Lincoln Riley criticizes USC's offense for taking foot off the gas vs Stanford

Lincoln Riley’s USC Trojan offense has started the season off hot, establishing itself as one of the top scoring offenses in the country early on. The Trojans defeated Stanford 41-28 in week 2, but running back Travis Dye believed that their team took their foot off of the gas following a dominant first half, and Riley responded.

“I think it’s very possible, at times we intentionally slowed it down a little bit, but slow it down doesn’t mean you don’t execute,” Riley explained. You can call a play and snap it with 30 seconds left or snap it with five seconds left, you still gotta execute. And the reality is when we slowed it down, our execution went down.

The Trojans started the game with an offensive outburst, scoring touchdowns on each of their first five drives of the game against the Cardinal. USC’s second half went a little differently, as they only had six points off of two third quarter field goals followed by a scoreless fourth quarter.

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The drop in offense production was apparent, but Riley’s biggest gripe with the team’s second half offensive performance was the various mistakes they made.

“Especially the most disappointing thing to me were the third down penalties, which good offense don’t do, we had two conversions just completely wiped out, that’s two drives right there. And then we had two busts in blitz pickup and just get free runners on plays that should’ve been huge plays,” Riley said.

USC as a team finished the game with nine penalties that accounted for 104 yards, one of the areas they’ll definitely want to clean up moving forward, especially against the nation’s top competition according to Riley.

“We did things in the second half bad offenses do and when you do that against good football teams, you’re not gonna wanna play the way you want to. Whether it’s complacency, lack of focus, lack of trust, whatever it is gotta get better,” Riley said.

If the Trojan’s offense gets any better, they’ll definitely be a scary sight for opponents, as they’re already tied for the top spot in the country in points per game averaging 53.3 through the first two weeks. Their current scoring efficiency will definitely be difficult to maintain, but if their offense continues to be one of the nation’s best, the current No. 7 ranked Trojans may be in contention for a College Football Playoff spot.