When in doubt, play defense. That seems to be the philosophy right now at USC, which has taken an offense with nine returning starters and the nation's best offensive line and driven it into a ditch for large stretches of this season. And so it was on the road Saturday, the USC Trojans steadily outplaying the Cal Bears on the way to a 30-3 victory.Mirroring last week's performance against Washington State, USC came out firing offensively in building a 20-0 second-quarter lead, eventually cooled, and still cruised to victory behind yet another dominating defensive performance. Strange days considering that defense was one of the best of this era last year and graduated the bulk of its talent to the NFL.
That style of play is part of a new reality for USC this year. Despite explosive elements all over the offense, and the occasional scoring outburst, the Trojans seem more content to grind things out and take what comes while letting their underrated defense do the heavy lifting. It's a winning combo but as we've seen already, 1) it won't win every game and 2) doesn't do much for the public that understands offensive efficiency isn't an impossible task in college football. Except for USC.
The defensive numbers all lined up -- three points allowed, Jahvid Best held to just 47 yards, Cal held to a mere 285 yards overall. USC perfectly emulated Oregon's successful strategy from last week, shutting Best down and harassing the increasingly erratic Bear quarterback Kevin Riley. Riley went just 15 for 40 for 199 yards and an interception. With Best hemmed in, USC closed in on Riley and guided him into a 5 for 17 effort in the second half before a helpless home crowd.
This game and the pattern of games before it makes perfectly clear that despite his ability to build a successful running offense year in and year out, Cal coach Jeff Tedford simply cannot compete with USC coach Pete Carroll without an elite quarterback. The closest games between the two have been when Tedford trotted out Kyle Boller and Aaron Rodgers. The math simply isn't there to hang with USC led by the Nate Longshores, Joe Ayoobs and Kevin Rileys of the world.
The inevitable fallout: Cal's Rose Bowl hopes are now dashed, extending the longest Rose Bowl drought in the conference.
Saturday's matchup with Cal is the beginning of a tough stretch for the Trojans. They'll have a bye week to recuperate, but then travel to rival Notre Dame, host Oregon State, then travel to Oregon and Arizona State before hosting Stanford (3-0 in Pac-10 play) and rival UCLA.
The Trojans' success will rest largely with the performance of the defense, but also with the development of freshman quarterback Matt Barkley. Barkley once again showed excellent poise and command of the offense Saturday, but has a tendency to throw rockets -- lots of them. He clearly has a big arm, but if he cannot develop some touch in the short passing game he endangers a significant portion of the Trojans' bread-and-butter looks. It's worth monitoring. Regardless, he survived his second tough road test, completing 57 percent of his passes for 283 yards against a quality Bear secondary.
Teammate Joe McKnight was spectacular, rushing for 119 yards and two touchdowns, including a four-yard trek in the fourth quarter that should temper some fears of a weakened short running game in the absence of Stafon Johnson after his lifting accident earlier in the week.
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
10-04-2009 @ 11:43AM
robertnoir said...
Reading the LA Times, you would think Pete Carroll creates a mortal sin when the team doesn't score 50 points a game. What he and his coaches have done, though, is reload a defense that lost 7 or 8 starters with a bunch of kids who hardly played before and rebuilt that defense into a dominating powerhouse. And, yes, they do have that great O- Line and running backs and receivers, but won't they don't have yet is someone to run the thing. It's called a quarterback. Remember, Sanchez walked to the NFL last spring. And it left a gaping hole. Believe me, Pete knows that. And without a complete quarterback, your offense is going to struggle. Even with great skill players. While Barkley looks like he will be more than good, he still goes through stretches of throwing too hard, too high with no touch on his balls. That will get fixed but it takes time. So until then, the spoiled Trojans fans may have to get used to winning close football games instead of one-sided track meets with Trojan skill players running up and down the field. Most teams and schools would take that any day.
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10-05-2009 @ 3:22PM
mislz7 said...
What ever happened to Mitch Mustain? The guy reeled off 8 straight SEC wins as a true freshman at Arkansas before transferring to USC.
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10-05-2009 @ 8:08PM
zemog44 said...
Mitch Mustain is getting royally screwed by USC, my favorite team. I wish he was the starting quarterback. Mitch did fabulous at Arkansas as a freshman and he has waited two years at USC for the job and he richly deserves it! He would do USC proud. But it doesn't look like he is going to get that opportunity before he graduates after next year. Maybe he will become another Matt Cassell who also never got to start at USC but is doing fine in the pros. But it's really unfair. I wish he would transfer to crosstown rival UCLA where they would LOVE to have him! He deserves to start!!!!
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