It was a moving sight to see thousands of fans rush the field at the Coliseum after beating Ohio State. It felt like more people rushed the field than after the victory over Stanford in 2013, the last time fans took over the stadium.
USC fans have been starving for a moment to celebrate and finally got one. It almost felt like pent-up pressure was being released from people who have spent a lot of money over the years and been frustrated by the end product.
I start with the fans because they are the lifeblood of a program. Significantly, Lincoln Riley did not mention them in his prepared statement Saturday night. He has never cared about the fans. He spent time during the week to write the statement, so ignoring the fans was intentional.
Now, the game. You can’t ignore the fact Ohio State had a true freshman QB making his first start. I thought Luke Fahey started off well, but it was apparent Ryan Day and Arthur Smith did not have confidence in him to ever depart from their ultra-conservative game plan.
That aided the Trojans. Ohio State had the ball for an amazing 40 minutes compared to USC’s 20, but their plays were so vanilla it took them forever to get down the field.
Meanwhile, USC got big plays from Trent Mosley and Mark Bowman that basically were the game’s difference. If you analyze individual aspects of play, USC wasn’t remarkable. For example, Jayden Maiava passed for 83 yards if you take away those two big plays.
What made the difference was one thing: EFFORT. USC played hard. Unlike against Wisconsin. I really dislike the justified characterization that USC is a great home and weak road team. It is not the sign of a marquee program.
Riley, the know-it-all, needs to find a way to channel that Coliseum energy to the road. Maybe the fans he ignores provide the fuel for the team. Because yesterday, USC played hard and that is what fans want, win or lose.
USC also didn’t beat themselves with penalties or costly mistakes. Like at Wisconsin. I suspect some of this was combination of being fired up to face the No. 2 Buckeyes and anger over last week’s loss.
Whatever happens the rest of the season, fans will be pleased if they see similar effort against Indiana and UCLA. The question is why it doesn’t happen every week?
The USC defense played inspired at times near the goal line. That’s also been missing throughout the season.
What we need to know is whether this type of performance is a blip or can be replicated. It’s important because it could determine Riley’s future.
REALLY good review!
Indiana is beatable, but that requires stopping the run, which was a challenge last night. And Indiana has two RBs who average nearly 100 yards per game.
Fight on!
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Think we will not beat Indiana consistent play on their part will undo us. UCLA on the other hand is beatable. They may have one or two loses when they play us. I think Lincoln job is going to be determined by that game
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Scott identifies the key point on the USC side – effort/intensity. Was there throughout. Getting off to a fast start was an enormous boost (anyone else noticed the first big play was a copycat of a Wisconsin TD play against us last week – the max bubble screen?). Those who are taking great satisfaction from this win, no reason not to enjoy it. Big wins have been in short supply since Pete left. The Coliseum was actually alive last night. Ohio State is still a marquee program. But must caution – it was still mostly a case of Ohio State beating itself. The Wolfster isn’t the only one calling out Day and his staff (I have asserted multiple times in the past few weeks Day isn’t a great coach – he’s a good coach, but inherited a rocket ship from Urban … a la JRob1 from McKay) … When USC travels to Bloomington, they will face a great coach (albeit one also lacking a high calibre quarterback, so with enough effort/intensity, no reason USC with superior talent cannot win).
Still believe this was a momentary blip (and if so, all the more unfortunate, since it will ‘Penn State Rose Bowl’ the coaching change that needs to occur). But for those relishing the big win – good on you and enjoy.
https://sports.yahoo.com/articles/ryan-day-staff-failed-ohio-140100206.html
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Game management is a big thing for quarterbacks, and the Ohio St Second Stringer failed in that regard despite having an otherwise pretty good game. He just didn’t have full command of the situation.
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Extremely adroit point you’ve made … they should have been in hurry-up mode from around the 7 minute mark of the 3rd quarter at the latest. That last drive reminded me of Cody Kessler under Sark against Stanford being unable to run a 2 minute drill.
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Maybe Lincoln Riley needs treatment for Bipolar mental health issues so the team can play consistently good football and can see more clearly how important us fans are to the success of the team.
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Wiley outcoached Ohio St’s Day, especially with the decision to go for 2-points when he had the chance to be 8-points behind with an almost automatic 1-pointer
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I despise the Coyote, but give credit where it’s due – he and his staff did outcoach Day and his staff. The difference between the two, though, is obvious – Day takes total responsibility for failure(s) and will make changes (and will be on a hot seat at a place that won’t tolerate being mediocre or even just good). My guess is this will be a blip, like when Kiff had a couple of moments in 2011 at Eugene (as Dan Weber always liked to point out – wearing the big white parka) and South Bend, but was 7-6 in the blink of an eye and en route to tarmac country shortly thereafter.
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Day coached an awful game, including the 2-point conversion. Go for one, and they can still tie, and with just a one possession game, the pressure is on a USC team that is quickly tiring. Miss it and the game is over. Silly. About 10% of Day’s games are coached terribly, way worse than Riley. This is why OSU fans wanted to fire him despite a 90% record a couple of years ago.
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67-Exactly. I compared him to JRob1 (with each inheriting from a master/builder). He also looked beyond exasperated but lost on the sideline throughout, as if he didn’t know how to get his coordinators to make changes he knew needed to be made(the offense not going tempo and the defense not stacking the box and applying more pressure), and over the penalties. Riley, to his credit, and his staff, did a far better job. They continued to run, didn’t give up backbreaking long plays, and if I don’t miss my mark, made a calculated decision that was a bit of a gamble but paid off hugely by not running the clock out on the first half but instead getting an important FG that made it a two possession game at halftime.
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Fahey is a little green, period.Many of his passes (wet ball ?) sailed high and out of bounds.Those throws weren’t even catchable.You could see the frustration on his star receiver’s face. The kid didn’t have the protection that you would expect from an OSU team either.I hope OSU makes the necessary adjustments on a dry field against the Ducks next week.
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First time commenter here and Riley drives me nuts. As an alum, I’ve never pulled for a Trojan loss but wanted one last night to wedge Riley out of his spot (because let’s face it: they’ll never be championship contenders as long as he’s coach). But I’ll be damned if they didn’t pull it off; mainly for two reasons… 1. Effort/passion (first time all year), 2. OSU’s freshman QB was out of his depth (stats okay but the eye test says he was discombobulated all night… missed wide open receivers in the red zone multiple times). Outgained 470 to 350 yds; outpossessed 40 to 20 minutes. Strange game in that respect. I still expect this team to lose to IU and UCLA.
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Riley said that “internal joy” is what motivates him. He cares about the people within “the walls.” Clearly, that includes the players and to suggest otherwise is dishonest. He then took a swipe at Scott, Finebaum, Cowherd, Keyshawn Johnson, Papadakis, and others by stating that he is not seeking “external applause” when running the USC program and does not intend to leave the program. Notably, Cowherd praised Riley following the game on a great victory. He knocked off the #2 team in the nation. That means something. Riley’s offense scored 30 points on a stout Ohio State defense that has not given up 30 points all year. That matters even if OSU has a back-up quarterback. Rather than offer genuine congratulations, Scott has used his platform to criticize inconsistent play and suggest USC should play great every week. He then points out the poor play at Wisconsin, something he’s been harping on every day for a week. Great play every week is not realistic. BYU beat ND and the next week lost to FSU. Georgia lost to an unranked team the same week. Should these schools fire their coaches? Maybe Scott should tone down the criticism for a few weeks and see how the season plays out. A decision to fire or retain Riley will be made at the end of the year. And be fair in your criticism Scott. Bringing up Riley’s Palisades home and private driver is just petty and below the standard of a professional journalist.
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Maybe the officiating goes both ways, but OMG, Wafle and
Thanos are held virtually every time the replay shows the LOS. And if you wonder how Jeremiah Smith gets open, here is a good example, with the official STARING at Smith, swallowing the whistle
Then, there was the fumble and scoop for a USC TD that was blown dead and not reviewed.
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