The game: The visitor is from Kalamazoo, which I take to be in western Michigan. It never faced a PAC-12 team, but they play the Big Ten 2-3 times a year, giving them a tough game . They were 13-0 last year , losing the Cotton Bowl game by 16-24 vs. Wisconsin and finishing #15 in the polls. Why play a 2:30PM game in Septembers in LA? It had to be the PAC12 channels exposure back east resulting in the exposure of 61,000 USC faithful to sitting in the hottest conditions since a home game opener vs Purdue in 1998 which was 99 at kickoff. For those who stayed the distance , you should get a medal " The Croix de Coliseum". WM is a team with one 4 star player yet they had 3 draft picks in the last NFL draft. How to coach them up. But the true highlight was bringing in Jake Olson at snapper. Thanks to USC, WM and the referees for that great moment. It was well played game and too exciting (or other words may be inserted here) in its closeness The final score of 49-31 masked the 28-28 score in Q4 at 7:54.
Key play(s): What won the game was a series of big plays:.06:57 left Ronald Jones 37 yd run . 03:49 Stephen Carr 52 yd run. 03:13 Marvell Tell 37 yd interception return. But perhaps one more significant play was a route breaking diving catch by Deontay Burnett on 3rd and 9 after a horrible chop block call set them way back. The completion enabled the continued drive that resulted in a 21-21 tie.
Offense: Helton is now 17-7 (.708) overall as USC head coach, and 10-0 at the Coliseum. That's the longest since 2008-2009. USC scored 40 points or more in 8 of their last 13 games. 30 or more in 8 of the last 10. The offense clicked overall to nearly a half century in points (49) and a half thousand in yards (521).
QB: Grade: B-. It's tough to give such a low score to a QB that accounted for 289 yards passing and a running TD. But he is carrying the burden of our, perhaps excessive, dreams. He did hit 70% of his passes despite 4 drops. His first interception was near the end of the first half and inconsequential. The second was a miscall IMO. He threw only 3 bad passes including the first interception. His fumble and recovery was half a bad snap and his handling of it. He completed 12 passes of over 10 yards and of that 4 of 20 yards or more. The avenge per catch was 12.6 yards. Bottom line is we don’t win the game without him.
Receiving Game: Grade: B+. Total of 289 yards. Who is the 3rd receiver? It's clear that Deontay Burnet (7PC 142 yds 0TD 6 FD) and Steve Mitchell (4PC 39 yds 0TD 2 FD) are the first two. Other wide receivers had a total of only 3 catches for 26 yards. The running backs and TE were more widely used with TEs accounting for 4 catches/ 36 yards and Running backs 4 catches/46 yards. One interesting aspect was that all of the TE catches and 2 of the RBs catches were in the second half, as adjustments were made.
Running Game: Grade: A. Total of 232 net yards, 6.8 ypc, 6 TDs including Sam Darnold's. The most stable unit on Offense beside QB. Ronald Jones showed up like a graduate cum laude of the weight room and demonstrated it by breaking through most of the first attempted tacklers. Carr was brought in early but became a bigger contributor in the 2H. Malapeia showed off his reputation as a bruising runner . Ware was used sparingly for now. Deep and quality.
Oline: Grade: B. There were 2 sacks allowed. Beyond that only 2 other tackles for losses. They had but 3 penalties -all for false Starts and no holding penalties. As a group they performed well and Toa Lobendahn looked very good after all those games missed last year.
Defense: Grade: B-. Western Mich. moved well through the first half gaining 204 yards (43 pass and 161 run).with 14 points. USC got back captain/leading tackler Cam Smith, who also calls the defense set. He spent the first half sitting out the game due to a Spearing call in the Rose bowl first half. H2 he had 6 tackles (2 for losses) In the second half Western Michigan scored 10 points vs. the offense and had 102 yards run and 51 yards pass for 153 yards. USC showed tackling jitters early and some vets played poorly including Biggie Marshall who missed multiple tackles on first contact and missed a possible interception. His PI negated (or caused) an interception, that may have become a TD. He also had 6 tackles and a pass breakup. Rasheem Green led with 9 tackles and Marvin Tell followed with 8 tackles, a pass breakup and that 37 yard "turn out the lights" interception for a TD.
Special Teams- Grade: B. New replacements for Boermeester and Tilby. They performed well. Chase Mc Grath kicked EPs, Michael Brown did Kickoffs and hit 3 of 8 as touchbacks. And he averaged 64.6 yards (65 is to the goal line). Walk on Punter Reid Budrovich,-good football last name but that first name has to go, He averaged 51 yards per punt and targeted it well with a 35 yardish punt taking 3 big bounces to make it a 59 yarder. Ajene Harris had a 15 yard punt return and Velus Jones had KORs of 32 and 29. Two penalties on ST with Ykili Ross causing a 15 yard PF that was turned into a big return and eventual FGA that was missed by WM. And one I never heard of a "delay of game" for getting the Kick off team too slow for the refs liking? Enabled a good return on an eventual FG make.
Miscellaneous- The refs were OK but two big errors to me …the Chop Block call requires an engagement of a tackler up high and a block below. But the guy up high grabbed the potential blocker as he was going down. No engagement had been made IMO. That was the call and it cost the USC 15 yards back, which was overcome. But the one that hurt was the Interception call at the WM 4 yard line. The review showed that the defender batted it twice and when secured to his chest both feet were in the air and the first foot came down out of bounds…i.e. incomplete. That Cost USC a potential eventual score instead of a turnover.
Bottom line - Any win is a great win. They don’t take the W away for not meeting expectations. 11 True Freshmen played. Now we face Stanford. Can anyone tell me why we meet them in the first conference game early every year? This is the 4th year in a row. How good is Stanford.? Rice says they were real good. USC knows them and their program. Time for a home win magic. Forecast: USC 28 Stanford 24.
Key play(s): What won the game was a series of big plays:.06:57 left Ronald Jones 37 yd run . 03:49 Stephen Carr 52 yd run. 03:13 Marvell Tell 37 yd interception return. But perhaps one more significant play was a route breaking diving catch by Deontay Burnett on 3rd and 9 after a horrible chop block call set them way back. The completion enabled the continued drive that resulted in a 21-21 tie.
Offense: Helton is now 17-7 (.708) overall as USC head coach, and 10-0 at the Coliseum. That's the longest since 2008-2009. USC scored 40 points or more in 8 of their last 13 games. 30 or more in 8 of the last 10. The offense clicked overall to nearly a half century in points (49) and a half thousand in yards (521).
QB: Grade: B-. It's tough to give such a low score to a QB that accounted for 289 yards passing and a running TD. But he is carrying the burden of our, perhaps excessive, dreams. He did hit 70% of his passes despite 4 drops. His first interception was near the end of the first half and inconsequential. The second was a miscall IMO. He threw only 3 bad passes including the first interception. His fumble and recovery was half a bad snap and his handling of it. He completed 12 passes of over 10 yards and of that 4 of 20 yards or more. The avenge per catch was 12.6 yards. Bottom line is we don’t win the game without him.
Receiving Game: Grade: B+. Total of 289 yards. Who is the 3rd receiver? It's clear that Deontay Burnet (7PC 142 yds 0TD 6 FD) and Steve Mitchell (4PC 39 yds 0TD 2 FD) are the first two. Other wide receivers had a total of only 3 catches for 26 yards. The running backs and TE were more widely used with TEs accounting for 4 catches/ 36 yards and Running backs 4 catches/46 yards. One interesting aspect was that all of the TE catches and 2 of the RBs catches were in the second half, as adjustments were made.
Running Game: Grade: A. Total of 232 net yards, 6.8 ypc, 6 TDs including Sam Darnold's. The most stable unit on Offense beside QB. Ronald Jones showed up like a graduate cum laude of the weight room and demonstrated it by breaking through most of the first attempted tacklers. Carr was brought in early but became a bigger contributor in the 2H. Malapeia showed off his reputation as a bruising runner . Ware was used sparingly for now. Deep and quality.
Oline: Grade: B. There were 2 sacks allowed. Beyond that only 2 other tackles for losses. They had but 3 penalties -all for false Starts and no holding penalties. As a group they performed well and Toa Lobendahn looked very good after all those games missed last year.
Defense: Grade: B-. Western Mich. moved well through the first half gaining 204 yards (43 pass and 161 run).with 14 points. USC got back captain/leading tackler Cam Smith, who also calls the defense set. He spent the first half sitting out the game due to a Spearing call in the Rose bowl first half. H2 he had 6 tackles (2 for losses) In the second half Western Michigan scored 10 points vs. the offense and had 102 yards run and 51 yards pass for 153 yards. USC showed tackling jitters early and some vets played poorly including Biggie Marshall who missed multiple tackles on first contact and missed a possible interception. His PI negated (or caused) an interception, that may have become a TD. He also had 6 tackles and a pass breakup. Rasheem Green led with 9 tackles and Marvin Tell followed with 8 tackles, a pass breakup and that 37 yard "turn out the lights" interception for a TD.
Special Teams- Grade: B. New replacements for Boermeester and Tilby. They performed well. Chase Mc Grath kicked EPs, Michael Brown did Kickoffs and hit 3 of 8 as touchbacks. And he averaged 64.6 yards (65 is to the goal line). Walk on Punter Reid Budrovich,-good football last name but that first name has to go, He averaged 51 yards per punt and targeted it well with a 35 yardish punt taking 3 big bounces to make it a 59 yarder. Ajene Harris had a 15 yard punt return and Velus Jones had KORs of 32 and 29. Two penalties on ST with Ykili Ross causing a 15 yard PF that was turned into a big return and eventual FGA that was missed by WM. And one I never heard of a "delay of game" for getting the Kick off team too slow for the refs liking? Enabled a good return on an eventual FG make.
Miscellaneous- The refs were OK but two big errors to me …the Chop Block call requires an engagement of a tackler up high and a block below. But the guy up high grabbed the potential blocker as he was going down. No engagement had been made IMO. That was the call and it cost the USC 15 yards back, which was overcome. But the one that hurt was the Interception call at the WM 4 yard line. The review showed that the defender batted it twice and when secured to his chest both feet were in the air and the first foot came down out of bounds…i.e. incomplete. That Cost USC a potential eventual score instead of a turnover.
Bottom line - Any win is a great win. They don’t take the W away for not meeting expectations. 11 True Freshmen played. Now we face Stanford. Can anyone tell me why we meet them in the first conference game early every year? This is the 4th year in a row. How good is Stanford.? Rice says they were real good. USC knows them and their program. Time for a home win magic. Forecast: USC 28 Stanford 24.
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