3 Takeaways From USC's Shocking Rivalry Week Loss To UCLA
In what was the final game of the regular season for the USC Trojans, they came up on the losing side of today's game against their cross-town rival, the UCLA Bruins.
With a final score of 38-20, USC finishes the year with a record of 7-5 (5-4 in Pac-12 intra-conference play) and also has now lost five of its last six, making it the worst season, in head coach Lincoln Riley's seven-year head coaching career.
After signing a massive 10-year $110 million contract with USC in the middle of the 2021 CFB season, Riley and the Trojans had high expectations coming into his second season with the program. Unfortunately, the team actually regressed.
Coming into Saturday's game, USC was favored as a five-point winner against UCLA, but ultimately they couldn't get the job done. There could be a lot of reasons to blame the Trojans for this loss, you could say UCLA head coach Chip Kelly was coaching for his job on Saturday after much speculation that he would be getting fired after the game if they lost, or you could say quarterback Caleb Williams didn't play great today and has slowly regressed during their recent six-game skid. Or, you could just say that UCLA was the better team on the field today and that's just what it is.
After watching the game, I decided to list down what my main three takeaways were from the Trojans and what led to their demise against the Bruins.
Lincoln Riley Continued To Ignore The Run Game
Over the course of the season, Riley has lacked utilizing his running backs and that trend continued in yesterday's game.
USC running backs ran the ball just 15 times for only 23 yards while UCLA ran the ball for 36 times and totaled 195 yards on the ground with one touchdown.
By relying heavily on the run game against the Trojans, UCLA won the time of possession against the Trojans for a total of 32:34 minutes while USC had just 27:26 minutes of time possession.
While hardly running the ball, the Trojans had a total of three turnovers as Williams went 31/42 with 384 yards, one touchdown, and one interception. Over the course of the last six games, Williams has struggled with turnovers as he had four fumbles and four interceptions while being sacked 22 times and attempting at least 34 passes a game.
When a quarterback has been hit as much as Williams, establishing a running game and protecting your quarterback should be the plan moving forward. Unfortunately, in Riley's offense, he has completely ignored the ground game and it showed today against the Bruins.
The USC Offensive Line Needs Help
From the moment the ball was snapped, UCLA defenders were right in Williams' face as he was almost scrambling for his life on every play.
Coming into the game, UCLA's defense was ranked as the number 10 defense in all of CFB and listed as the best in the Pac-12.
Today, the Trojans realized just that.
As I mentioned previously, Williams was sacked three times yesterday and had one interception. However, the Trojans offense had no answer to the pressure that UCLA had for them all game long.
At times, I wondered if USC would consider having a running back or tight end lineup in the backfield or at the line and help take on some of the pressure the Trojans were facing, unfortunately, it seemed like Riley refused to do just that as they were out in the field running routes. If Williams had just a bit more time, I do think the Trojans offense would've had more success on the field and we would've had a different ball game.
An area the Bruins's defense dominated in was on third down conversions as the Trojans only converted four out of thirteen third down attempts. They also were two for four on fourth down as well.
Even Sans Alex Grinch, USC's Defense Is Still A Mess
While watching Saturday's game, the one thing that I noticed throughout, is USC's defense had worse problems than former defensive coordinator Alex Grinch.
The Trojans' defense simply looked lost all game long and failed to tackle opposing players and stay locked on constantly, I saw UCLA running backs and receivers breaking tackles left and right, which caused some major concern not just today but also for what could be expected next year.
All game long, before the ball was snapped, USC defenders looked out of place and failed to stick with their man, which made it look easy for a UCLA offense that is ranked 34th in that nation.
Plays like this were happening all day long and it seemed almost like every time the Bruins touched the football they were going to score.
In the second half, the Bruins scored a total of 24 points while USC only scored 10.
Heading into next year, the Trojans defense will need an overhaul from the coaching to the roster if they wish to compete as they will begin their first year of play in the Big 10.
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