FOOTBALL

Discuss The USC-Stanford Game

UPDATED: It’s not the 17-3 loss to Stanford, but the gutless nature of the performance that should bother Clay Helton tonight.

It was so bad and he did nothing to give USC a sense of urgency. Again.

USC has no leadership. No energy. No purpose.

The coaching is atrocious.

And if you think JT Daniels will provide late magic like Sam Darnold, tonight proved otherwise.

Stanford leads 14-0 at halftime. USC’s defense looks soft and the secondary isn’t doing much now that it faces a team that can pass.

Meanwhile, Clay Helton went for it on 4th down for some reason and gifted Stanford a TD right before the half ended.

I like JT Daniels, but he doesn’t remind of Sam Darnold yet.

64 thoughts on “Discuss The USC-Stanford Game”

    2. Texas is not a good team. Even if we win, it should not mean Helton is off the hook. Poor coaching will re-surface when we tough teams. We have been under performing since last year.

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    1. So predictable. I could tell you what SC was going to call most of the time. No misdirection plays. On obvious blitz plays no screens third and short, obvious run up the middle. Terrible!

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    1. Yes exactly! All night their receivers ran to the first down and turned around. Are corners are 5 yards off and back peddling. Stanford was up in our receivers faces.

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    2. Agree completely. Clancy is washed up as a coordinator with no imagination. He coaches like he is back in the NFL. No turnovers or
      even cause a fumble, no sacks on the QB. Bradford must go as DB
      Coach, too.

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      1. And yet, in comparison to Tee Martin and Clay Helton, Clancy is a rocket scientist. Here is the thing. In the big games against top teams, the defense finds a way to put in a respectable performance. The offense sucks. And Helton was offensive coordinator, so he deserves even more blame.

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  7. I really do believe that Martin has no imagination and is totally predictable. Stanford has had every play sniffed out from the snap. This is the season he was the man, and so far has been a fail.

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  8. As about as predictable as a team can be. We are soft in secondary…really.soft.. play calling on Offense is less than dynamic.

    JT is nowhere near Sam but that is fair. He shouldn’t be right now.

    The coaching is the biggest worry and this year there’s no Sam to bail the coaches out.

    I’m.revising my prediction…this is an 8-4 team with good odds for 7-5.

    Next year looks good. With Helton and Martin there’s always.next year.

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    2. Even if this team is 8-4, the way they win will be ugly all year long. I do think that JT will get better and Clay will then use that to defend himself as coach.

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  9. So far I haven’t seen the magic that once was called USC offense. I haven’t seen smash mouth football from any USC player. This isn’t USC it’s Cal State L.A.
    Don’t say we can lose tonight but beat them at the end of the season. What has to happen to get our line to play like a team? Either Helton builds a fire under Callaway or Swann builds a fire under Helton

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  10. Why in the world does it look like the team is taking its damn time in offense?!? Helton and Tee must think it’s a 6 quarter game or something?!?! Lynn Swann needs to just drop the hammer now.

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  11. Helton and his coaching staff especially the offense are not suitable for high school football. Fire them all and go get Jason Negro from St. John Bosco or Matt Logan from Centennial.

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    1. USC doesn’t hire good coaches from outside the Trojan family. With that in mind maybe go after O.J. Simpson. He’ll murder the competition.

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      2. Wait whoa hold on Steve B did I offend you with my satire? Honestly personal attacks are lower than gallows humor in my book. At least I put my real last name out there. But while I’m in the cellar, I will happy to stir the bovine excrement that your posts add up to. Either fight on or F…off

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    2. here is the spin from a proud rah rah. This game was a whole bunch of failed opportunities. Mostly in two areas, stalled drives on their side of the field and giving up too many third and long plays for first downs. We were out executed, and outcoached. But not by a wide margin. Also, we have a true freshman QB playing on the road against a super disciplined team. Yet, we did not get our doors blown off. This was completely winnable. Back to failed opportunities, at least the opportunities were there to be had. I think we may sort through some of this by the end of the year as JT grows with this group.

      My sky is not falling, I am still confident that we will win the south and the possibility of a rose bowl. But zero chance of any playoff.

      Now proceeed with the name calling, I really don’t mind. Just thought I would speak up for the rah rah’s. I take no joy in a USC loss, kind of feel like you do.

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      1. Nice thoughts, Chris. I hope you’re right (i.e., that improvement is right around the corner). As far as all the negative comments —I don’t think most people here take joy in seeing USC lose. I think what we’re seeing is a lot of disappointment mixed with a good amount of apprehension.

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      2. While I appreciate your optimism, I don’t think you’re being honest with yourself. This is a team without chemistry, or Top 20 level coaching, that is destined to flounder through the season. Their is simply nothing being displayed that reminds us real Trojan Football. Helton and his boys have turned the program into an impostor…a thin veneer of real wood over cheap particle board…a hamburger patty masquerading as filet mignon…
        Expect a 5 loss season.

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      3. chris, when you say we did not get blown out, you are referring to the defense that held them to 17. but the offense could only muster 3. let’s give clancy the credit for the defense. but on the offensive side of the ball, helton (past OC) and Tee (current OC) did get truly blown out.

        same as Ohio State last year.

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  13. My friend in the USC athletic department says Trojan athletic department employees will have to pay their own way to Texas. A shame.

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      1. Now think about it. If USC plays down to their training level and you are one of the coaches, would go on the tarmac with the team?

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  14. Fire Martin now. He has no clue on what to do. Daniels throws off his back foot. That means he doesn’t want to get hit which means the online is blocking.

    Costello got hit twice and no sacks. Get their o line and offensive coordinator down here.

    No pass interference calls against Stanford. There should have been five flags. The reason is that the qb for SC is a rookie and hasn’t earned the flags. Where was Helton on those plays. He needed to be screaming at the referee. Get kicked out. That would be the best thing for yelling at the ref

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    2. Paul — I saw lots of what MOST people call “interference” committed by Stanford. But the only person who told the refs to throw a flag was a freshman (Amon). Everybody else just smiled and walked back to the sidelines after getting manhandled. The way to deal with this the next time it happens (try next week) is for our d-backs to drape themselves all over the receivers, too.
      #Let’sNotCry,Let’sPlayRough

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      1. Hey MG, my Hawaiian Trojan bro, I hope you had a great summer. It’s looking like this new season doesn’t look too promising, doesn’t it? But the truth is we’ve been afraid of this type of start of the season after the departure of Darold. Unfortunately, we might see the team struggle throughout the season putting up a close to a .500 record this season unless there are some drastic changes made. In my personal view, I don’t see Helton getting it done, and it won’t be before the coaching change that we’ll see a significant improvement in the team. Hopefully, it’ll happen sooner than later.

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  15. Jittery Daniels was getting happy feet, fleeing the pocket before there was pressure. Looked like he had an internal clock going off. Throwing off the back foot, falling away as he threw. Missed down field opportunities. Helton’s Not a great coach

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  18. What bothers me the most is how timid they looked at times. That & the 3rd & long conversions that were allowed. I’m watching the Az St vs Mich St. game now and can’t help but notice the energy & aggression that Az St is playing with. They’re losing right now but they’re all playing with passion. They are less talented but they bought in & are giving Mich St. a game. If SC played with that type of energy / attitude they would’ve killed Stanford.

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      2. Hi RegalTrojan. I’m holding out hope for Helton and the staff —but I have to agree with you about how silly Helton’s comment sounds. This wasn’t a war —it was more like the charge of the light brigade.
        P.S.
        The truth is Helton is a pretty good coach with a lot of young players on offense. I just hope he doesn’t make it extra difficult for them again next week by taking risks at the wrong times and in the wrong situations (i.e., going for it on 4th and 2 at the tail end of the first half when we were getting the ball back right after halftime). To put it kindly, he doesn’t have a gambler’s feel for when it’s the wrong time to shoot the works.

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  19. Defense wasn’t terrible. It was adequate, but adequate ain’t gonna cut it with this flimsy offense. For USC to contend for the Pac-12 Championship, the Defense needs to tilt the field, and this defense isn’t that good.

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    1. Agreed, the defense needs to force big turnovers and maybe take some of them to the house. They also need to figure out how to get off of the field after 3rd & long.

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  21. The sad thing is that I kind of figured that what happened tonight would happen. Stanford wouldn’t do anything spectacular, but they would control the clock and gradually pull away. We would be predictable and be stopped. They would be predictable but we won’t be able to stop them when it counts. Converting long third downs. Scoring at the start and before half. Us, move the ball, but then not convert in the Red Zone. Same old same old. We will NEVER beat the big boys the way things stand! We use to be one of The Big Boys! I miss those days!

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  23. Wow. I assumed we’d get a minimum amount of offense against this defense. I’ve talked about the O-line and I think they blocked well in the run game, but you gotta protect your freshman QB better than that. Your freshman QB also needs to get help from his TE and we got nothing from the TE position tonight. Poteat is just a ham-handed pass catcher and he could’ve bailed his QB out a couple of times. Even the catch he made was like a “safety catch” (it’s easier and more sure to fall down when you make a catch) when we needed him to catch it and get upfield for a 1st down or get out of bounds. He’s not athletic and sure-handed enough for that and I suspect the other guy is the same way. WTH is Daniel I. anyway? Look, I know everyone loves JT, but I have seen other freshmen play and been more impressed by their arms. JT is throwing off his back foot, flicking his arm and putting this kind of flutter ball out there. His ball doesn’t have any weight to it because he isn’t stepping into it. He was doing this even without people in his face. What is that? This DB is all over the hitch to T. Vaughns, we get the hitch and go along the sidelines, TV has 2 or 3 steps on the guy and JT puts a flutter ball out there that brings the DB back into play. The long pass to Pittman wasn’t Really where it needed to be either. JT is doing the same thing every time and it’s like staying back on your right side in the golf swing. He’s gotta get back to basics and make the full throwing motion. This isn’t high school where you can afford to cheat like that. I’m shocked to see that with all the hype I’ve been hearing. All these folks are saying they knew he was special the first time they saw him and that didn’t happen for me. I like some other things about his game, but he doesn’t throw a great ball in my opinion. When I saw Josh Rosen throw the ball as a freshman, it was obvious how pure his arm was. I don’t see the same pure arm talent in JT. I’m strictly talking about his arm and the ball he throws. None of this should be construed as a call for Fink as the best thing about his arm appears to be his feet.

    I’ve talked about coaches being more likely to lose a game for you than win it and I think we saw some of that tonight. We have unimaginative, uninspiring play calling. We never fool people and we have to work for everything we get. You need to be getting great play calls to sustain drives and we aren’t even getting good ones in crucial moments. Also, we KNOW that to beat Stanford we have to play the field position game. Why are you going for it on 4th and 2 in that position against this team? Why are you attempting a 53 yd field goal like you have Sebastian Janikowski on your sideline? That decision smacked of desperation and a coach letting the moment get away from him a little bit. It didn’t look good in theory or in execution and you know better against Stanford.

    WE were outclassed. Stanford looked like they knew who they were and we looked like we were out there trying to find ourselves. I guess we are trying to find ourselves. Next week is another team that wants to pay us back like Stanford did tonight. Sh*tty effort and I gave the offense too much credit.

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    1. His release and arm angle is very similar to Aaron Rodgers. So I don’t think that’s the major problem. Not stepping up into the pocket, staring down receivers, no progression, throwing off the wrong foot, and the big one, speed of the game

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    2. The most appalling thing about Heltonball is the complacency on display in every game…from the boneheaded play calling to the lack of passion from the players. No other CFB program has done a better job of squandering its talent and potential. I don’t expect much to change until SC gets a real HC.

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  27. They played like they practiced…men in shorts vs full pads full contact…you always play like you practice…SC no longer develops great offensive linemen/ players or teams…they keep promising and never deliver…the defense played well enough…the offense thought they were going to play the SC scout team, just like practice. If you don’t go against the best in practice and then do in a game…you lose.

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  29. they did it last year even in prep for Ohio st and cotton bowl…also the year before,and year before that…he will keep doing it until fired….how can the offense prepare for teams like ND, even Stanford ? going against a 3rd string defense? This is why the defense looked so good in fall prep, this offense is not tough up front where blocking is critical,in rushing and pass blocking. They need to practice 1 vs 1/2…not 3rd team.

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