FOOTBALL

My USC-Fresno State Analysis: The Good And The Bad (Yes, Bad)

First, let’s start off with a delusional take from Robert Griffin III.

Last night was a stark reminder how bad this guy is. You declare USC a title contender after beating Fresno State? Fresno State?!?!?

OK, let’s get to the game. The biggest positive was Gary Patterson got overall improvement from Week 1 to Week 2. That’s not something that happened often with D’Anton Lynn.

Patterson’s got a philosophy and is a teacher. That is a reason for optimism.

Now I will say there were plenty of open wide receivers but Fresno State had a quarterback completely incapable of getting them the ball and an offense completely baffled by any blitz. Let’s see how the secondary does against Dante Moore.

With Jide Abasiri and Luke Wafle, Patterson has two disruptors on the defensive line. Opponents will need to game plan for them. I don’t see anything close to that at linebacker or in the porous secondary.

  • Now for the offense: I have three main complaints that will go unnoticed by the fanboy media.

1.) The running game. It just looks different from last season and not in a good way. There hasn’t been a breakaway threat in the first two games. You can’t break any long runs against San Jose State or Fresno State? That’s disappointing. And now they are fumbling.

2.) The offensive line. Everyone else told you it was great that all five starters returned. I did not. USC got stuffed twice when it needed a yard. Against Fresno State. At home. They are not moving the pile against bad teams. What happens against Oregon?

3.) Coach Charles Nelson Riley. What is this clown doing having Jayden Maiava run a QB keeper with a 30-0 lead? Maiava got banged up on the play and never returned.

The play also highlighted (AGAIN) Riley’s poor decision making inside the red zone. It happened last week too when USC came up short inside the 10-yard line. Look folks, these things can be plastered over vs. the Tomato Cans that Riley loves to play but USC has some marquee teams on the schedule.

The problem with playing these teams is you can suppose USC is dominating in certain areas but you don’t really know until it plays a real team.

17 thoughts on “My USC-Fresno State Analysis: The Good And The Bad (Yes, Bad)”

  1. The Wolfster purloining my Charles Nelson nickname for the Wiley one! Nevertheless – his analysis is right on the money. Much must be reserved for a legitimate matchup (starting with Oregon) … then we may properly determine what has and has not progressed with respect to what should be the standard at USC (not in Charles Nelson’s world) … what we can say with confidence at this point is that the defense shows more bite than at any point since EdO was interim with Leonard Williams and the NCAA’d mini roster, and QB1 with time can hit open receivers consistently. That is progress.

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  2. Maiava looks infinitely better this season, even taking into account weaker competition.

    Running game averaged almost 6 yards per carry after the first quarter.

    D line seems legitimately a top 10 unit

    There is no decline among receivers from last year. Their big problem will be hanging on to them.

    Bowman at TE is like having an extra (smaller) OT on the field, and that could be huge against Quacks, OSU, Penn St, Indiana.

    Patterson (hopefully) is the man. Defensive performance was there for the entire game, and his players seem ready to walk into fire for him.

    Waymo’s fumble was after he was horse collared, which wasn’t called.

    Fingers crossed RJ Sermons will continue to grow, he could be an excellent DB.

    Did anyone see Miami – Stanford? Similar to the Trojan game. Miami didn’t run the ball at all well, and their defense didn’t look spectacular. And they are the number 7 team in preseason rankings.

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    1. Outstanding reminder of horse collar. I am giving him a pass on that fumble.

      We were screaming on the stands on that one.

      Outstanding experience last night and I think we saw a first in USC modern era, 2 safeties in 1 game.

      The defense is on the rise and the offense will be just fine.

      Fight On from one of the only season ticket holders on this blog.

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    2. We’ll see how “improved ” he is against a team with a pulse. When he gets some pressure he makes horrible decisions, we’ll all know more when Nike U comes to town

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    2. No expert, but suspect it is the inevitable outcome of the negative (and there are positives as well) trends in the sport leading to the same as in other sports (ie 3 point/dunk in basketball, HR derby baseball) – all or nothing runs largely obtained by defensive mistakes (linemen running around locks and not controlling their assigned holes plus awful tackling) instead of consistent 3-6/7 yard runs obtained by good blocking? in addition to defenses having now adapted to the dumbed down offenses that are basically glorified single wing schemes with far advanced (the positives) athletes who can execute passing attacks when not forced to accelerate their decision making processes (in the NFL the Ravens with Lamar Jackson are the epitome of this – both good and bad) … why I loved another contributor’s Roger Staubach reference (since he was Lamar decades ago).

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      1. Exactly. Maiava, the Miami QB, Sayin, and others are completing over 80% of their passes, and every eligible guy is catching the ball.

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