#13 USC vs. Wisconsin
September 28, 2024 at 12:40pm
Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum, Los Angeles, CA: 74,118 (of 77,500)
Total Time: 3 hours 27 minutes

Another week comes and goes, and USC does well enough to keep their Big Ten title and playoff hopes alive. It was their second home game, the second team they played without a real QB, and another game where they rely on dominating in the second half to try to make up for the shaky first. You’d think after the loss last week, they would clean things up and come out more motivated. At no point was I worried that USC was going to lose, but definitely expected better.

Instead, they found themselves down double digits at the end of the first half yet again. While Wisconsin is not a cellar dweller, they’ve had their struggles on offense. Even after accumulating some more long plays this past game, they are #109 in passes of 10+ yards and #123 in overall plays of 10+ yards.

Granted, both last week and this week, they made significant efforts in the second half that brought them back into the game. Maybe we just have to come to accept that they are an after 2:00 PM team. (If that’s actually true, then they will have some struggles against #7 Penn State in two weeks with another 12:30pm kickoff). 

The highlight of the issues this week are special teams struggles. Letting a punt roll all the way to the 1 yard line (along with allowing that 74-yard punt also meant letting these fools catch up to our homie Czaplicki’s punt average) really hurt the offense. Longer drives give more opportunities for mistakes—like those of the turnover variety. It took 10 plays just to get to midfield and, sure enough, the drive ended in an interception. Then there was the muffed punt, which of course led directly to a turnover on the very next punt return play. Hard to get going when the special teams continually creates negatively impactful plays like that. Average start for drives was at 24.83 for USC while Wisconsin’s was 34.75…basically a free first down of difference per drive.

Maybe next year he can use the offseason to focus on improving the special teams like he did with the defense this past offseason. To be fair though, long snapper, Hank Pepper, capitalized off of Wisconsin’s own muffed punts by securing it. That beats out what most long snappers will do over an entire season.

Sorry, this is going to be a short and uncomprehensive post. It’s already Friday and I’m barely getting this out the door. At least I’m not to the point of feeding everything through Chat GPT yet.

Good/Badisms

Good: Stopping Wisconsin on 4th down on two separate occasions, especially during the third quarter on 4th-and-1 when Wisconsin still had the lead

Bad: Undisciplined play by the offensive line like the false start on 4th-and-1 that forced a field goal try instead of going for it.

Bad: The jump by the OL that didn’t end in a penalty or lost yardage, but still negated potential free play since the defense was offsides

Good: Ja’Kobi Lane and Duce Robinson making some contested receptions for touchdowns

Good: Holding Wisconsin to 0 points in the second half

Bad: Big Ten referees don’t seem to really call holding. Coming from the Pac-12, where every minor thing gets called, seems like USC is not adjusting well. Maybe the solution is for the coaches to tell them to hold until it’s called. Stop playing Pac-12 ball and start playing Big Ten ball

Good: Dominating in time of possession (40:07 to 19:53) after trailing in TOP in the first half. Nationally, USC is #16 in time of possession per game (32:40.50)

Good: Mason Cobb grabbing the interception off a double deflection and running it back for a touchdown despite having to dodge everyone for 55-yards coming from the middle of the field 

Good/Bad: Miller Moss’ runs, one for a first down and one for a touchdown. However, it was looking like he got a concussion on the touchdown run. That’s kind of the risk you run when you run your QB.

Bad: Turning over the ball three times is going to lose you the game against a tougher opponent.

Bad: Being reminded that this video exists:

It’d take looking back through about 10 years of internet history to understand it…kind of like how you’d have to look back about 10 years since Wisconsin fielded good teams. 

CommBro Breaker

I went the whole post without talking about Alex Grinch and his appearance at the Coliseum and this is the extent of what I’ll say. Much like the Utah State game, maybe it was a chance for catharsis in an indirect way.

Uplifting Stat of the Week: USC is #11 nationally in opponent 3rd down conversion percentage (26.53%)

Depressing Stat of the Week: USC is perfectly balanced on turnovers, losing 6 and gaining 6. 

Corrected Stat of the Week: I had some readers correct me on my recordkeeping from the past week. They argued that Miller Moss has continued to complete passes to 10 different receivers in every game as a starter and that there is no correlation between his secret to victory. The tenth receiver in both cases are Michigan and Wisconsin defensive backs that intercepted Moss’ passes. The 5 game streak apparently continues like clockwork.