The game: A game played at night under the lights made everything shine brighter. But it was on a dreaded weeknight. for the 10th time in 5 years. The traffic , parking, etc. made it a mess. I parked on Campus which wasn't open to users until 5:30PM. The late arriving fans never got to an announced 61K IMO and that absolutely was decimated by the score differential and a few drops of dew (plus the no umbrella rule) to clear out most of the stands. It was a treat to see the battle of the bands…Cal and USC. Cal came in 4-3 with good wins over Texas and Utah. But they lost a lot to injury. Still they may be the second best team to UW that we play the rest of the season. Good O/bad D marked their MO. Key play: Opening drive. Cal won the toss and opted to receive/ After a punt on that drive, USC marched 88 yards in 8 plays to score a TD and you got the feeling that they would dominate the game. In fact there were no losses and 1 no gainer in their first 19 plays.
Offense: Helton is now 11-7 (.611) as SC head coach and 7-0 at home, sweet home. He was Mr. October with a 4-0 record. A few new wrinkles in the Offense included a reverse run inside the guard positions as a USC opened huge holes. At one stage USC had outgained Cal 249 to 57 yards. Helton made 2 great sideline decisions. he notified the ref that he would signal on every play that Cal sent in Offensive changes to hold the ball until he was allowed legally to bring in D changes. This slowed Cal down. He also called a timeout when the USC FGA holder wisely fell immediately on the bad snap. It allowed USC 1 second to reboot. USC used 56 players.
QB: Grade: B+. Sam Darnold is a special player. He is sure of himself and sometimes that is great, and other times, not so He was hit with 2 fumbles although he was blind-sided on a pass attempt, and the other he was responsible for the misplay on a play action fake. The interception was all his trying to thread the needle versus 2 defenders and throwing it short. tuck and run. He had 3 runs for 29 yards and a first down but with the fumbles netted 12 yards. He hit on 8 passes of over 10 yards, of which 3 were over 20 yards and 2 were 1 was 36 yards for 5 TDs.
Receiving Game: Grade: A-. Juju is really taking a beating with several aggravations to his already sore back including by a horse collar tackle. TE Daniel Ima (fill in the rest) had a great over the shoulder catch of a well placed TD pass. The passes went to 6 receivers with Mitchell gone: 1 to TE 2 to RB, and 15 to WR/ slot receivers. Juju (6-66-11ypc--5 first downs) and Rogers (6-97-16 ypc-2 TDs-4 first downs) led the way.
Running Game: Grade: A. Ronald Jones II (18-223-1TD-12.4-6FD) …welcome back. Those same capabilities of jump slide and variance of run speed we loved so much were here again . Ware (20-130-6.5-8FD) broke through that first tackle. Ware ran mostly inside, Jones to the outside. RJ2 is a little quicker to the hole and has great balance. They slit the runs almost equally including bringing in Ware at the end of one TD drive that was run else wise by Jones….weird. When was the last time we had such numbers?
Oline: Grade: A-. The OLine opened such huge holes against the Cal D-line that Helton might even get plus yardage. Ware and Jones were constant visitors in the Cal defensive backfield. And one of the main reasons is unsung Nico Fallah, a guy many moaned about when we recruited him. One aspect is his ability to pull from the center position and lead runs inside the tackle. He sprung Jones for a TD. There was 1 sack on USC. The RBs averaged a huge 8.3 ypc. Only 1 tackles for loss (the sack) allowed . Pass protection was also good with USC getting 9.2 YPA.
Defense: Grade: A- . USC had 5 men up at the line most of the game and brought a 6th in at times. Though they didn’t get a sack they did slow the Cal running game with 5 TFLs. Marv Tell intercepted a pass along the sideline staying inbound with an Adoree like split. Both guys have been talking in a tenor lately.
Special Teams- Grade: B. Boormeester was short on KOs most of the night but did boot one 70 yards and got Touchbacks on 2 more.. Tilbey buried another punt inside the 10. AJ officially broke the all time record for Kickoff return yards. Cal blockers were called for a Blocking Wedge on a KO and they weren't wearing leather helmets. The refs reached for that one. Boormeester made a 32 yard FG but missed a 42 yard FG after 4 timeouts were called at the end of the 1st half.
Miscellaneous- Cal was the team that made more penalties coming in but they had but 4-40 to USCs 11 for 110 yards, some deserved , many not.. for instance Rogers was called for taunting for scoring and then spinning the ball. The refs are like vampires sucking the life out of TD celebrations. The announcing team on Fox was average and talked the Cal injuries up a lot. But they got it right when calling USC a "Hot mess" the last 5 years. with its myriad caching changes. And they called the NCAA sanction the greatest overreach in football. Maybe they ain't so bad as announcers. Kiffin wants the LSU job? Da ya think Orgeron and he are still friends?
Bottom line - Is USC now the second best team behind UW? Maybe the P12's best in October. USC won a game handily that they should. The PAC12 South remains wide open where Colorado is 4-1. USC and Utah are 4-2. Next up: Oregon: down this year but they had 734 yards against ASU. USC had 629 versus Cal. should be action packed. UCLA at Colorado. Do we have to root for UCLA! Forecast USC 55 Oregon 28. We owe them.
Offense: Helton is now 11-7 (.611) as SC head coach and 7-0 at home, sweet home. He was Mr. October with a 4-0 record. A few new wrinkles in the Offense included a reverse run inside the guard positions as a USC opened huge holes. At one stage USC had outgained Cal 249 to 57 yards. Helton made 2 great sideline decisions. he notified the ref that he would signal on every play that Cal sent in Offensive changes to hold the ball until he was allowed legally to bring in D changes. This slowed Cal down. He also called a timeout when the USC FGA holder wisely fell immediately on the bad snap. It allowed USC 1 second to reboot. USC used 56 players.
QB: Grade: B+. Sam Darnold is a special player. He is sure of himself and sometimes that is great, and other times, not so He was hit with 2 fumbles although he was blind-sided on a pass attempt, and the other he was responsible for the misplay on a play action fake. The interception was all his trying to thread the needle versus 2 defenders and throwing it short. tuck and run. He had 3 runs for 29 yards and a first down but with the fumbles netted 12 yards. He hit on 8 passes of over 10 yards, of which 3 were over 20 yards and 2 were 1 was 36 yards for 5 TDs.
Receiving Game: Grade: A-. Juju is really taking a beating with several aggravations to his already sore back including by a horse collar tackle. TE Daniel Ima (fill in the rest) had a great over the shoulder catch of a well placed TD pass. The passes went to 6 receivers with Mitchell gone: 1 to TE 2 to RB, and 15 to WR/ slot receivers. Juju (6-66-11ypc--5 first downs) and Rogers (6-97-16 ypc-2 TDs-4 first downs) led the way.
Running Game: Grade: A. Ronald Jones II (18-223-1TD-12.4-6FD) …welcome back. Those same capabilities of jump slide and variance of run speed we loved so much were here again . Ware (20-130-6.5-8FD) broke through that first tackle. Ware ran mostly inside, Jones to the outside. RJ2 is a little quicker to the hole and has great balance. They slit the runs almost equally including bringing in Ware at the end of one TD drive that was run else wise by Jones….weird. When was the last time we had such numbers?
Oline: Grade: A-. The OLine opened such huge holes against the Cal D-line that Helton might even get plus yardage. Ware and Jones were constant visitors in the Cal defensive backfield. And one of the main reasons is unsung Nico Fallah, a guy many moaned about when we recruited him. One aspect is his ability to pull from the center position and lead runs inside the tackle. He sprung Jones for a TD. There was 1 sack on USC. The RBs averaged a huge 8.3 ypc. Only 1 tackles for loss (the sack) allowed . Pass protection was also good with USC getting 9.2 YPA.
Defense: Grade: A- . USC had 5 men up at the line most of the game and brought a 6th in at times. Though they didn’t get a sack they did slow the Cal running game with 5 TFLs. Marv Tell intercepted a pass along the sideline staying inbound with an Adoree like split. Both guys have been talking in a tenor lately.
Special Teams- Grade: B. Boormeester was short on KOs most of the night but did boot one 70 yards and got Touchbacks on 2 more.. Tilbey buried another punt inside the 10. AJ officially broke the all time record for Kickoff return yards. Cal blockers were called for a Blocking Wedge on a KO and they weren't wearing leather helmets. The refs reached for that one. Boormeester made a 32 yard FG but missed a 42 yard FG after 4 timeouts were called at the end of the 1st half.
Miscellaneous- Cal was the team that made more penalties coming in but they had but 4-40 to USCs 11 for 110 yards, some deserved , many not.. for instance Rogers was called for taunting for scoring and then spinning the ball. The refs are like vampires sucking the life out of TD celebrations. The announcing team on Fox was average and talked the Cal injuries up a lot. But they got it right when calling USC a "Hot mess" the last 5 years. with its myriad caching changes. And they called the NCAA sanction the greatest overreach in football. Maybe they ain't so bad as announcers. Kiffin wants the LSU job? Da ya think Orgeron and he are still friends?
Bottom line - Is USC now the second best team behind UW? Maybe the P12's best in October. USC won a game handily that they should. The PAC12 South remains wide open where Colorado is 4-1. USC and Utah are 4-2. Next up: Oregon: down this year but they had 734 yards against ASU. USC had 629 versus Cal. should be action packed. UCLA at Colorado. Do we have to root for UCLA! Forecast USC 55 Oregon 28. We owe them.
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