FOOTBALL

USC Morning Buzz: An Example When Scheme Failed Trojans

One of the talking points this season is whether USC’s defense is a failure of scheme or the players?

Well, this video below offers an example of when the scheme put the players in a position to fail.

USC had just cut Notre Dame’s lead to 24-13 and had plenty of momentum. It then ran an inexplicable defensive coverage that was one of two plays that halted the Trojans’ comeback (the other play was the 99-yard kick return).

This is literally the worst pass-route coverage to be in on this play. You won’t see other major college football programs run this coverage. It put the corners in a funky situation and it’s no surprise what happened next.

There is no one deep to play center field. The result is a 46-yard TD pass for Notre Dame’s anemic pass offense.

Jaylin Smith gave up the TD pass but he had no safety back to help him. If Calen Bullock had dropped deep, he could have intercepted the pass or broken it up.

To make matters worse, there is a blitzer who is late to rush the QB. So you aren’t pressuring the quarterback but you are leaving the defensive backs in man coverage with no help. It’s a coverage that invites disaster and Notre Dame QB Sam Hartman read it perfectly.

USC could have tried to have the other corners turn the routes into each other, which might have allowed someone to help Smith, but the Trojans didn’t even do that. Instead, Smith was left by himself.

It’s literally malfeasance on an X’s and O’s level.

Yes, the defense played better Saturday. But in a key moment, the scheme failed the players and allowed a critical touchdown for Notre Dame.

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101 thoughts on “USC Morning Buzz: An Example When Scheme Failed Trojans”

  1. Last night, Ryan Abraham on Tunnel Vision and his co-commentators were very blunt on the teams’ abysmal performance ‘but’ they also noted the odds of getting a perfect 12 – 0 record plus a CCG victory = a berth in the FBS playoff bowl was a huge wall to scale at best. They also all noted the unique talent Williams is and that ‘no’ his shot at the Heisman is not done. The consensus from them was the coaching is fine and the pieces (size) of the linemen is still obvious to any 3rd party analysis. Finally the loss, a truly drubbing, is the one lesson the coaching staff could not impress on the players, will be the ‘wake up’ all needed for the balance of the season – the 5 remaining games. They concluded per UT that USC will be more than ready to play.

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      3. Everyone agrees you are a psycho who has wasted 2 decades of his life spamming here, Charlie Bucket the UCLA Fan aka Gabby/TebowObama, but you take the contrary opinion that you are sane and everyone else is crazy.

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      4. I get stale donuts and Charlie gets root…..so jealous. I need to fire off 10 Biden rants to feel better about my pathetic life

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      5. No, its because after many years everyone has witnessed them constantly be wrong and seldom right about anything crucial, with the only thing they care about being sucking up so that they can pretend to be insiders. But the fact that you can’t figure that out and instead jump to the conclusion that it is it because it’s because they have a contrary opinion that they are buffoons is “interesting”. Okay I lied, you’re conjecture isn’t interesting. And if you don’t like what I’m saying, that deeply you know you just keep scrolling. Bye bye.

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      7. Last year ‘Ol Mule Shoe and his boyfriend Alex Grinch blamed the players saying that the team they had was inherited, they weren’t their players even though they added a bunch from the portal.

        This year it’s the same shit, blame the players.

        How about putting the blame where it belongs, on the shit coaching.

        It’s not the players

        Alex Grinch is clueless, has never been worth a shit.

        Shaun Nua, worthless…this clown teams couldn’t get rid of quick enough.

        Donte Williams, this fucking idiot was hired as a recruiter. The idiot runs around practice wearing womens tights, rolling styrofoam wheels and rubber balls at players during drill and he gets paid $1,000,000 a year to do so.

        The USC administrators are being played for fools and don’t even realize it.

        Jen Cohen already becoming a laughingstock for not seeing the mesd she walked into, surrounded by frauds pretending to be coaches.

        ‘Ol Mule Shoe Lincoln Riley using the L.A. back drop to carry out his gay relationship with Alex Grinch and a lot of people at USC none the wiser.

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      8. Ryan Abraham has his tongue so far up Lincoln Riley’s ass he tastes ‘Ol Mule Shoe’s food before he does

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      9. Grabbbyy, we all know you’re correct about everyone agreeing. But she lies about it, just as she lies about everything else.

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      10. slo pa-troll, you know what stalking and obsessed looks like- 117 OUT OF 118 consecutive posts mentioning or directed at Gabby.

        Obsess: preoccupy or fill the mind of (someone) continually, intrusively, and to a troubling extent.

        Stalk: 1. pursue or approach stealthily. 2. harass or persecute (someone) with unwanted and obsessive attention.

        Take your own advice, you sound like a hypocrite; “but several people have suggested So Cal seek psychiatric help!! He is in some serious denial.”

        THERE YOU HAVE IT FOLKS, THE BLOG FREAK!

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    2. USC will be more than ready to play against Utah then they were against Notre Dame, one of the greatest rivals in college football history? 😂 The Trojans got a physical beat down, which had nothing to do with coaching, but all to do with strength and power. The Utes head coach , Kyle Whittingham coaches physical football too, so let’s see how Lincoln Riley handles them the third time around. Because he’s going to get a big dose of what he got Saturday night

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    3. You USC fanboys are still in denial about Alex Grinch, huh?

      That clown Grinch has never been worth a shit.

      After ‘Ol Mule Shoe’s Ladies of Troy get taken to the woodshed by a few more teams the powers that be at USC will force ‘Ol Mule Shoe to fire his boyfriend Alex Grinch

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    4. Maybe they will turn it around the last five games, but it looks clear that the coaching staff missed on the OL in transfer portal and they aren’t attracting the top OL even in California.

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    5. Look, when you go -5 in turnovers you’re not going to win a game, not even close. Everything gets blown out of proportion and games get out of hand when that happens. It sucks, I think most of us thought the OL transfers were going to be pretty good because PPF had them rated so high. Well so far that’s not the case, but we still have a chance to win the conference and be 12-1 which will get us in the CFP. The loss isn’t nearly as bad as most would think.

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      1. Uh, it’s more than the 5 turnovers. It’s the complicated and needless defensive coverages, the lack of tackling, the lack of physicality, the lack of a lot of things. ASU is horrid and gave USC a game, Colorado just ran out of time or they might have beaten USC, Arizona SHOULD have beaten USC, it’s more than one game, this had been coming for weeks.

        If you think SC is going to be 12-1, well I’ve got some ocean front property in Kansas to sell you.

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    6. The defense didn’t play that bad. When you give a team a short field, even a mediocre ND offense, is going to score. You also had the kick return not the fault of the D and the one long pass play. The one negative was the pass rush, but there pass game was mostly ineffective.

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    7. I watch that play and I think that the problem was that CRW didnt stick to the man he was covering, but let him run past, requiring Calen Bullock to cover him and thereby depriving Jaylin Smith of deep protection.

      Am I wrong? Is anyone really sure that this defensive scheme was designed to have CRW drop his receiver?

      I’m pretty sure this was a play busted by CRW. There was noone else CRW was supposed to cover there. The linebacker was a spy on the quarterback, so that wasnt a reason to let his receiver run free.

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    8. Everyone knows that Alex Grinch, Shaun Nua and Donte Williams are shit, nothing but frauds. No one wants to call out Lincoln Riley foe keeping those frauds on staff after the shit job they did last year.

      If Lincoln Riley insists on keeping Grinch on as defensive coordinator then just fire his ass now and get it over with. Let Lincoln Riley go suck his boyfriend Alex Grinch’s dick somewhere else.

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      1. Shaun Nua is an outstanding coach. I’d hate to lose him. He was the assistant coach of the year in college football one year at Michigan. Even Harbaugh said that he hated losing him. Donte Williams and Grench need to go. I’m beginning to wonder about our O-Line coach. The defense didn’t lose the ND game. The O-Line lost it. That was the worst performance that I’ve seen in a long time. They looked like the Keystone Cops. Not that I am letting the defense off of the hook. They looked good against ND because ND has a mediocre offense. They might even look good against Utah because they don’t have a great offense either. I want to see how they do against Oregon and Washington. I think that they will get torched.

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  2. If Bullock had dropped deep the ND quarterback would not have thrown the ball there
    and hence no interception (or touchdown)

    “Yes, the defense played better,” Wolf reluctantly admits, which is a good thing since SC might need them for the stretch run

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  3. The Wolfie “grading” should be interesting. The defense deserves higher marks than the offense, and ‘Celeb’ deserves a “D” with the coaches probably getting the usual F-

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      3. Gabby keeps slapping you around like a pinata, but you’re the real idiot who keeps coming back asking for more. When are you going to meet up with Gabby and take your beatdown?

        Stop the pouting and go troll a “we hate Biden” blog

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      4. Charlie Bucket the UCLA Fan aka Gabby/TebowObama needs treatment for her paranoid schizophrenia condition. It is a fairly common (and can be severe) mental illness: about 0.32% of the population suffers from it. [Let’s see. There were 331 million Americans in the 2020 Census. I don’t believe they diagnose it (for sure) until one’s late teenage years, so let’s apply it to those Americans and Traitors like Charlie Bucket the UCLA Fan aka Gabby/TebowObama 18 and over. Google says that 258 million Americans are 18 years old & older: 258 million x 0.0032 = 825,600 people adults who suffer from paranoid schizophrenia, just like Charlie Bucket the UCLA Fan aka Gabby/TebowObama.

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      5. I really need to quit using these played-out tropes. No one reads them and I
        look an idiot repeating them daily. I need a new playbook. Any suggestions?

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      6. You really need institutionalization at Atascadero State Mental Hospital, Charlie Bucket the UCLA Fan aka Gabby/TebowObama. Your life on the streets of LA’s Skid Row and living in a dumpster on 6th and Grand have taken their toll on you.

        Liked by 1 person

    1. Wolf has the worst blog?– Try the censoring OTHER blog where everybody is a brown-noser to the OTHER

      Wolf lets us say our piece, profound or profane, and even gives guys like grabbbyy free reign

      Liked by 1 person

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      1. (Scott is grabbbyy! I am using another sock puppet to instigate and mock the real Gabby, Are you ok with me doing that?)

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      4. 100% true – go on to ‘The Athletic’ and try tipping over the totems they have deemed untouchable and watch getting blocked same with yahoo

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      2. After 2 decades of doxxing, spamming and impersoanting other posters you are still despised, Charlie Bucket the UCLA Fan aka Gabby/TebowObama

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      4. Charlie Bucket the UCLA Fan aka Gabby/TebowObama aka The Coward of the County contributes posts like this:

        Gabby
        JUNE 20, 2023 AT 3:14 PM
        If and when I need any shit out of you I’ll squeeze your head, dipshit. Looks like it’s been months since you posted anything related to USC foot. You truly are the village idiot, blog dunce and #1 troll. FEEL PROUD!…. Now wipe the drool and do something productive. The singlewide is falling apart.

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  5. Hey guys, should a troll my blog today with Biden posts, say about 20 of them and 20 more in the afternoon. Let me know what you think

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      2. Charlie Bucket the UCLA Fan aka Gabby/TebowObama is out of the closet at last. No more pretending to be married and living in Las Vegas. We knew that was a lie.

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      4. Charlie Bucket the UCLA Fan aka Gabby/TebowObama, when will you finally fight Plow Horse like you promised?

        You need to meet your Maker after Plow Horse gets done trashing you, Charlie Bucket the UCLA Fan aka Gabby/TebowObama aka The Coward of the County.

        Plow Horse
        JUNE 22, 2023 AT 10:23 PM
        Gabby is the biggest pussy on this blog.

        Still waiting for dates, Mr. keyboard tough guy.

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      5. I am so jealous of plow horse, he gets horse root and I get stale donuts. when is plow going to meet in Barstow..he keeps avoiding the issue

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      6. When will you meet Plow Horse in Pasadena, Charlie Bucket the UCLA Fan aka Gabby/TebowObama aka The Coward of the County you coward? You add so much to the discussions here:

        Here’s a masterpiece entry by Charlie Bucket the UCLA Fan aka Gabby/TebowObama aka The Coward of the County:

        Gabby
        JUNE 19, 2023 AT 7:00 PM
        GO SUCK COCK AND GET THE FUCK OUT OF HERE BEFORE I HAVE TO HURT A LITTLE OLD MAN WHO CRAWLS AROUND IN A SOILED DIAPER

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  6. Meanwhile, this little matter with Utah coming up
    Beat SC twice depriving the Trojans of its first “Final-4” bid
    And up in Utah they especially love “Beat L.A.”
    Most Trojans are just not loved much outside of our homes

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  7. If you get a chance listen to the Joel Klatt podcast. He gives a rather frank analysis of the USC debacle. In short, USC got their asses whipped by the N.D. defensive line and CLR needs to run the ball consistently to make this offense go. N.D. had six sacks and 11 T.F.L.’s.,
    so the question is whether or not USC offensive line can rebound and play at a consistent level against Utah, Cal, Washington, Oregon, and UCLA.? But at the end of the day you’re not going to win with five turnovers and giving up a kickoff return for a T.D.
    Also this morning Rick Neuheisel mentioned that the transfer portal is important but the core of your team needs to come from your recruited high school players. You cannot expect to be a mercenary program and win on a consistent basis, which seems to be the M.O. of CLR when it comes to certain positions, i.e. the offensive and defensive lines.

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    1. I thought about transfers and my opinion is that it impacts a team in the following ways:

      1. Transfers who have experience expect to play right away and the whole season. If they are not first team, they are not happy. So coaches might keep in a transfer player who is not performing that great, instead of allowing another player to replace them. Transfer players might have a lower ceiling, as the younger players might develop more with game experience as the season progresses I think that Henson thought he must play Pregnon, Kingston and Tarquin and even moved players around (moving Monheim from right guard) to make that happen. It might have been better if they had kept players at their positions and forced them to compete for the position. So maybe Tarquin gets beat out by Paige, Kingston gets beat out by Noa and the line looks like this (left to right) Paige, Noa, Dedich, Pregnon, Monheim. Or if Pregnon is not playing well, move Monheim back inside with Mason Murphy at right tackle.

      2. Using alot of transfers hurts your high school recruiting. The high school players think they might come to school, put in the work and then have a transfer come in and play ahead of them.

      3. Transfers dont have alot of time to learn the system before they have to play. With high school players, you bring them in and they dont play for a while until they really know the system. You also dont know how the transfers will perform during games until the season starts, so you might be stuck with a dud (once again, reference Kingston and Tarquin).

      Coming into USC, you needed to use transfers extensively, but it might also be hurting them. The offensive line is a case in point.

      Ultimately, the question is whether USC is using the transfer portal because they are not developing players internally. The answer seems to be “yes”.

      Good to see Zion Branch getting playing time. I dont really think the USC defense was much better, it was just playing a very mediocre offense. If Domani and Zion can progress from here, it might make the defense much better. The linebackers are still a mess. If they had only given Raesjon alot more playing time, he might be really good by now. And what has happened to Gentry? Once again, Cobb is a transfer that is expecting to play, but I’m not sure he is really that good and I think his upside is very limited by his lack of speed.

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  8. SC will continue to get pounded in big games until they end the flag football and return to physical play. It’s really hard to watch their soft air raid bullshit. I don’t enjoy watching Caleb Williams play backyard football.

    Lastly, who is this prison snitch, Gabby? It sounds like he needs a beat down like the one the night stalker received from the east LA community.

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    1. Exactly right – only a person kicked out of a caravan with no canteen in the middle of the dessert thinks the current state of USC football is defensible. Sad thought occurred to me this week in the lead to the Chargers-Cowboys game: Tyron Smith, the last great USC lineman is approaching the end of his NFL career. Football has changed, admittedly…but not that much. USC’s greatness, for all of the Heisman winners, was always predicated on dominant, physical line play. Even as football has changed, the Alabama/Clemson/Georgia/Urban Meyer wherever (except Jax) approach is just a legacy of what Pete did at USC (and the fact they couldn’t beat him), and it still includes a heavy focus on physical play and the ability to threaten the entire 3D space with a balanced run/pass capability.

      OU-SC…until it returns to being USC…nothing will change.

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    2. PJ,

      Your football analysis is great but when are you going to provide us with the proof of Arizona election fraud you promised us?
      We have you, an actual Cyber Ninja among us but you can’t be bothered to deliver the results you promised?

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      1. PJ just got out of prison, he was convicted of voter fraud. According to a source,
        the convict voted 6 times for Trump and Kari Lake

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      2. Charlie Bucket the UCLA Fan aka Gabby/TebowObama aka Frank Young needs to be imprisoned at Atascadero State Mental Hospital for his paranoid schizophrenic condition.

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    3. PJM hasn’t been on here for a long time, but picked up on who the problem is in no time! Yet she denies it and claims everyone else is the problem.

      Get help, Gabriela.

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      1. slo pa-troll, you know what stalking and obsessed looks like- 116 OUT 117 consecutive posts mentioning or directed at Gabby.

        Obsess: preoccupy or fill the mind of (someone) continually, intrusively, and to a troubling extent.

        Stalk: 1. pursue or approach stealthily. 2. harass or persecute (someone) with unwanted and obsessive attention.

        Take your own advice, you sound like a hypocrite; “but several people have suggested So Cal seek psychiatric help!! He is in some serious denial.”

        THERE YOU HAVE IT FOLKS, THE BLOG FREAK!

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  9. Time for a special teams coordinator yet? Fundamentals of line play? Tackling? Nah, just get open. I’ll run for my life and throw it. That’s the plan.

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      5. I really was against banning anyone, Grabbbyy. But the blog shouldn’t be subjected to someone who is so obviously disturbed as Gabby. Not only the personal attacks and narcissism, but the space she constantly wastes with her childish cut & paste jobs!

        She asks for the beatings she takes on here, then cries that she’s a victim. It’s just like so many of the homeless people on the streets who everyone knows belong in a mental institution.

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      6. slo pa-troll, you know what stalking and obsessed looks like- 118 OUT OF 119 consecutive posts mentioning or directed at Gabby.

        Obsess: preoccupy or fill the mind of (someone) continually, intrusively, and to a troubling extent.

        Stalk: 1. pursue or approach stealthily. 2. harass or persecute (someone) with unwanted and obsessive attention.

        Take your own advice, you sound like a hypocrite; “but several people have suggested So Cal seek psychiatric help!! He is in some serious denial.”

        THERE YOU HAVE IT FOLKS, THE BLOG FREAK!

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  10. Scooter,

    Put the loss on the oline. They are horrible. For the last year and a half they have not protected Williams. What is worse is that SC is losing recruits from md and sjb to out of state teams. That rpo crap is just that, crap.

    What is even worse is SC will see defenses like nd’s when they play in the Big 10 every week. Michigan, Ohio St., Penn St., Wisconsin, and others will do the same thing.

    Two areas that need correcting this week: Getting the physicality back on both sides of the line and get a defense that will stop the opposing team. This is nothing but horse crap.

    Go back to Power I, I, two tightends and just run block all day and run the ball.

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      1. You never played the game or went to USC, Charlie Bucket the UCLA Fan aka Gabby/TebowObama. You have zero to share on this blog but it hasn’t stopped you from your non-stop spamathon the last 2 decades. Your life is completely meaningless.

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      3. but you watch every play of the game(s). And troll this blog……That sounds like a fanboy to me, right?

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  12. You can’t have a wide receiver on a nickle or strong safety without safety help over the top. Grinch has lost with the match-up several times. Colorado had a long touchdown against us when we put Bryson Shaw on a WR with no safety help. And I don’t understand what the safety is doing when they go to this idiotic scheme. Bullock just stands 12 yards deep and watches the wr run by.

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  14. Yeah, that simple ‘throw-and-catch’ by the ND quarterback to his
    wide open end terminated the momentum SC seemingly was building

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  15. Before permanently saying Adios to SC-ND memories-
    The Front-7 defensively gave up only about 250 yards
    (Of course with Celeb’s 3-picks ND only had to go 50 yards for 3 scores

    Great to see Z Branch back and his punt return was the most electrifying moment in the game

    Wiley looked beside himself with the 3 interceptions. Since that won’t happen again perhaps he can better keep his ‘cool’ next game

    A good time for Utah to be coming to town. After the team’s obvious depression over its ND showing they have reason to be aroused for UHA

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  16. There is one other thing I feel the USC offense is missing – stretching the defense. I remember that in the past USC would stretch the defense with alot of back shoulder passes to the outside, barely in bounds and often to the long side of the field. I dont see that happening any more. We also dont throw it over the top very effectively. (isnt Duce both fast and impossibly tall to defend, why is he not being used?)

    I think part of our problem is that we dont really stretch the field that well, so the USC passing attack requires Caleb Williams to run around in the backfield for a long time and wait for pass coverage to break down. There is no quick release to receivers that stretches the defense and opens up passing lanes underneath or across the middle of the field until much later in the play (requiring Caleb to be able to hang back there for 5 or more seconds).

    I think there are significant problems with the design of the passing routes and capabilities of this receiving corps. And MJ3 is a much more reliable receiver than either Rice or Mario Williams.

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  17. It is one horrible loss. We all knew it was coming because the defense is horrible. The reason they held ND to 251 yards is due to all the short fields they got from their defensive plays. How many times is the offense going to bail out the defense? Caleb was horrible this game. Time to move on as we have two more losses coming up in Oregon and Wash. Don’t be delusional.

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      1. IMO, the 5 turnovers were the reason for the loss. You can’t give your opponent a short field three times. They needed less than 50 yards to score three of their TDs. Caleb made the passes not the O-line.

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  19. Does anyone know why USC did not kick into the endzone? ND had way too many good returns. ND had a interesting formation with 3 players back to receive.

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  20. Hey Wolfie Boy,

    Rex Ryan is available and looks miserable in the studio. Maybe you can bend Riley’s ear and let him know next time he does a presser?

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