USC Trojans

USC vs. Utah: There is No Foul

Posted on by commbro

USC vs. Utah
October 24, 2015 at 4:30pm
Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum: 73,435 (of 93,607)
Total Time: 3 hours 18 minutes

On a night that featured a little of everything, the 3-3 Trojans defeated the rank #3 Utah Utes by 3 scores. The threes didn’t stop at that for this game. The win coming despite needing to use the third-string center, Khaliel Rodgers. His battered offensive line unit only gave up three sacks despite only Damien Mama being in the position he started at at the beginning of the season. True freshman linebacker, Cam Smith also had a career night, picking off Travis Wilson three times. Verging on irrelevant, Threes is a game created by USC alumnus, Asher Vollmer. I’m sure it had something to do with the win against Utah. USC managed to punt only four times in the win. Crap, that’s a CommBro Breaker™. I’m done with this three thing.

One of the best parts of this win is that the team still has not dropped into a losing record since 2001. In Pete Carroll’s first season, the Trojans were 2-5 to start the season, but finished at 6-6. The last time USC closed with a losing season was back in 2000 with a 5-7 record. You’d have to stretch all the way back to 1991 for the next one. With the Trojans teetering on the edge of a tailspin, the win was crucial. Not only did Coach Clay Helton manage to prevent a losing season, but he’s kept the team in the hunt for the Pac-12 South title. If—and that’s a big if—USC runs the table and Utah loses one more conference game, the Trojans will likely get a rematch against Stanford for the Pac-12 Championship. We can only hope.

Either way, this game showed huge improvement from the very start. Upon winning the toss, the Trojans elected to defer. This was something we had not seen in a long time.

The decision proved to be favorable as USC struggled at the start. The Utes jumped to a early 14-7 lead, but the Trojans made sure that would be their last.

Cam Smith’s three interceptions and team leading tackles should definitely earn him player of the game honors. The Pac-12 already recognized him as the defensive player of the week as well. Not only was he able to stop three of 11 meaningful drives (Utah had two more, but at that point, the score was well out of reach), Smith’s 122 yards outgained either team’s entire rushing attack.

Coupled with zero turnovers from the Trojan offense, the Utes didn’t have much of a shot to get back into the game. The Utes were almost shut out completely in the second half. They scored a lone touchdown with four minutes left to play. Su’a Cravens even denied the final deep shot by Wilson with an interception of his own.

The defense allowed only two explosive plays throughout the game. One was the 66-yard catch and run touchdown in garbage time. The other barely qualified as it was a 22-yard gain by Devontae Booker on a simple swing pass. Booker’s running was kept in control all game. His longest run of the day was 12 yards and he only managed 62 yards overall. This forced Utah to rely on their passing game, proving fatal. This is despite losing safety, Marvell Tell III, and playing walk-on Matt Lopes. Even two iffy pass interference calls against Iman Marshall ended up moot for the Utes.

A huge part of such a sure-handed destruction were the adjustments made since playing Notre Dame and the adjustments made during the game—the likes of which has not been in many moons. Playing with a third string center and getting low snaps? Kessler moved under center more. Blocking not going well with true freshman Chuma Edoga in at right tackle? Put in two fullbacks. And when we were up by a fair amount, he ran the damn ball. When the run from the tailback position wasn’t going well, Helton called a fullback dive with Adoree’ Jackson in at tailback as distraction. Furthermore, USC managed to put together a 10+ play drive for a touchdown for the first time this season. They even did it a second time with a 17-play drive that churned away more than half a quarter (8:53). The Trojans punted only four times and only went 3-and-out twice.

The penalties against USC were shaved down as well. Overall, they were flagged 5 times for 49 yards. If you take out the sketchy PI calls, it would’ve been 3 penalties for 20 yards. Either way, it was a huge improvement. The best part? Zero penalties called on the offensive line. Unfortunately, that didn’t stop the Pac-12 officials from getting face time. It was like they were doing a football rules clinic. There was the usual, like announcing why every incomplete pass wasn’t an intentional grounding. They added an explanation of why it wasn’t roughing the kicker to their repertoire. Next thing you know, they’ll be announcing whether the grass is regulation length (we’re looking at you, Notre Dame) or if a quarterback has a legal amount of air in the ball.

Imagine it with me: “Number six of the offense will not be flagged for underinflated his football. The measurement is between 12 and 15 pounds per square inch.” They could say this before every snap, just so you can know for sure, man! So helpful. Thank you Pac-12! They should’ve announced something about JuJu Smith-Schuster’s shoe flying off.

CommBro Breaker

The game could’ve gone a lot worse had Wilson not stared down his receivers. And the missed field goals are going to become a problem at some point.

By the way, thanks for not rushing the field. They were even taking down the goal posts in anticipation of it.

utah goal post

Go rush the field at Vanderbilt or something.

Misleading Stat of the Week: Clay Helton has only played against ranked opponents as head coach.
Context: 3 out of 3 opponents were ranked. Again, too small of a sample size. Next week, he’ll coach against Cal. They just dropped out of the rankings. Why’d they have to go and break the streak?

USC vs. Notre Dame: Another Coach, Another Emerald

Posted on by commbro

Notre Dame vs. USC
October 17, 2015 at 4:30pm
Notre Dame Stadium: 80,795 (of 80,795)
Total Time: 3 hours 23 minutes

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An empty trophy case. Another emerald for the Shillelagh.

The greatest intersectional rivalry in college football was a competitive and exciting match-up…for three quarters. At least the Trojans didn’t lay down and die after the Irish took the 24-10 lead. That’s already improvement in and of itself. Kind of like opening a Pringles can and seeing it’s not half empty. Don’t you dare make a joke about how it’s half full.

Through some deception and amazing feats by Adoree’ Jackson, USC pulled themselves back into a tie. The forced fumble by Jackson saved the defense from giving up another score down at the goal line. Next, Helton reused a well-designed trick play of Cody Kessler throwing a lateral to Jalen Greene, who then threw finally to Juju Smith in the endzone. That play gave USC some momentum and life after a first quarter lull. On the next Trojan possession, Jackson struck again on a screen pass, taking it 83 yards for the touchdown.

They even had a chance to take the lead before the end of the half. However, Alex Wood’s 36-yard field goal veered left and bounced off the upright, leaving the halftime score at 24-24. Maybe I jinxed it in my last post by saying that the special teams would be next to fail. Along with the missed field goal, the Trojans allowed the Irish to block a punt and return it for a touchdown. The twist of the knife was that it was scooped up by former Trojan running back, Amir Carlisle. The first line of the punt team left seven Notre Dame special teamers unblocked, allowing them to reach the 3-man wall unimpeded. It’s not something that happens for Notre Dame reguarly. According to the NBC broadcast, it was the first punt block by Notre Dame in five years. Those two special teams mistakes alone accounted for 10 points. The Trojans only lost by 10 points, by the way.

As bad as those two plays were, special teams cannot be singled out. The offense and defense both had their share of struggles. Both of them probably did worse in the second half than the first. Beyond the first touchdown on the first drive of the half, USC’s offense could not score in the second half. Perhaps electing to receive the first half every game shows a lack of commitment to adjustments.

With or without adjustments, the Trojans were getting in their own way with 10 penalties for 105 yards. Five of those penalties came from the offensive. There would’ve been a sixth on Chad Wheeler for holding, but it was declined in favor of a fourth down stop. Three of them were false starts (Talamaivao, Wheeler, Banner), one was holding (Banner), and the last was a personal foul (Lobendahn) for hands to the face. The offensive line continues to a penalty factory.

Two offensive linemen alone account for 5 penalties each. It may not sound like much, but with 45 penalties on the season, each accounts for 11.11% of the team’s penalties. In total, the offensive line has been flagged 17 times for 160 yards. That is 37.8% of the team’s penalties and 36.6% of the team’s penalty yardage. That isn’t even counting the negated potential yards of the plays nor is it counting the penalties that were declined. Combining these issues with not giving Kessler enough time on most plays, the Trojans stall out of so many drives.

No USC drive this season lasting 10 or more plays ended in a touchdown. USC’s average touchdown drive lasts for 1:56 in 5.45 plays for 66.76 yards.Yet, they cannot score a touchdown in a 2-minute drill. When trying to score a touchdown in the final minutes against Stanford, Washington, and Notre Dame, USC looked sloppy and were unable to come away with anything. Each of those drives were chock full of penalties, sacks, and no completions. In those 31 plays, USC only managed to get five plays over 10 yards and one play over 20 yards. This Trojan offense lives and dies by the explosive play—and in those three final drives, they certainly died without an athletic play to bail them out.

If you can’t depend on the offense to score consistently, then you need to depend on the defense to make stops more consistently. That’s not happening either. Notre Dame’s starting quarterback and running back have been out for the season, but nobody said anything, it might’ve been hard to notice. After Malik Zaire (QB, fractured ankle) and Tarean Folston (RB, torn ACL) went down with injuries, DeShone Kizer and C.J. Prosise picked up right where they left off. Kizer threw for 227 yards and 2 touchdowns and ran for another 47 yards. Prosise carried the ball for 143 yards and his very own pair of touchdowns.

The defense had some occasional stops on the Notre Dame defense, but ultimately, they still allowed the Irish to score 34 points (not counting the punt block return). It was sad to see that two corners had to resort to pass interference to stop potential touchdown receptions. For some plays the defensive backs got beat and other times it was perfectly placed passes that were near indefensible. The Trojans also had trouble stopping the runin the second half of the game. In the end, it comes back down to the defensive line not being able to penerate the offensive line. The sacks that the Trojans did pick up were coverage sacks. Lots of missed tackles also allowed Irish players to slip out for huge chunks of yardage. Fans want to blame scheme, front 7 talent, player development, or game preparation. At this point, it’s hard to tell which is the biggest issue, as it’s likely some combination of all of these.

Regardless of whether or not the Trojans can fix everything up for the rest of the season, they are stuck at a 3-3 record for the first six games of the season. The last Trojan team to have three losses through six games was in 2001, Pete Carroll’s first season. They were 2-4 before finishing the season on a 4-2 run.

CommBro Breaker

I could go on forever about the negatives I see about this team, but I’ll let other people say it for me. I don’t want to make it seem like I’m unreasonably negative or anything like that. Take these positives and maybe have a drink…just as long as it’s not too much:

Two plays Ronald Jones’ big 65-yard run, the Trojans did something unfamiliar (at least for the past 2 years). My mind was blown—in a good way. The play started out with a huddle. Then Kessler lined up under center with a fullback behind him in (22 personnel) and finished with a play action pass to tight end, Taylor McNamara. It really made me miss all those aspects in our offense.

In addition, the downfield blocking continues to be a bright spot on this offense. The offensive line and especially the receivers get to the second level and more. One standout among standouts is Deontay Burnett. He followed the play and managed to level someone on Jones’ 65-yard run. If you go back to the video above, he’s #80 at about the 2:09 mark. Burnett contributed in the passing game as well, with catches of 19, 28, and 6 yards. His performance in this game better have earned him more playing time!

Misleading Stat of the Week: 

USC has scored exactly 31 points and allowed exactly 41 points against teams that are currently ranked in week 8 of the AP and Coaches polls.
Context: USC only played two teams that are still ranked. Not much of a sample size.

USC is rank #3 in the nation in fumbles. USC players have only fumbled 4 times.
Context: USC is #118 in rushing attempts with only 198 attempts. Even air raid, pass happy Washington State has almost as many as the Trojans with 143 attempts.

Depressing Stat of the Week: USC is rank #98 in penalties per game at 7.5 and is rank #115 in opponent penalties per game at 4.67 per game. The 2.8 penalties per game differential is the 3rd highest differential in the nation. Only TCU (3.7) and San Diego State (2.9) are worse. That would land the Trojans at #126.

Ball State, on the other hand, has the highest negative differential. They average 3.9 less penalties than their opponents per game.

USC vs. UW: Thursday is the New Monday

Posted on by commbro

USC vs. Washington
October 8, 2015 at 6:00pm
Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum: 63,623
Total Time: 3 hours 8 minutes

Can we all just agree that, no matter the outcome, Thursday night games are a terrible idea? Between all the traffic, missing work/school, and lack of tailgating it’s hard to really stop and enjoy the game. Then you get home at some ridiculous hour and have a full day of work/school to look forward to.

The band takes the field and the stadium is still more than half empty

The band takes the field and the stadium is still more than half empty

They are terrible like Cody Kessler was right out of the gates. Did he just fail a midterm or something? Most of his passes were off target, finishing the night with 16/29 (55.2% completion) for 156 yards, 0 TDs and 2 interceptions. He was off from the very start of the game, compounding on his usual errors. Uncoincidentally, it was probably his worst game since the 2013 home loss against Washington State.

Maybe it was because the Washington defense kept hitting after the play. There were multiple roughing the passer penalties and one was even called for targeting. Maybe it was the starting center, Max Tuerk, leaving after injury. Or maybe because backup Toa Lobedahn continually snapping the ball low. Despite all of that, they came just a few plays short of an ugly win. You can blame Kessler some, for sure, but maybe the blame should ultimately go to the 40-year old guy with 20 more years of football experience who gets paid millions of dollars to account for this kind of stuff. Quarterbacks, or any player for that matter, are allowed to have off days. It became quite apparent that throwing the ball, especially the deep ball, wasn’t going to work. And neither were passes to the flats for negative yards. Hey Sark, that’s not what they mean by #tbt. That’s also not how you get people to “Turn Up,” in any sense of the phrase, slang or otherwise.

When asked about not making the adjustment to run more, Sark simply said “Hindsight is 20-20.”

Pretty sure most people had the foresight to see otherwise. The offense was offensive to viewers. Thanks to the whole Thursday night thing, the whole nation got to watch USC stink it up in primetime on ESPN. The dismal third down conversion rate of 7.6% (1 of 13) led to the lowest point total they’ve been held to since a 14-10 showing mid-2013 against Notre Dame. How could they be so unprepared after returning from a bye week? That falls on the coach, as the team falls to 0-2 at home against Pac-12 teams and 3-2 overall.

In one game the defense fails. This game, the offense fails. Watch out special teams, you might be next. Following the trends, USC should beat Notre Dame since Sarkisian usually doesn’t lose two in a row. Then they’re right on schedule to play Utah at home. With Pac-12 having a sweet road field advantage and Utah having notoriously good special teams, the perfect storm can hit the Trojans for to continue their streak of losing every other game. But don’t worry, I’m not done talking about the offense just yet.

The three turnovers USC gave up is the highest by a Sarkisian-coached USC team. Last season, the Trojans only lost a total of 12, good for #2 in the nation. Thanks to mistakes and subpar play, the Huskies only managed to get 7 points off those turnovers.

The normally accurate kicker, Cameron Van Winkle, missed a 31-yard field goal attempt, dropping his career 90% from the 30-39 yard range down to 81%. If UW true freshman quarterback, Jake Browning, had a little more experience, he could’ve connected on some of those deep passes and put the game away long before USC’s final drive in the fourth quarter. Much like USC, the Huskies bungled themselves up with penalties that kept the game close.

The inter-Pac-12 game penalties continue to plague this USC team. They were flagged 8 times for 62 yards. Quite comically, no infraction or player got called twice. Each of the flags were all unique little snowflakes commited by different people: offensive facemask, unsportsmanlike conduct, illegal shift, false start, substitution infraction, illegal formation, holding, and offside. Eight strangers with one deadly connection—and it’s not disagreements over Daisy Domergue.

Right down to the end of this painful, USC managed to stay in it. After scoring on the RoJo touchdown, the crowd woke up and probably surprised the crap out of Washington. The defense then delivers a tackle for a loss and sack to pitch a three-and-out. The USC offense answers…with three straight passes to get their very own three-and-out. The defense trots back out and scrapes together another three-and-out. This your chance offense! Nope, let’s botch lining up and waste a timeout. That wouldn’t be the end of the problems though.

The decision-making on the final set of downs was downright baffling. USC was at the Washington 25-yard line with a 3rd-and-6 with the following to consider:

  • Kessler throwing badly most of the night
  • Offensive line not pass-blocking well half the time
  • Averaging over 6 yards per carry
  • Down by 5

Put in a fullback and run the ball. If you get the first down, nothing to worry about. Keep going. Even if you don’t convert, it should be a convertable 4th-and-short. Instead, the call is to try a pass. Okay. Kessler feels phantom pressure, scrambles and gets sacked even though Adoree’ was open across the middle. Fine, you still got a shot at the end zone to try to win it. Wait what?

That fan’s reaction closely mirrorred mine. Did you give up on winning? What are you thinking, coaching staff? Under four minutes to go, with only one timeout remaining, a single first down by UW, and the game is sealed. Can you really bet on your defense to get a third straight three-and-out or maybe a turnover? Then you have to drive the length of the field to get a field goal or touchdown. There are too many moving parts with that plan and risk builds up exponentially with each layer. Sark didn’t have to worry about any of it because the field goal missed and the Huskies got a first down. Have some guts and just go for it on fourth. I doubt fans would’ve criticized that call even if it failed.

That field goal kick was almost symbolized the game. You think it’s not going to make it, it starts to look like it will and ends up just frustratingly and comically short. The final thud of the ball against the crossbar

To make matters worse, the Trojans exited the game four more injuries to key players.

CommBro Breaker

I’m sure Trojans and Huskies can bond over handing off instead of passing.

Also, you no longer have to wonder whether a 1-loss USC team can sneak into the playoff.

Misleading Stat of the Week: USC has 0 passing touchdowns in the month of October, which is tied for last in the nation.

USC vs. ASU: Adidas-Not Even Once

Posted on by commbro

ASU vs. USC
September 26, 2015 at 7:30pm
Sun Devil Stadium: 61,904
Total Time: 3 hours 8 minutes

I don’t think anybody was that coming. Las Vegas oddsmakers expected a 4-point Trojan win. Maybe they meant to say a 4 touchdown win.

If you told someone the Trojans were gonna pitch a first half shut out—especially following that defensive performance against Stanford—they totally would’ve thought you were hard trolling.

ASU was largely considered to be a contender in the Pac-12 South during the preseason. Sure, they had a rough outing against Texas A&M. Then those two option heavy teams in Cal Poly and New Mexico gave them trouble at first, but they managed to get those wins. It was difficult to gauge where they were at from these three games. In fact, we still can’t really evaluate enough. They could bounce back and take out some other Pac-12 team. Many people counted Stanford after their excrutiating loss to Northwestern…

Don’t get too comfortable with this win though. Just look at what UCLA and Utah managed to do in their conference matchups. Utah did to Oregon, what Oregon used to do to them. And wow, look at me. I’m doing exactly what the commentators did at the start of the second half: chatting about every other game that had happened in the nation other than the one I’m supposed to follow.

Back to USC…I’d be stupid to say I wasn’t impressed or satisfied with a blowout win—or just a win in general. This was also USC’s first win in Tempe since 2009. However, the Trojans still had their fair share of mistakes this game. Without all the extra help from ASU miscues, this game could’ve been a lot closer.

If you were wondering whether the Trojans could pick up more flags than last week, they gave you an answer. They outdid their previous 8 with 10 penalties for 91 yards. On the other side, ASU had 2 for 25. Some were extremely costly despite the small amount of yardage. An offside penalty on third down ended up gifting ASU a first down. A pass interference on fourth down was even worse. There was also a baffling offside penalty on Iman Marshall. When’s the last time you heard of a non-blitzing corner get called for that. It got declined though—because he picked up a personal foul later that play.

USC had more flags than this store. Probably.

USC had more flags than this store. Probably.

The defense also still had trouble stopping the run. Furthermore, there were occasions that tight ends were wide open in middle of the field. Ultimately, some great defensive plays and a little bit of bad luck on ASU’s part made it moot.

We must credit the Trojanswith improvement though. ASU quarterback Mike Bercovici looked uncomfortable the entire night. A lot of pressure provided on linebacker blitzes forced errant passes. At some point, I’m not sure what was creeping up more, the linebackers up to the line, or the midriff line of the Song Girls’ tops.

Seriously though. (Photo credit: Screenshot of ESPN broadcast)

Seriously though. (Photo credit: Screenshot of ESPN broadcast)

Adoree’ Jackson was also afforded with a few snaps on offense—and he utilized them fully. He led the team in receiving yards despite only having three catches. Nobody can say he didn’t earn those yards. Kessler threw short passes to him and he made plays in space. He is too good to not play on offense…

Jackson tacked on punt returns of 8 and 45 yards, to bring up his all-purpose yards to 184. If you do that math, he netted the team about 36.8 yards every time he touched the ball. Sadly, his 45-yard punt return with the added facemask penalty was wasted by a turnover.

Kessler’s fumble near the goal line and interception during the first drive were USC’s first two turnovers of the season. Luckily, the team had four takeaways to end it with a positive turnover margin. Unfortunately, both of USC’s turnovers happened in the red zone.

Again, these mistakes ended up not mattering in this game. Kessler more than redeemed himself. On one particular play, he avoided two would be sacks on third down to toss it off to Justin Davis for the first down. The offense he led is now averaging 8.06 yards per play, which is good for #3 in the nation. Third down conversion was phenomenal as well. Not only was their pre-garbage time third down conversion percentage great, but they managed to convert some longer ones.

ASU’s plan seemed to set on shutting down USC’s run game. I think they did a commendable job with that. They were also able to sack Kessler a couple of times. Too bad the passing game answered with big play after big play.

Remember how ASU was able to score 3 touchdowns in under four minutes without getting onside kicks and no timeouts? USC had their own version at the end of the second half. USC was up 14-0 with less then 4 minutes until halftime. If I had stepped out to take a phone call or something, I would’ve thought ESPN messed up the score again. 35-0? What?

When it looked like ASU was going to score, Delvon Simmons shot through a gap and hit the running back during the exchange. The resulting turnover was remniscent of another USC safety playing on the road.

Then the kickoff returner, De’Chavon Hayes, hesitated, but decided to take it out of the endzone anyway? Clown move, bro. Bad enough to start at the 5-yard line, but to tack on a fumble?

Maybe it’s a curse for switching to Adidas. If it is, I hope UCLA gets the same Adidas curse.

At the close of the game, USC’s offense ranks #8 in points per game. The defense ranks #25 in points allowed per game (tied with Alabama). Not a terrible position to be in, but they must continue to improve. They will face three teams in the current AP top 10 later in the schedule: #6 Notre Dame, #10 Utah, and #7 UCLA.

CommBro Breaker

What’s interesting is that Sark got it right about two teams, it seems.

Whatever pill Sark had at the Salute to Troy event, it must’ve given him prophetic abilities. Maybe it was one of those NZT-48 limitless pills from the show we kept seeing commercials about. No wonder he would keep that a secret from the media. Time to see if Notre Dame lives up to Sark’s prophecy.

Misleading Stats of the Week:

ASU outscored USC in the second half by double.

USC only outgained ASU by 1 yard.

USC is now first place in the Pac-12
[South]

USC vs. Stanford: Error 404 Defense Not Found

Posted on by commbro

USC vs. Stanford
September 19, 2015 at 5:00pm
Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum: 78,306
Total Time: 3 hours 10 minutes

404 error

Fig A. Wilcox’s play sheet

Let’s just get right to it. The last time USC won out in September was in Lane Kiffin’s first year (2010). September losses have pretty much become a habit with the Stanford capping off a five year streak.

Speaking of 2010, that’s what USC’s defense looked like. Stanford was completing passes all over the middle of the field and running it up the gut successfully. It was as if we had a 4-0-4 formation on defense since the linebackers were nowhere to be found! Just kidding, that’s mean. Outside linebacker Su’a Cravens made a lot of plays and was one of the redeeming factors on defense.

Although the transitive property doesn’t really work in college football (or football in general), here’s something to think about:

How does USC’s defense allow more points than a Central Florida team that goes on to lose to Furman. The Furman Paladins are in the same FCS conference as the Wofford Terriers, which even Idaho could beat.

USC Stanford UCF

Despite continued subpar play by the offensive line, Cody Kessler managed to string together respectable drives and decent numbers. Bad snaps and a run game that eventually faltered. Sure, he made mistakes

Kevin Hogan had one of the best games of his career. Although his statistics are comparable to Kessler’s the stats don’t tell the entire story.

I’d venture to say that if Kessler had the same amount of time in the pocket as Hogan, the USC offense would probably never have punted.

With the time of possession slanted (angled?!) heavily in Stanford’s favor, it was hard to get on the field and score points. Stanford controlled the ball nearly twice as long as USC did. Who would’ve thought USC would get caught in a shootout with Stanford? No side produced any turnovers and both teams had nine meanginful possessions, so it came down to punting, turnovers on downs, and being held to field goals.

Punts:
USC: 3
Stanford: 2

Field Goals:
USC: 1
Stanford: 2

Turnover on Downs:
USC: 1
Stanford: 0

So if we do the simple math, if USC had one less turnover on downs and punt, they would tie Stanford. Suppose one went for a touchdown and the other was held to a field goal. The score would’ve been tied.

USC would routinely forced a third down situation and Stanford answered by converting an astouding 66.7% (8/12) of third downs. Had USC stopped them two more times, this game could’ve been extremely different.

Alternatively, had the offense converted some more of their own third downs, the outcome would’ve been different as well. Going 4 of 10 on third downs isn’t pretty, but it’s hard to ask an offense to do much more than they did. Let’s be honest. Kessler’s stats are probably still Heisman worthy. In three games, he’s thrown 89 passes and completed 78.7% for 922 yards, 10 TD and 0 INT. He has also continued to improve on things he has been criticized for. For one, he took off and ran for the first down when the lane was there. That 18 yard run set up the touchdown to retake the lead.

Unfortunately, his underthrown swing pass to Tre Madden earlier in that drive is what ultimately killed USC’s running game. After running successfully in the first half, Madden, fell awkwardly after making the catch. He would not run the ball again. After the running backs picked up 126 yards in the first half, they posted a measly 22 yards in the second half.

What’s more concerning is that the offensive line couldn’t protect Kessler on numerous occasions. Their pass blocking remains one of many weak points for this team. The line also picked up half the teams penalties (4 for 45), all by the returning starters Chad Wheeler, Zach Banner, and Max Tuerk. Some of them like the personal foul were completely preventable. Those costly penalties quickly caused drives to stall out.

That wasn’t the end of stupid penalties though. There was stupid stuff like an unnecessary holding that got Adoree’ Jackson’s kickoff return called back. To make matters worse, they tacked on an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty. What would’ve been a touchdown, quickly became starting within their own 10-yard line.

Through the first two games, the Trojans picked up just nine penalties. Against Stanford, it came out to eight—and that’s not counting all the offset and declined penatlies.

The defensive line could not create enough pressure with a standard 4-man rush. Furthermore, Hogan had a wide open left edge when he was flushed out of the pocket. Had Hogan not get rolled up under Anthony Sarao at the start of the second half, he may have exploited the lack of contain on the left edge many more times. Regardless, Hogan threw some of the best passes of his career and certainly the best he ever played against USC in three tries. On multiple deep passes he had perfect touch, making them pretty much indefensible once in the air.

Needless to say, Sark needs to get together with Coach Connelly and Wilcox to work on some things.

CommBro Breaker (some things to make you less depressed)

Only three teams haven’t turned the ball over this season: USC, LSU, and West Virginia. Both LSU and WVU have only played two games to USC’s three.

No kickoffs out of bounds this week!!! Special teams win!

Wide receivers have been blocking really well—better than they have been in years. They have turned some standard runs into big gains. On JuJu’s 54-yard catch and run, Darreus Rogers and Steven Mitchell Jr. threw key blocks.

Double CommBro Breaker

Misleading Stat of the Week: USC is last place in the Pac-12 standings.

USC vs. Idaho: Vandalized Stat Sheet

Posted on by commbro

USC vs. Idaho
September 12, 2015 at 5:00pm
Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum: 72,422
Total Time: 3 hours 18 minutes

USC gets a nice primetime slot for week two despite a less than stellar matchup. Too bad it was on the Pac-12 Network for the second week in a row—Sorry DirecTV customers!

As USC runs through what seems like the entire Sun Belt conference, they averaged 57 points and 7.5 points allowed per game. Those numbers will fall back to more realistic levels as the Trojans face conference foes.

Again, there’s not too much that you can extrapolate from the team’s play at this point of the season. Some of the big things are:

  1. The kicking game. Another kickoff out of bounds?
  2. Adoree’ finding out when to call for a fair catch.
  3. The defense needs to figure out what they’re doing for the first drive of the third quarter.

All of that stuff is kind of negative, so let’s take a look at everything else instead.

Although Adoree’ Jackson played sparingly on offense, all but one of his offensive touches went for first downs. The single play that wasn’t got only 8 yards. Take a look at the highlight of one of his plays below:

His catch and run at the 1:33 mark of the video shows what this crazy man can do. The Idaho defense took almost 20 seconds to bring him down despite Adoree’ coming to a complete stop at one point.

Kind of reminds me of this run…

Jackson may need to be a bit more conservative on special teams though. If someone sprinkled in some bad luck, the jump from last week and the fair catch no-calls this week could’ve ended up being disastrous, momentum-changing moments. Even if potential injuries don’t scare him, fumbles are still a thing.

Another receiver, JuJu Smith-Schuster, had a career night with a 192 yard, 2 TD performance. He tops the team in all-purpose yards—both in total yards and yards per game….even though all he does is catch. But what was with that penalty? I would never have expected Smith-Schuster to get unsportsmanlike conduct penalties. Yet, there it was, a 15-yard variety after Idaho scored their first and only touchdown.

Luckily, Cody Kessler and the offense responded quickly in the ensuing 6 play, 1:37 drive. After doing a short dump off, Kessler completed five straight passes of 10+ yards to get the touchdown. It was as if the fight song never stopped playing.

Kessler finished the night with 410 yards passing, 3 touchdowns and only 2 more incompletions than touchdowns. Even more notable was that he completed two passes that were thrown for over 20 yards. This was a good sign considering how the main criticism from last week was him missing deep throws.

Kessler’s 7-0 touchdown-interception ratio is the best in the nation at this point. Three quarterbacks have more touchdowns, but also have more interceptions:

Seth Russell (Baylor) 9-4
Matt Johnson (Bowling Green) 8-1
Patrick Mahomes (Texas Tech) 8-1

Unfortunately, no USC running back is close to being at the top of a national stat chart. However, that speaks more of the running back depth than the ineptitude of play. The Trojans allowed all five of their scholarship running backs some carries and were vindicated with five rushing touchdowns. The group had 29 carries for 248 yards, averaging 8.55 per rush. When including the walk-ons, it still comes out to 35 carries for 285 yards averaging 8.14 per rush. When you can run like that, you can do anything you want.

Out of all the running backs, true freshman Ronald Jones II was the one that stood out the most. He had some good runs between the tackles and broke some longer runs. Late in the second quarter, Jones’ 31 yard touchdown run was nullified by a holding call on Max Tuerk. That run likely would not have been sprung if not for the holding, so it was a legit penalty. During the fourth quarter, however, it was like some kind of sick game for the officials. How many times can they deny Ronald Jones II of touchdowns? Even after a review, they wouldn’t give him a 45-yard touchdown run. Instead, they called it a 44-yard run with Jones going down at the 1-yard line. Sad times. Your Pac-12 officials at work.

Overall, the USC offense compiled a nasty 737 yards of total offense. The last time they got even close to that was when Leinart, Bush, and the 2005 USC team destroyed Arkansas with 70 points and 736 yards. Times have certainly changed.

The defense played decently for most of the game. A couple of rookie mistakes led to some big gains and scores from the Idaho offense. I say, let them have it. How many of you guys can even name the Idaho starting QB even after seeing that game? I already forgot his name…Poor guy.

There were some things like the pass intereference penalty and corners, linebackers, and safeties getting caught out of position. With so much youth on the roster, these things should be solved as time goes on.

CommBro Breaker

I bet all of you wanted a bunch of potato jokes and puns, but I won’t deliver. Pretty much every place that serves french fries doesn’t deliver. HAH. Okay, it stops there. And you guys wonder why their mascot is the Vandals? I would become one too being the butt end of so many jokes about my state. Instead, let these useless stats fill up your head. One day, while you’re taking your exams, you won’t be able to remember what Grice’s Maxims are, but you will remember these useless week two stats about USC. What’s that? You didn’t know what Grice’s Maxims were in the first place? Should have been a comm major.

Completely pointless stat: USC has as many first downs as points per game (57).

Misleading stat of the week: USC has stopped 100% of points after touchdowns
Context: USC has only allowed two touchdowns so far this season. Arkansas State failed to convert their 2-point conversion and Idaho’s kick was blocked by Claude Pelon.

 

Old Stuff

USC vs. Ark St.: More Complaints than Analysis

USC vs. Ark St.: More Complaints than Analysis

Posted on by commbro

USC vs. Arkansas State
September 5, 2015 at 8:00pm
Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum: 79,809
Total Time: 3 hours 12 minutes

20150905_200402

Let’s start with this: WHY is it an 8:00pm kickoff? I mean, I prefer night games, but by the time we got out of there, it was literally a different day. You want to keep people in seats and from changing the channel? How about not making it end close to 3:00am on the East Coast?! I guess it isn’t as bad as the Hawaii-Colorado 10:00pm start time, but that’s like saying mice have it better than rats. Well, let me tell you, when the landlady is chasing you down with raid and a giant broomstick, you would probably wouldn’t feel the difference. No, it’s not a firsthand experience.

Once you get over the late start, you might ask “Why is USC playing a relatively unknown school like Arkansas State?” Well, you know how Texas A&M beat down Arizona State the past week? It should’ve been USC beating down Texas A&M, but they decided not go through with the scheduling. Perhaps it’s to preserve their now 15-0 (now 16-0, after beaint ASU) record against non-conference opponents since joining the Southeastern Conference. Trying to find a last minute replacement, especially one that does not dip into the FCS realm, not exactly easy.

And while Arkansas State is a Sun Belt team, their four year record is about the same as USC’s. They aren’t as big of a cupcake as most people think they are.

USC Ark St
2011 10-2 10-3
2012 7-6 10-3
2013 10-3 8-5
2014 9-4 7-6
Total W-L 36-15 35-17

Yeah, yeah they are trending downwards and USC wrecked them…but leave the CommBro Breakers™ up to me, alright? Just read the damn chart.

Now that I’m done complaining about logistics and losing sleep, and you’re done griping about the competition, I can talk about the actual game.

Spoiler alert, the final score was 55-6. Not a bad score line, but 55 isn’t exactly typical. USC had to fail a PAT to get there. But it all works out because it pays homage to the former 55 club linebacker, Keith Rivers, that led the Trojans out of the tunnel. Maybe they let it get blocked on purpose. Yeah, probably not.

The stat of the day is 3-25. That’s 3 penalties for 25 yards. In the previous season, USC averaged 8 penalties for 78 yards per game (115-1023 total). There weren’t very many stupid penalties this time around and that’s good. The three were:

  • 15-yards: Personal foul by Antwuan Woods for hitting the QB during an interception return
  • 5-yards: False start by Chad Wheeler
  • 5-yards: Delay of game on 4th-and-2 first drive of the 3rd quarter

I would consider that fairly disciplined for the first game of the season and Pac-12 refs that are usually itching to chuck some yellow pieces of cloth. There were also no gaffes with the constant substitutions. These are all good signs. The most costly was probably the delay of game penalty. It quickly changed their plan from going for it on 4th down to punting. You can’t do that against stiffer competition.

Chris Hawkins deserves recognition for his play in the game. His switch to safety has paid off in a penalty-free opening. A common criticism of him was that he always drew pass interference and/or holding calls. His flaws were overstated, but the move has worked for him. He accumulated a total of 5 tackles, a fumble recovery, and an interception returned for 20 yards. While we’re talking about defense…

Running quarterbacks are still a problem for USC. Defensive ends and outside linebackers have not been up to par with setting the edge. Arkansas State quarerback, Fredi Knighten, managed to break a few longer runs for first downs. Luckily, they were only able to score once.

On the other side of the ball, the offense had a decent showing. However, they still needed to punt six times and went 0-1 on 4th down conversions in 14 meaningful drives. There has been a lot of chatter about the unexpected allowance of 5 sacks. People will be quick to blame the offensive line and new coach Bob Connelly, but I’m not going to focus on that. One game is too small of a sample size.

One thing that should be noted was that the four sacks came in the first half (two in USC’s second drive of the game). There was only one sack in the second half. Perhaps with Clay Helton calling the plays, Sark was able to work with Connelly and the rest of the offense to make some worthwhile adjustments.

Tre Madden’s big run in the 2nd quarter was from a power formation. The combination of a great block by the fullback, Jahleel Pinner, and downfield blocks by the offensive linemen and receivers allowed Madden to take it to the house. Good to see that formations utilizing fullbacks are still a thing.

USC has not been great at beating the betting spread since the sanctions. This time, they beat it by almost double.

CommBro Breaker

I wish I could write about a lot more from this game, but unfortunately, I am out of time. It’s already Wednesday night and I’m just barely finishing up. Let’s be honest, most of you probably didn’t even read the whole thing or skimmed it. It’s only the first game of the season anyway. Trends will reveal itself and more interesting things will happen.

Until then, savor the misleading stat of the week: the USC defense is only allowing 6 points per game