subject of third stringers, there was the curious decision to bring in third string running back, Bryan Jackson, on his first play of the day (and first touch in a month) to run a speed option that almost ended in a fumble. Yeah, it hurt to have Woody Marks exit the game early due to injury, but that play could’ve easily been run by Quinten Joyner. Not sure why that was what the coaching staff chose, but that kind of thing probably contributed to Joyner shopping to see what’s out there in the transfer portal. These plays ultimately weren’t decisive factors in the loss, but just strange enough to point out…

Good/Badisms

Bad/Bad: Notre Dame was 100% on 4th down conversions (3 of 3) and USC was 0% (0 of 3)

Good/Bad/Bad: Czaplicki nailed a nasty 74-yard punt that the coverage team failed to down, resulting in a touchback, and then ultimately wiped out by an illegal shift penalty.

Good: Ja’Kobi Lane with 3 touchdown receptions 

Bad: Allowing nearly 270 rushing yards

Bad: Outgaining Notre Dame by over 100 yards, yet being outscored

Good: Makai Lemon attained his second 100+ yard receiving game

CommBro Breaker

Did I use the break between the end of the regular season and the Vegas Bowl to drag my feet on publishing another post? Find out next time, on City of Angles. 

So you’re probably itching to know who we think was the best QB of the season here. The votes are in from all City of Angles staff, and it’s unanimous. To end the debate:

  • Best QB: Makai Lemon
    • Reason: He completed all of his passes (1/1) and has a 427.6 passing efficiency rating, beating out Moss’ 135.1 and Maiava’s 132.5
  • Worst QB: Kyron Hudson
    • Reason: He didn’t complete any of his passes (0/1). Needless to say, his passing efficiency is ZERO. Please don’t take this seriously…

Czaplicki Tracker Week 13: Czaplicki holds at #3 in punting yard average with 48.5 (behind 49.3 and 49.6). But RAY GUYYYYYY

USC vs. UCLA: Crosstown Transfer Expedition

Posted on by commbro

UCLA vs. USC (Crosstown Showdown)
November 23, 2024 at 7:35pm
Rose Bowl, Pasadena, CA: 59,473 (of 92,000)
Total Time: 3 hours 18 minutes

The Trojans claw their way to bowl eligibility for the season on their first true road win of season—yet it’s another one that requires an asterisk. While technically a true road game…they traveled even less than their neutral site win. Somehow, they managed to miss every chance at winning a real one the entire season. Either way, at least the Victory Bell is back and even losing to #5 Notre Dame won’t stop them from going to a bowl.

The broadcast would have you believe there was a torrential downpour. At one point I seriously wondered if the weather was different between my location and the media booth. I left a bag out at the tailgate and I’m not even sure it could even be described as damp. It was almost just mist. Those broadcasters certainly can’t be accused of a mist opportunity to play up the drama. 

As if there wasn’t enough drama with triple agent, Kyle Ford, transferring back and forth between USC and UCLA. He found a way to rack up extra wins in crosstown rivalry games. Other than the Helton firing year, he found himself on the winning side of this rivalry. Not many people can claim 5 Crosstown Showdown wins (2019, 2020, 2022, 2023 [UCLA], 2024)! While he was the only one to change back and forth, Kamari Ramsey and John Humphrey joined defensive coordinator, D’Anton Lynn, on the crosstown transfer expedition, a.k.a CTE, a previously unused acronym! Maybe that is a joke in bad taste.

Lynn delivered some extremely satisfying defensive moments like stopping UCLA at 3rd-and-1 and 4th-and-1 on their own 34-yard line. Being able to stuff a QB sneak against a rival just brings a different level of joy. The defense then follows it up with stopping four straight passes to at UCLA’s 25 to end their possession, the game, and their bowl hopes all in one fell swoop.

The offense, on the other hand, barely hung on enough to survive. Even after the magical 4th down stop deep in UCLA territory just turned into a field goal. All in all, four out of five red zone trips ended in field goals. There were drives that ended at the 2, 6, 5-yard lines that were not touchdowns. If they had scored touchdowns on all of them, this game might’ve been out of reach by half time. Not being able to punch it in repeatedly is certainly disappointing. Curiously, they did run a play under center, only for it to be a play action. Although they got their only touchdown of the day from it, the play itself was a wild, unsafe scramble, a sketchy throw, and required a double clutch by Ja’Kobi Lane to complete. It could’ve been a fumble, it could’ve been a pick, it could’ve been a drop. Maiava continues to gamble big. Maybe he will continue getting lucky to balance out all the unlucky breaks this season.

Good/Badisms

Good: Speaking of Makai Lemon, his big plays like a catch and run for 64 yards, and the kickoff returns of 31 and 41 yards. And let’s not forget about the clean pass to Kyron Hudson for 39 yards.

Good: Michael Lantz making all four of his field goals. It’s the first time he hit all his field goal attempts in a game since September (on 09/28 vs. Wisconsin, 1-1). It’s also the first time he’s made a field goal since before he missed the field goal in overtime against Penn State (10/12, 3-4)

Bad: Before you start praising those special teams analysts that got us into NCAA trouble, Zachariah Branch’s performance as a punt returner continues to be butt clenching. Despite his improvement in the passing game, Maybe Makai Lemon should be the one doing those returns too?

Bad: Continued poor usage of timeouts, especially in the second half. At least they weren’t needed this time.

Bad: Hard to fault the defense that held the Bruins to their second lowest point total of the season (13, tied with #1 Oregon and #10 Indiana, below #4 Penn State [11 points]), but Garbers had thrown nearly as many interceptions as touchdowns this season, yet was near perfect for most of the second half. Bruin WR, J. Michael Sturdivant, got 100 out of 115 of his yards during that stretch. The worst one was allowing a 25 yard completion when the Bruins were starting from their own 1-yard line. He did not have any second half incompletions until that very last drive.

Good: Woody Marks continuing to carry the offense in both the ground and passing game.

CommBro Breaker

Defensive Headscratching Stats: USC is #99 in sacks per game (1.64) and #119 in tackles for a loss per game (4.36), #60 in interceptions (9), #99 in fumbles forced (5), #93 in passing yards allowed per game (235.6), yet, in the only stat that really matters, they are #32 (21.2 points per game allowed)

Czaplicki Tracker Week 12: Czaplicki dropped back down to #3 in punting yard average with 48.8 (behind 49.1 and 49.7).

Lazy Stat of the Week: I already hid a bunch of stats into the good/badisms. No more today, thank you.

USC vs. Nebraska: Schrödinger’s Quarterback and Marksism

Posted on by commbro

USC vs. Nebraska (Homecoming)
November 16, 2024 at 1:05pm
Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum, Los Angeles, CA: 75,304 (of 77,500)
Total Time: 3 hours 21 minutes

For the seventh game this season, USC finished the game within one score of their opponent. This is only the second time they’ve been on the favorable side of it.

The new starting quarterback, Jayden Maiava, has a stat line that could lull you into a sense of confidence, but watching the game footage would show you the truth: Every play he’s involved him sits on the precipice of both success and disaster. Maybe we should just call him Schrödinger’s quarterback.

Perhaps no other play better encapsulated his style of play than the one to Kyron Hudson in the end zone in the second quarter. The play barely slipped through the defensive back’s hands to hit Hudson in the chest and pinball off the DB’s helmet back into his arms as he barely lands inbounds. The absurdity of what we witnessed left both Trojan and Husker fans in shock. These kinds of plays seemingly happened often, sometimes in our favor and sometimes in a pick six or fumble in a red zone. Those particular plays primed Nebraska for half their total scoring—for free. Sure, things ended up in our favor this time, but this type of riskiness is probably what kept him on the bench for so long.

Of course, there were some positives to the overall composition of the team as well. Lincoln Riley used more option plays and got more creative with derivatives out of similar formations. Zachariah Branch got sent on some jet sweeps, tunnel screens, and the like to establish his threat. Then Woody Marks runs allowed Jayden Maiava to keep it on some runs. All of that finally set up a fake jet sweep to Branch with Maiava taking the ball on a speed option and flipping it out to Woody Marks for the 34 yard gain on 4th-and-1. That kept the drive alive on their last score. Being able to score in the fourth quarter to pad the lead, rather than fully putting it on the defense, and being able to drain 7 minutes and 40 seconds while covering 84 yards for the touchdown is the type of thing they haven’t been able to do at home or on the road.

But, back to Marks. Although they never really lined up under center, the way Woody was running the ball with those Cold War era uniforms and field, the shades of red and yellow are enough to make anyone a Marksist.

Seize the means of offensive yards.
City of Angles does not endorse any political position.

He finished the game with a 7.7 yard average on nearly 20 runs with 5 runs over 10 yards. That doesn’t even include his contributions to the passing game. He has also crossed the 1,000 yard threshold for the season.

Good/Badisms

Good: Interception by Jaylin Smith late in the 2nd quarter on a crucial possession to keep the game tied going into the half.

Good: Duce Robinson getting time to shine with the new QB

Bad: The way Maiava carries the ball. The aforementioned fumble presented the most obvious evidence, but even on the final touchdown play, the way he held the ball out in middle of the field on 1st-and-goal could have easily been knocked out and turned into a touchback instead of a touchdown. Things have generally cut in his favor this game, but if he keeps tempting fate, the eventual outcomes against UCLA, Notre Dame, or a potential bowl opponent may not be so positive.

CommBro Breaker

With more tape now on Maiava at USC, he may not see as much success in future games. UCLA is up next and has no margin of error for bowl eligibility. They will likely be practicing/studying hard to keep Maiava contained.

Czaplicki Tracker Week 11: Czaplicki managed to climb back into 2nd place (48.9 yards per punt) after having a 51.8 yard per punt average against Nebraska. All 4 of his punts pinned the Huskers in within their own 20-yard line (starting at the 12, 4, 13, and 1). Pretty impressive day for him.

Depressing Stat of the Week: Zachariah Branch scored his FIRST touchdown of the season in the 10th game despite having the most receptions out of the wide receivers (41). Woody Marks actually leads the team with 43 receptions

Shocking Stat of the Week: Somehow USC is #14 in sacks allowed and #33 in tackles for a loss allowed. Despite how poorly it started, it appears things have improved statistically (and from an eye test)

USC vs. Rutgers/Washington: CommBro vs. Busyness

Posted on by commbro

-USC vs. Rutgers
October 25, 2024 at 8:01pm
Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum, Los Angeles, CA: 63,404 (of 77,500)
Total Time: 3 hours 40 minutes

Washington vs. USC
November 2, 2024 at 4:40pm
Husky Stadium, Seattle, WA: 71,251 (of 70,138)
Total Time: 3 hours 30 minutes

So if it wasn’t obvious, I missed last week due to the busyness of life. Don’t worry, I didn’t pull another midseason disappearing act…but I will be doing one megapost for both the Rutgers and Washington games. 

In other news, even Meta couldn’t keep me down. They tried to silence me!! LOL. 

My writing hasn’t been as good, but damn, that’s quite the roast to call it spam LOL

Somehow this is kind of amazing. My first hate mail and it’s by AI. It seems the “Misleading Stat of the Week” is far too controversial for Facebook. Who would’ve thought that I’d be censored before even getting to sell out?

Anyway, I was at a wedding the day of the Washington game so I must apologize for not getting a complete look at the game. However, due to my dedication to the craft, I was mostly definitely watching the game…

USC looked solid while breaking their 3 game losing streak with the win against Rutgers. They dragged themselves up from 16th in the conference to 13th and back to a .500 record. Then they lost their way back down to 15th and a losing record. 

USC remains winless in true road games (since LSU in Vegas counts as a neutral site…probably even closer to a home game considering the distance and time zone). They’ve also now guaranteed a losing conference record with the 5th conference loss. I’ll keep things short since at this point, by now we all kinda know what is going on. 

Good/Badisms

Good: Makai Lemon’s emergence as a receiving and returning threat in both games

Good: Zachariah Branch showing some improvement from his slump

Good: Woody Marks continuing to carry weight as an every down back

Good: The offense managed to score on all their first half possessions against Rutgers

Good: The defense managed to stop Rutgers on 4th down three times

Bad: Three interceptions thrown by Miller Moss against Washington, despite the offensive line blocking a bit better overall

Bad: Another game where they have the ball and the lead in the fourth quarter and manage to squander it

Bad: Failing to convert a 4th-and-1 at the goal line and also failing a 4th-and-4 in the red zone to basically end the game. 

Bad: Despite pretty much every one of their 11 drives ending in Husky territory and 4 trips to the red zone, they somehow only scored 3 touchdowns (one drive ended at the USC 45). 

Bad: Lincoln Riley trying to force 50 pass attempts against one of the statistical top passing defenses. I personally believe the stats are a bit inflated by the lack of very many decent quarterbacks they’ve gone up against this season, but they have a good passing defense nonetheless. 

CommBro Breaker

  • It’s the QB making poor throws! …Yes
  • It’s the o-line’s poor blocking! …Yes
  • It’s the receivers dropping the ball! …Yes
  • It’s the refs making weird calls! …Yes
  • It’s Lincoln Riley not adapting the offense to the personnel! …Yes
  • It’s the NIL not being there for the earlier recruiting classes! …You’re not going to believe it, also yes.

It’s a team game and there are a lot of factors that go into what happened. And just look at that, even with all those problems, they are so close to winning every single game. Yeah, it feels really bad to be losing half your games, but once at least some (or maybe even one) of those above things are fixed, this team could easily be 10, 11, or 12 wins next season. 

Whether we like it or not, Jayden Maiava will replace Miller Moss as the starter. And regardless of which subset of group(s) you personally would like to place the blame on, Maiava theoretically covers for the weakness of the offensive line. All we can hope for now is winning out, becoming bowl eligible, and carrying some experience and momentum into next year.

Czaplicki Tracker Week 8: Eddie remained at #3 last week, with the gap slightly widening. He’s averaging 49.3 yards per punt compared to FSU’s 49.6 and Baylor’s 51.1. Moss even helped him out by eating up one of the shorter punts on a pooch

Czaplicki Tracker Week 9: Czaplicki dropped down to #4 with a 48.5 yard average. The true depressing stat of this game.

A Stat of the Week: There’s been a lot of trash talk about the refs this season, but one thing’s for certain: USC has significantly less penalty yards per game than either of Riley’s USC seasons in the Pac-12.