FOOTBALL

Discuss The USC-Arizona Game

Did you survive that grueling exercise? This was a game USC easily could have lost if it played a slightly above average team.

USC’s defense is not ready for Prime Time. It’s downright shoddy against any offense that is competent.

How would the Trojans fare in the Big Ten with that defense? Or the College Football Playoff?

I don’t care who was out tonight. The defense is awful and if I were Lincoln Riley, I’d start worrying about the defense for the UCLA game. The secondary is a mess.

The offense, on the other hand, is going to score no matter what. I’m never worried about who USC signs at wide receiver.

Did it really matter that Jordan Addison and Mario Williams were out? Wide receivers are a dime a dozen. Just plug and play.

And don’t get me started on the officials. The ridiculous sequence at the end of the half with the clock starting while the ref has the ball in his hands. And the phantom personal foul on Arizona. Enough with the Pac-12.

44 thoughts on “Discuss The USC-Arizona Game”

  1. no nead to thank us, but me ‘n ed sent too duzen roses to the colurado ladees cross country team pac 12 champs aftur seein it on the tv screan 28 times. Gift card reeds “congrats ladee buffaloes cros cuntry champeens, frum the gang at insyde usc with scott wulfe.”

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    1. FCS North Dakota St. held Arizona to 394 total yards.

      Grinch, Nua and Donte Williams defense allowed 543 yards against Arizona.

      Those three clowns are incapable of making any adjustments. Donte Williams isn’t even a coach, he’s a recruiter. Donte Williams is absolutely worthless, he’s had some 4 and 5 star DB/CB players while at USC and he wasn’t able to develop a single one.

      That clown Donte Williams needs to be the first one fired.

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      1. Although 3 db’s led the team in tackles. USC was hurt seriously at linebacker. #53 is not that good. #18 being out really hurt us. The AZ offense was the best it has been all season last night, and DeLaura was almost unstoppable. Depth hurt USC the most as there is no speed in the backups. How do you defend a 6’5″ receiver who goes up high and one hands a catch? Wish we had those tall of receivers at USC. We did have one last year.

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      2. Some of the coverages were horrendous. There are only so many schemes (cover 1, cover 2, nickel 40), so it boils down to having guys competently execute their assignments, and it seems a lot of those were blown. BUT, there were many times when the coverage was good, with DBs right on the receiver. The ‘Cat receiver Dorian is great. He is a nightmare to cover. And to think he was a walk-on.

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  3. I’ve always said it….USC is still a year or 2 away. Even their recruiting is a year or 2 away. You’ll see them go right back to the transfer portal after the season.
    Some put forth the theory that many of the bad calls against USC is nothing more than punishment for them leaving the Pac-12. Others say that is just a conspiracy theory with nothing to back it up. Up until lately I, too, have considered it a conspiracy theory. I’m not so sure anymore.
    That call right before the half is causing me to wonder.The Trojans ran up to spike the ball, but the officials started the clock before even spotting it and time ran out. How can the officials let the clock run out while refusing to let the team with the ball(in possible scoring position in the red zone) run a play?
    It really does seem that they were trying to run the clock out so SC couldn’t score.  Later Lincoln Riley said “I probably didn’t give them a whole lot of time for an explanation and then after we talked, they admitted that they messed it up”. Surprise…Surprise!!!!That’s a first….!!!!the Pac-12 officials messing up??? “And still my question was, why wasn’t play stopped to review it?” said Lincoln Riley

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    1. It only takes ONE call like that per game to change the outcome….and the Pac 12 officials know it…so expect more of it…
      #AndWeWon’tHearAPeepAboutItFromBohn….

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      1. Bohn was active on social media, criticizing the end of half call. ESPN has the video footage of Riley going off on the zebra. Merton Hanks can’t pretend this one didn’t happen.

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    2. The incompetence of the refs IS THE COVER-UP. They can just claim that they “screwed up” and keep trying to destroy USC with bad calls. There are so many judgement calls in a game. Holding, roughing the passer, PI are all incremental calls where they can call fouls.

      Notice that they make these calls on key plays and at a point when the game is still in the balance. So USC just needs to get ahead by 21 and then the refs will be out of the game. Similar to taking the crowd out of the game.

      These refs are making the Pac-12 look horrible. What teams from other conferences will want to schedule games against the Pac-12?

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      1. The roughing the passer call against Utah and the game clock call at the end of the first half of the arizona game certainly do seem to have been called at critical times in the game.

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  4. Hard to play defense with no linebackers- all in all USC won, and played with effort, but they will not beat teams with a good running game. UCLA will run the ball with Charbonnet time and time again against our weak defense, and with that control the clock by keeping the ball away from the USC offense by moving the chains down the field.

    USC should move Tuli to linebacker to solidy the middle, but we then have no defensive lineman so there is simply not enough talent on this defense.

    10-2 is not bad for Riley’s first season as I see us beating ND, but losing to UCLA. However, he has alot of work to do recruiting some good defensive players.

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    1. I see us going 10-2 also [which is a major step for this team]….I just don’t know if the loss will be to UCLA or Notre Dame…..
      #WeWon’tBeatThemBothThisYear….
      #[ButThingsWillBeDifferentNextYear]

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    2. 10-2 is very good for the first year but I do think that we have a 50-50 chance of going 11-1 and then winning a bowl game and winning 12 games this year. I think that’s a very good possibility. But even if they do that, this coaching staff will be busy rercruiting after the season is over. This year is just step #1 in their plan to win a national championship.

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    3. Riley is very smart. He will find a way to make the UCLA game competitive, I think. But he is going to need to be a magician.

      Caleb needs to score 50+ in the UCLA game to win. Every possession needs to be a touchdown.

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  5. The officiating is bad because the conference is stuck in the past. Merton Hanks? That’s your football guy? USC reminds me of an old property being renovated in an high end neighborhood. The renovation needs a new roof and better drywall. People expected a paint job with new appliances but the structure required retrofitting.

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  6. The defense was an open sewer it couldn’t stop shit. Williams needs to start throwing to the open receivers instead of throwing bombs in coverage. Riley needs to pink slip Donte. (And maybe Grinch)
    I am happy with the win but if this is what two weeks rest did for us, no thank you.

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    1. That’s an easy one. We don’t even have a Special Team’s coach [and, boy, was it showing on our field goal tries] —so, in a game in which we couldn’t stop Arizona from going 75 yards for one TD after another,
      Lincoln thought it would be fun to see what would happen if we cut the distance they had to travel to 50 yards…. and he found out.

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      1. Recruiting!!!!! SC must put a special emphasis on bringing in great players. Caleb Williams isn’t going to be there forever. Can you imagine how things would look right now if we didn’t have CW?

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      2. We have Caleb next year —and great receivers. What we won’t have is Travis Dye….and his 100 yards of offense.
        #LosingDyeWillBeBig…
        #…HeSavesDrivesEveryGame

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      3. I was really perplexed by the decision to onside kick and cut the field in half for an offense that was absolutely humming! Don’t get me wrong, USC is a much better team and better to watch under Lincoln but that was a Clay Helton type decision. At least make them travel the field and eat up time. He pretty much put Arizona back in the game with that onside call.

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    1. There was a 70-yard deep ball to Ford, a 53-yard end-around for Michael Jackson III, a 46-yard bomb to Washington. The Trojans had eight plays of 20 yards or more in total, half of which went for at least 45 yards.

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      1. Thumbs up to Ford, he has worked hard to recover from 2 ACL reconstructions, and he has to be one of the fastest WRs at his size (220 at least).

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      2. Yeah —I love the fact Ford called called Caleb during bye week and told him “Enough playing second fiddle –I’m ready!”
        #HugeAdditionToTheTeam…
        #HasSomeDrakeLondonQualities..
        #..ButWithBetterSpeed

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    1. GOOD ON RILEY!!!!

      FUCK GEORGE K and the whole Pac-12. Cant wait to say goodbye.

      I can tell you that Riley will want to destroy the Pac-12 after this year. So if USC can influence the Big10 to grab two more teams from the P12, it will be the end for Curious George and his lame league.

      Turns out George K is a smooth talker and nothing more. He failed to keep USC in the league, failed to negotiate decent media rights, failed to improve the refs, failed to improve the network coverage of games…..

      The ship is leaking.

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    2. Like talking to brick walls [they’ve already cashed their checks]…
      #ButIt’sAllUpToRiley…
      #CuzChickenshitBohnWon’tSayAWord
      […and don’t say Bohn works behind closed doors…he sleeps behind closed doors —if he had chewed out the Pac 12 officiating after Utah they wouldn’t have dared end the half with 14 seconds LEFT ON THE CLOCK. Think of what that would have meant when the Trojans needed a rewind in South Bend to preserve our winning streak —-no Bush push]!!

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      1. Above reply is to Charles’ posting of the video of Coach Riley talking to the Pac 12 refs…who weren’t even listening….

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  12. I don’t know if USC would have scored at the end of the first half, but the officials are so bad they virtually took away the chance and wasted 5 seconds off the clock. Isn’t the time kept on the field? Who is in charge of these idiots? He must be a complete idiot himself. Again, USC has to beat two teams in each game it plays.

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  13. The problem with USC fans is that they expect perfection, as though the success of Pete Carroll two decades ago means the team should win everything, instantly.

    Yes, that game was the ultimate frustration. But it is more a result of the refs, and the horrible Pac-12 network.

    Realistically, the core problem of the USC defense are the linebackers. As far as Grinch goes, he is doing alot of very aggressive techniques to get pressure on the QB and although he is getting pressure, they are not sacking the QB and they are not bottling him up. Arizona has a really explosive offense, so you had to expect they would gain yards, but that game was pretty bad.

    I see this USC team as a big experiment by Riley and Grinch. They truly dont have the talent they need in certain areas (mostly defense), so they are having to try to work around those issues.

    Positives:
    – Mason Murphy played and got some experience (adding depth to the o-line and preparing for next year). Cortland Ford also got some play time and did well.
    – the emergence of Bryson Shaw. he is going to be good.
    – Everyone keeps asking why Raesjon Davis is not on the field. I wonder if they dont want to burn a redshirt year for him? Maybe we see him in the last games of the year?
    – Emergence of younger pass receivers.
    – The tackling improved immensely. Nice to see that they can make improvements.

    Negatives
    – Calen Bullock just isnt having the break-out year he could be having.
    – Linebackers are still butt.
    – Cant get the QB on the ground.
    – USC should have had 3 interceptions in the game. Calen Bullock dropped one and collided on another. Where are the ball-hawk skills from early in the year?

    The next two games will be more experimenting for USC, so look for them to try to have other players emerge. I want to see CJ Williams emerge and MJ3 and Hudson Ware have a break-out game. And how about getting Raleek more touches? Can we start to use our TE for more than blocking? Where are Epps and Lake?

    Grinch needs to start to find answers before the UCLA game and then hopefully the Pac-12 game against Oregon. I think USC games are going to look like chaos and havoc (both defense and offense). They might not be pretty, but it might be the formula to win.

    The ref situation needs to be addressed by Bohn. Those refs are seriously impacting the games. Pac-12 is a bad joke. Let’s hope Oregon loses Lanning to Auburn next year and gets stuck in the P12 and then just slides into oblivion.

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    1. One great piece. Nails it. Riley is making the MOST of what he has. He’s replaced most of the deadwood….and he’s trying [and mostly succeeding] to get the best outta what’s left. And he brought in the kind of talent that can help us win a championship. On a neutral field this team can beat anybody in the pac 12 —-they proved that at Salt Lake City regardless of the “L’……
      And, yes, Bohn should step up to the plate….but he won’t. “It’s not who he is” ….to quote a coach he backed for two years too long.

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  14. Bohn [quoting Homer Simpson from one of the Halloween Specials]: “Now that everything is going wrong and we’re about to be killed I suppose everybody expects me to DO something!”

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