FOOTBALL

USC Morning Buzz: Let’s Talk About The Vaunted Offense

Does it matter that USC’s vaunted offense scored only two TD’s against Purdue?

Look at the second half: Three field goals and a defensive tackle getting a pick six. Against Purdue.

Or is it a one-game thing and not really worth worrying about?

Something I didn’t discuss a lot on Sunday was the running game. Was Lincoln Riley upset with Eli Sanders, who averaged 7.5 yards a carry vs. Purdue? He went almost exclusively with Waymond Jordan, who struggled until late in the game. He had 14 yards in his first 10 carries. And where was King Miller?

Where was the run blocking when Jordan struggled?

It wasn’t a masterclass at running the ball, obviously.

What happens when USC plays a high-quality opponent? Will it be Illinois or are they overrated?

  • USC vs. Illinois on Sept. 27 will kick off at 9 a.m. PT and be on Fox

31 thoughts on “USC Morning Buzz: Let’s Talk About The Vaunted Offense”

  1. LR doesn’t emphasize the running game, so is it any wonder we are not that good at it? Running the ball is the easiest thing to teach and offensive line and the best way to make it gel – yet LR is so focused on the passing game that it is essentially an afterthought that the running game should “automatically” work. Particularly frustrating is the run playcalling. Limited runs between the tackles: all east-west. That is no way to establish the run, particularly early in a game. And that is not Waymond Jordan’s fault for these playcalls. That’s on the O coordinator. Finally, a running game truly becomes more effective as the game goes on and the defense gets tired – which is why it is of such importance to start running the ball early and consistently to pin the defense down, and get them tired of the O-line surging forward at them rather than backpedaling into a pocket. Relying on deep passes that happen to hit will go away with the better secondaries USC will face on the schedule – so fixing the running game is not optional, particularly given the stagnation of the offense near the goal line. But does LR know that? No. Which is why this game “felt” so much like the Maryland game last year, right up to the point where Jarrett returned his pick six… Against another opponent, this team will not be so lucky…

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  2. Answer to the ‘how good is Illinois?’ question: If they beat Indiana they’re plenty good.

    Answer to the ‘how good is the USC running game?’ question: If we get more than 175 yards rushing against Michigan State we’re plenty good.

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  3. Smith is a smart coach, he’ll exploit the hell out of SC’s pathetic defensive backfield because that’s what good smart coaches do.

    Riley has no clue about a running game as trojannation said above, he also has no clue about defense or how to build a football team.

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  4. And the tolerant left just can’t help themselves. A 18 year old female nut at Texas Tech screams at Kirk mourners, a 19 year old dope walks over flowers at another and in Idaho, a dumbass screams ” F Kirk ” and then gets beaten up, wonderful.

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    1. Carol: “No one should get beaten up for simply desecrating a mourning site or defiling a memorial or cursing an assassinated American hero —- where are our manners? Is this the Path of Righteousness?”

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    2. They actually have the nerve to claim it’s not the Left. Not only was there the Kirk assassination. But ever since that first assassination attempt on Trump, tens of thousands of them have been wishing for his death!

      With Joe, all of us knew he belonged in a nursing home from Day 1. But none of us were wishing for his death. We laughed at his falls and memory lapses, but it was NOT the same as laughing at some nobody who lived on our street. That would be cruel.

      We laughed because this was a man who MSM and his supporters put up as being perfectly fit for office, both mentally & physically. Anyone with a triple digit IQ knew he was not.

      There are a LOT of really sick people on the Left.

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      1. KAM: As well as there are on the Righg

        DON: But the really sick ones are those who incessantly accuse others of being ‘sick’

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      3. So Cal — I hereby DEMAND you apologize for calling out the people who have been stabbing, shooting & killing Jews & Christians in Synagogues and Churches and Schools and Universities all over the western world.

        #WhatIsTheMatterWithYou?!

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      4. KAM: The sick ones are the Mainstream Moderate Democrat leaders who should know better like Mainstream Moderate Democrat New York State Governor Kathy Hochul who just endorsed the antisemite Ugandan Murderous Muslim Zohran Mamdani to be Mayor of New York City!

        DON: Zohran Mamdani calls for

        Globalizing the intifada

        Supporting Communism

        Defunding the police

        How can any Moderate support a Democrat Party that supports this?

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      5. Yeah, MG, it’s times like these we know who is posting as Sparrow. Calling them sick for celebrating the assassination, supposedly makes us even more sick! LMAO!

        They don’t come any stupider.

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  5. I also wondered why Eli Sanders didn’t get more carries, he was outstanding.

    Waymen Jordan was too hesitant in the first half IMO, he waited a half-second too long after getting the handoff, and then the hole closed. You will notice that in the second half he was much more aggressive, just as Sanders was aggressive in the first half, and both were successful in the second half.

    The bigger issue is that Maiava was 5 for 16 after starting out 11 for 12. He threw some beautiful deep balls, but it seemed that receivers were having trouble getting open in the second half.

    There has been a sea change in play calling this year versus last year in rush versus pass:

    2024: 40% runs

    2025: 57% runs

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    1. Riley will start calling for more pass plays, probably because he’ll be behind.

      The play distribution is totally misleading due to the pathetic first two teams that played.

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      1. Man, I hope karma isn’t right on USC going back to a ‘pass only’ offense if we get behind……. but past is prelude [unless Riley is tired of losing in the final 3 minutes]…..

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      2. Ray of hope: Riley’s last drive against Purdue was almost exclusively runs….[but, then again, we were ahead, not behind]…..

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      3. Look, I wish Riley would line up and run the damn ball right at teams, but that isn’t who he is and he’ll never be a run guy.

        Head coach pick for a school, Jason Eck at New Mexico. Guy was an OL at Wisconsin under Alvaraz and then coached under him, his team played Michigan tough at UM and he beat the snot out of ucla.

        His team plays hard and hits and he likes the power run game

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    2. I agree 67 but part of the hesitation was due to the play calling. Purdue was in a three man front with 4 linebackers five yards off the line. Just go straight at them with a quick hand off. No RPO or misdirection plays or lineman pulling. They did that in the fourth quarter and Waymond played great.

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  6. KAM: The University of California, Los Angeles has placed its controversial DEI race and equity director, Johnathan Perkins, on leave after he celebrated conservative Christian commentator Charlie Kirk’s a s s a s s i n a t i o n in a series of social media posts.

    Mainstream Moderate Democrat Johnathan Perkins, aka JPerk, a veteran diversity consultant who worked in the Office of the General Counsel at antisemite Harvard University before joining UCLA in 2019, took to hateful left-wing X copycat Bluesky on Friday to disparage Kirk. In one post, he responded to a user who called Kirk the right’s “Rush Limbaugh replacement” with the message, “Yup. Good riddance, both.” In another, he wrote, “It is OKAY to be happy when someone who hated you and called for your people’s death dies—even if they are m u r d e r e d.”

    DON: Democrat run antisemitic UCLA will give him a promotion and raise.https://x.com/FreeBeacon/status/1967602387289624605…

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    2. “It is OKAY to be happy when someone who hated you and called for your people’s death dies—even if they are m u r d e r e d.”

      He needs to be fired immediately. And the Marxists are lying about Charlie Kirk. He wasn’t a racist. Never called for anyone’s death. The guy was normally very respectful of others in the debates that I watched.

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  7. Thanks trojanation for some good football talk about wearing down the opposing team with runs all day long into the 4th quarter

    Indiana is a slight favorite to beat Illinois although if the game were at Illinois the Illini would be slight favorites

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      1. “They” [the internationalists who are just looking for the next dollar] hate the concept of sovereignty [which favors citizens over foreign influences]—- so they hate Israel and the United States….

        #Yes,Obama,Biden,Kerry,Pelosi,Schiff,JeffriesHateUs….

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      2. Agree MG but your left out their billionaire fundraiser George Soros. No borders is a Soros policy starting in the 1980s. Europe adopted it and it has been a total disaster. Tens of millions of Muslim immigrants who hate their new country and refuse to assimilate. Soros told 60 Minutes in about 2005 that the biggest threat to Globalism is the strength of the U.S. and that the U.S. must be weaken financially and militarily.

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      3. I’m guessing the real reason Soros hasn’t been RICO’ed is: he’s smart enough to have blackmail material on everyone in a position to go forward —[otherwise there’s no explanation for why the Justice Department allows this pattern of well financed, well coordinated violence to continue]…..

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    2. KAM:‘Hacks’ star Hannah Einbinder slammed for crude Emmys speech: ‘F – k ICE and free P a l e s t i n e’https://trib.al/gfYLLnM…

      DON: THEY HATE US, THEY REALLY HATE US!

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      1. The donation gimmick was a great idea! Most award winners tried to adhere to the rules and help the Boys & Girls Club.

        But Britt Lower showed the true entitled nature of the Hollywood elites, when she said she would “just pay the difference” for what her plus-45 second speech cost the pot.

        You know, the same way they buy carbon credits for their private jets. As if that’s actually a thing.

        Liked by 1 person

  8. KAM: Did you reaize that all of ucla’s sports teams won more last year than any other ‘BIG” team?

    DON: But how are they doing with football?

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  10. The Trojans ran the ball more than they threw the ball against Purdue. Shaun Coady complained about the linemen not being able to pick up the linebackers on run blitzes or get to the second level to take them on. Lack of experience and better athlecticsm was required. Game on the line in the fourth, the Trojans ran the ball down Purdue throat. Poor play calling in red zone is directly Lincoln Riley’s fault.

    But they played better than last game against a tougher environment and opponent.

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