LOS ANGELES — A disastrous fourth quarter led to USC’s second loss in the past three weeks as it fell 24-17 to Minnesota on Saturday night. It was a humbling and revealing loss for the Trojans. Let’s sort through some final thoughts from the game.
1. If you think everything seems difficult offensively for the Trojans right now, well, it kind of is. One of the glaring takeaways through the first five games is the lack of explosive plays from the offense.
The Trojans were in the top five nationally in plays of 20-plus yards in each of the past two seasons. Lincoln Riley’s teams have finished in the top 10 in that category in six of his previous seven seasons as a head coach. His “worst” season with explosives was in 2021, and Oklahoma finished 35th in plays of 20-plus yards.
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USC is well behind that pace this year. The Trojans have generated 23 plays of 20-plus yards, which ranks 69th.
USC is being forced to march down the field a couple of yards at a time, and that’s just a hard way to live. The defense is betting for eight or nine plays that the offense will make a costly mistake that torpedoes the drive.
And the Trojans’ offense makes plenty of mistakes, even when it does produce an explosive. USC had two plays go at least 20 yards against Minnesota. One was a 20-yard run from running back Quinten Joyner, which ended with Joyner fumbling.
There are a couple of factors that lead to this. The most prominent one is the Trojans’ offensive line, which hasn’t provided Miller Moss with enough time in the pocket to find players down the field consistently.
Another is that Moss doesn’t force things deep. He takes what the defense gives him.
And third is that the Trojans’ receivers simply haven’t played up to the preseason hype. Brenden Rice and Tahj Washington were able to take the top off opposing defenses last season. This group was thought to be better, but there hasn’t been anyone who has been able to do that this season.
Unless Riley finds a way to start scheming up some big plays or something drastically changes, USC is going to have to do things the hard way offensively.
2. Before the season, I thought that this team would stress the theory that Riley is a walking top-10 offense in and of himself. The concern stemmed from the fact that the Trojans are less talented at almost every position group than they were a year ago — tight end being the lone exception.
All of Riley’s teams have ranked in the top 10 in offensive yards per play since he became a head coach in 2017. And those teams have been in the top 10 in scoring offense.
The Trojans rank 50th among all FBS teams in yards per play (6.16) and 58th nationally in scoring offense (30.8 points) So this is trending to be Riley’s least productive offense in his time as a head coach.
3. When offenses don’t produce at the level they’re expected to, it’s natural for fans to point to the starting quarterback and suggest a change. There are some calls from a minority of fans on social media and the message boards for Moss to be benched.
Moss isn’t the source of USC’s offensive issues. It’s the offensive line. Sure, it would be ideal if Moss was more mobile. Jayden Maiava provides mobility.
But I watched as Caleb Williams struggled against good defenses behind a bad offensive line last season, and he was plenty mobile. USC’s offensive line is worse this season.
Mobility is negated when the offensive line is getting beat immediately after the snap and provides no resistance to opposing edge rushers.
4. One thing that is killing the offense is field position. Per TruMedia, USC’s average starting field position is its 28.7-yard line, which ranks 90th nationally.
But what has stood out is the punt return unit and how often the Trojans end up with terrible field position after forcing a punt. USC’s average starting field position after forcing a punt is its 21.3, according to TruMedia. That’s 126th nationally out of 134 FBS teams.
The Trojans didn’t even fair catch several punts on Saturday, and three of their drives started inside their own 10. USC opened three drives inside its own 15 after Wisconsin punts the week before and four inside the 15 against Michigan after punts.
The punt return unit has been a massive disappointment this season considering Zachariah Branch’s talent level and what he displayed last year. The Trojans are averaging 2.14 yards on seven punt returns, which is 128th nationally.
The unit is just not providing anything in terms of improving field position.
5. Don’t put much of an emphasis on the longer travel causing USC’s struggles against Minnesota. During the past two seasons, the Trojans have played sloppy football in Tempe, Boulder, Berkeley and Tucson. Those games came against outmatched opponents and were much closer than they needed to be.
Riley’s USC teams have a bad knack for playing sloppy or down to their opponents on the road. The Trojans haven’t put together a full four-quarter game of clean or dominant football on the road in the past three seasons.
The competition is a bit better in the Big Ten so those underwhelming efforts that still resulted in wins the past two years are turning into losses now.
6. Riley won 11 of his first 12 games as USC’s coach. With the loss to Minnesota on Saturday, Riley is just 11-9 during the past 20 games, which is wild to think about.
7. After the loss, Riley’s postgame news conference became a topic of discussion. Riley went on the defensive after defensive end Jamil Muhammad was asked if he thought Minnesota quarterback Max Brosmer got into the end zone on the decisive fourth-and-goal from the 1 in the final minute.
“Nah, don’t ask him that,” Riley said. “Who cares what he says on that? Like, what, a player’s opinion? Let’s ask a more professional question.”
I don’t have a strong opinion one way or the other on the ordeal other than it seems like Riley misplaced energy onto a small thing that ultimately doesn’t matter.
The optics of it come off worse because USC constantly has flubbed the small things that do matter on the field this season and the two years before that. The receivers drop passes week after week. The offensive line commits costly false start penalties almost every game. Timeouts have to be burned because the coaching staff subs personnel in too late or the play clock is about to expire. The special teams commit untimely miscues.
Last year, the defense often was caught looking down at its play sheet as the ball was being snapped and wasn’t fundamentally sound at all.
Those are small things that turn out to make a big difference. And until Riley and USC get those sorts of issues cleaned up, there will be more frustrating losses like Saturday’s.
(Top photo of Lincoln Riley: Matt Krohn / Imagn Images)
