Grading USC's offensive performance vs. Utah
Lincoln Riley’s offense put up 42 points behind five touchdown passes from Caleb Williams and some unlikely contributions from receivers lower down the depth chart in USC’s 43-42 loss to Utah Saturday night.
The Trojans looked unbelievably sharp through the first several drives of the game, but Utah either adjusted, or USC ran out of plays in the book that the Utes hadn’t yet seen in the film room.
It certainly felt like Riley has been hiding some of the offensive versatility this team is capable of, as if it wasn’t necessary to open up the playbook against any of the six teams USC had bested before this weekend.
Maybe that was the majority of the tricks, or maybe he’s just scratching the surface, but only time will tell what USC has in the bag for the remainder of this season.
QUARTERBACK: A
Statistically, Williams put up a very strong performance, amassing over 400 yards of offense and five airborne touchdowns to a medley of targets. His 55-yard carry on third down in the game’s first series really stated that Utah wasn’t prepared to handle a dual-threat quarterback of his level.
Williams benefited early from the strongest pass protection put up by the veteran offensive line this season, but the pocket wasn’t so comfortable as the game progressed. He ended up being sacked four times for a total loss of 40 yards and didn’t have the space to execute in the two-minute drill as the game came to a close.
His backfield partner Travis Dye said he can only tell Williams to “keep your head up, kid. This is not on you at all. You played phenomenal tonight. He’s a wonderful quarterback, and he will bounce back from this game…
Williams completed 25 of his 42 passes, a ratio reflecting probably a touch below the quality of his passing performance after considering the throwaways and forced incompletions to cap off both halves of play.
Solid outing for the young quarterback, who was visibly emotional after the game. Yes, the offense looked better in the first half than the second and wasn’t able to get it done in a low-time must-score situation, but Williams led his offense to 42 points, and Dye is correct that this loss cannot be pinned on number 13. Alex Grinch’s defense just has to be better.
RUNNING BACKS: B+
Again, not much of Austin Jones, who carried the ball just four times after not getting the rock last week. Riley expressed after the Washington State game that Jones should probably have seen more of the field but didn’t seem to match that sentiment with the action of playing him against Utah.
Raleek Brown was credited with just one carry for two yards and wasn’t targeted in the passing game — perhaps Riley is still keeping some cards close to the chest when it comes to the freshman’s uncanny open-field burst. He will likely be a valuable receiving back at some point in his time at USC.
Considering USC doesn’t actually have a special teams coach, it’s not worth exploring what could be considered a below-average special teams performance, but this is a fair point of criticism for Brown. He did dance to the outside on one kick return to start a USC drive at the 30 after making a couple of defenders miss, but then confidence got the best of the young back.
Brown could well be the fastest player on USC’s squad and is used to burning everyone at the high school level, but he has to learn to take touchbacks. It’s tempting for Brown to give himself a chance to bring back that house-call magic USC football hasn’t seen on special teams since the likes of Adoree Jackson and Nelson Agholor, but his tendency to hesitate and then bring the ball out anyway killed USC on multiple drives Saturday.
Brown hasn’t produced to the level that his Trojan debut against Rice might have indicated he would, but he has a lot to learn and will no doubt be a nightmare for defenses once he fully taps into his ability at the college level.
Predictably, if not obviously, Dye did his thing averaging about seven yards per carry on his way to 76 yards and a touchdown, though he did see a reduced workload in comparison to last week when the run game worked so well. 43 receiving yards (36 after the catch) did bring his scrimmage number up above the century mark again, but perhaps Riley didn’t call for 26 enough times Saturday.
Dye was a shell of his usual bright self postgame. After playing four years at Oregon, he knows as well as anyone how hard it is to walk away from Rice-Eccles Stadium with a win. Side note: the announced attendance of 53,609 would be a record for the Utes who have — allegedly — sold out every home game since 2010.
“You know, it’s very hard, especially on that field. Personally, I have never beaten this team on this field, so you know, there is a personal factor to it, but at the end of the day, we lost,” Dye said.
He continued to explain that he believed USC would pull out the victory until the last second, and the triple zeros on that just-so-slightly-crooked scoreboard were a hard pill to swallow.
RECEIVERS: A
A+ is a tempting grade here given the quality of USC’s offensive performance Saturday, but it just wasn’t quite there. Mario Williams played maybe his best game of the season, getting wide open for the other Williams in some critical moments to convert some huge third downs.
Williams only caught four passes but made the most of them for 145 yards, including a spectacular grab looking straight back over his head, reminiscent of the famous Willie Mays World Series catch. (If you know you know, otherwise go look up some baseball highlights, it’s October)
Williams did drop one pass however that could have translated to an extra three points for the Cardinal and Gold just before the end of the first half. He also was flagged for a false start — inexcusable for a wideout.
Exclude Travis Dye from “receivers” but include the tight ends, and Williams found eight of the nine receivers he targeted. Cornerback Prophet Brown also appears on the official stat sheet with one target, but I’ll assume Tahj Washington, who also wears No. 16, was just misidentified on a play. Washington went for four catches and 35 yards, almost finding the end zone on what was visually a very satisfying swing route.
Before awkwardly going down with a scary-looking leg injury, Jordan Addison hauled in seven catches for 106 yards and a touchdown on — you guessed it — a swing route. It’s almost like the Trojans should have gone back to that concept after finding success on its two opening drives.
On a serious note, Addison is incredibly important to this team’s offensive production and versatility, and they need Williams’ favorite target back sooner rather than later. If he’s out for the year, that’s a devastating blow for the Trojans.
It was encouraging to see C.J. Williams (too many guys named Williams) getting some reps even though he didn’t catch a pass. A few other rotation guys got their limelight as well, with TE Josh Falo finding the end zone twice as well as Kyron Hudson once and Michael Jackson III on his only target of the season.
Still, the passing game became a bit stagnant at times later in the game, and the two-minute drill was not well-executed. Can’t quite be an A+.
OFFENSIVE LINE: B+
This group started off very strong; Williams had plenty of time in the backfield, an encouraging sign for a line that’s stronger in the run game.
The run game also worked well, for the most part, allowing Dye to get it done on the ground.
Consistency, and again, playing a four-quarter game were still lacking, however.
“Definitely, there will be corrections that need to be made and addressed. It’s definitely something that will be handled tomorrow. So we just, we look forward to making them right and just being better next time when they come back up again,” right guard Andrew Vorhees said.
