USC has a freakishly talented roster and a promising future
USC fans should feel good about the talent on their team compared to the talent in the rest of the Pac-12.
No one in that conference can compare. If Stanford was the class of the Pac-12 North, it's clear that USC is in a different class.
Stanford is a decent football team. The Cardinal have a good defense and a good offense. It feels like Stanford is the poor man's version of USC. There's clearly talent there. Both defenses are very comparable and so are the offensive lines. But there's some key differences.
KJ Costello is clearly not Sam Darnold. The Stanford quarterback has his impressive moments but is way too green to be anywhere near that league. Since Bryce Love is banged up, Stanford also didn't have anything comparable to Ronald Jones II. USC’s receivers also seemed much more dangerous than Stanford’s (although the USC defensive backfield seemed set on making them comparable.)
So while the records might have been comparable before this game and while the resumes of these teams might have been comparable, these two actually aren’t comparable. The top end talent that USC has is vastly superior and at times, Stanford just couldn’t handle it. That felt like the biggest difference in this game and I believe it’s why USC won. Every time Stanford made it close, it felt like USC just overwhelmed the Cardinal defense and scored.
Since Stanford is a good football team, that means USC is probably one of the most talented teams in the entire country. Because of the schedule and unfortunate losses in the middle of the year, it’s just hard to know where exactly to rank USC.
USC is ranked on the top of the conference but currently below multiple teams in other power conferences. And the postseason might be the first real opportunity for the Trojans to prove to the rest of the country that shouldn’t be the case. USC hasn’t played any teams that finished with two or fewer losses and are winless against teams with three losses (although many USC fans will argue this was because of injuries.)
A blowout tonight (or having many more during the year) would have helped USC. It didn’t happen but it seems USC has the potential to do that (especially with the way this game trended at times) and also maybe the potential to beat top teams out there.
It just felt like Stanford was hanging by a thread throughout the game, despite the final score.That’s probably because USC has national title talent and Stanford really doesn’t.
So regardless of what happens with the rankings after this weekend and regardless of whether or not a Pac-12 satisfies the expectations of this season, USC fans should feel proud of the roster they have. It shows that this football program has a promising future. Stanford has a team that should make their fan base proud and USC was just obviously way too good. That’s a big deal.
USC has grown into a championship team
I’ll be the first person to point out that the Pac-12 is down this year. I’ll be the first person to point out that being USC and missing Washington and Oregon is probably the easiest conference path there is. I’ll be the first to point out that this title game got way too close. I’ll also be the first to point out that USC has struggled too often with team it had no business struggling with (like UCLA, Colorado, Arizona, Western Michigan, Cal, Washington State, Utah and Texas)
But USC beat Stanford and that means something. USC won a Pac-12 championship and that means something. USC will finish the season (prior to the bowl game) ranked inside the top 10. USC is entering its upcoming bowl game with an 11-2 record. All of that means something.
What it means is that USC has grown into a championship team. The USC team in the middle of the year could not have won this game. That team could not have matched up physically against Stanford and won a tough hard fought game, a game that came down to inches and a few points on the scoreboard. This USC team can win those games. While Stanford might not be the best litmus test nationally to judge where USC is, this Trojan team now shows that it has the potential to pass one of those tests. half a season ago, it was laughable to think that was possible. Even recently, it seemed unlikely. Now USC is a championship team and that can’t be argued against.
At least two things have to change
Let’s be honest. This was a three point win but it felt like it should have been a 30 point win. Stanford’s defense was good but USC could open the flood gates whenever things started clicking. There weren’t answers for Darnold and Jones and that was clear. It felt like if the offense was firing on all cylinders all night, it could have its way with Stanford’s defense and scored half a hundred.
Stanford’s offense, on the other hand, couldn’t really run the ball on USC’s defense (until very late). KJ Costello wasn’t ready to threaten USC with the pass game and shouldn’t have been a threat to beat the Trojans at all (but he was).
So why was the game a close victory for USC? I would argue because of two things we’ve seen all year. I believe that, despite a Pac-12 championship, these things need to change. There’s probably more than two to list but I don’t even believe there’s an argument about these issues this so I’ll limit my list to these two points.
-The defensive backfield needs help
The talent is there, obviously. That can’t really be disputed. But game after game, the secondary is completely beaten up or on the verge of giving up game changing plays.
In this game a young quarterback and so-so athletes at receiver had their way with USC’s secondary at times. It felt like it was the only reason this game wasn’t an ugly blowout.
So if talent isn’t the issue, is it the schemes? Not likely. The USC defense has actually been pretty good this year and at this point, Pendergast is a proven coordinator. Maybe it’s the position coach? because of Ronnie Bradford’s resume, that’s not an insane conclusion to jump too.
But I’m not going to claim to have an answer. I’m just saying it’s clear that the secondary has to improve. For an 11-2 conference title team, it’s been disappointing. It also feels like if this unit was better, USC could be playing in the playoffs. It’s hard to imagine some of these teams hanging with USC if they had a lock down secondary. Stanford definitely wouldn’t have been in this game and Washington State would have had a much harder time.
-The special teams are atrocious
It seems strange to write this just a couple weeks after a special teams play was the difference in a game against UCLA but it’s been consistently bad all year. In this game, it almost cost USC a conference title. Too many times USC started inside their own ten, luckily Sam Darnold bailed the Trojans out in almost all those scenarios. The there was the completely shanked punt that almost gave Stanford another touchdown. Because of that, Stanford was basically an inch away from a win. If a graduate assistant was running things, maybe it would be understandable that USC struggles in this department. But with the salary John Baxter is hauling in, the talent, and his resume, the play is just poor.
