Musings from Arledge: USC Defense Earns Some Respect

College football games sometimes take on a life of their own, and it’s often not what you’d expect. That USC and Oregon State were engaged in a bloody, defensive battle was unexpected – as unexpected, I suppose, as Clemson and Wake Forest engaging in a shootout. Sometimes you go in thinking you’ll see a high-paced, 7-on-7 affair and instead a fist fight breaks out. College football is funny that way, sometimes.

There is a lot to be concerned about after last night’s game, especially with an even-tougher road trip to Salt Lake City coming up in a few weeks. But before diving into that, let’s enjoy last night’s game for what it was: a great college football game and a major gut check, which USC passed.

Almost every championship team has games like last night’s. USC was playing in a place that has been a shop of horrors for even the best USC coaches and teams. Oregon State is good – tough, well-coached, physical, and they were supremely motivated, a team playing in the biggest game any of those guys have ever played in.  

Playing on the road is usually a challenge. Playing on the road against a good football team is always a challenge.  Playing on the road against a good team when things just aren’t clicking – that is the kind of game that decides championships seasons.  

I don’t know if this USC team will win a championship. That road trip to Utah may decide it.  Or it may not.  Utah still has to play Oregon State at home and UCLA, Washington State, and Oregon on the road, any one of which could be a loss. USC could drop the ball somewhere else along the way.  Washington is still lurking.  

But whatever happens, we all knew that USC would, at some point, encounter adversity, and nobody knew how they would respond. We know now. That was a gutsy, fantastic victory against a tough foe in a hostile environment on a very difficult night.  It was the very definition of Fight On.

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Going into last night’s game, USC’s defense had plenty of doubters, and they had earned those doubters. Last night the defense earned some respect.

Oregon State has a very good offensive line and a strong running game. They had some success on the ground, but they weren’t gashing USC’s defense for big yards the way we had seen in previous weeks. The run defense wasn’t spectacular, but it was far better.  

And while the entire college football world has been saying that USC can’t rely on dominating the turnover battle every week, maybe the Trojans can. Here’s the thing: recovered fumbles tend to even out over time.  But the same is not true of interceptions. And USC’s defense is earning these interceptions.  Eric Gentry is a terror in the passing lanes.  His length is a problem.  He’s like Billy Madison on the school basketball court right now.  And Mekhi Blackmon had another fantastic pick yesterday on the fade route; that was just a perfectly played ball.  It was skill, not luck.

USC is getting their hands on the football in the passing game, and good things happen when you do that.  The Trojans held Chase Nolan to 5.8 yards per attempt, 58% percent completion percentage, no touchdowns, and four picks.  That’s great pass defense.  And the pass defense has been good just about every week.  The Trojans are eighth in passing efficiency defense for the season.  (They were 111^th last year.)  USC is a work in progress against the run, but they’re getting better.  And against the pass, this is very good unit that should continue to cause problems.  

The Trojans are, in other words, showing signs that they might be more than a one-dimensional football team.  Don’t look now, but USC is giving up 18.3 points a game, which is 25^th in the nation, just behind Oklahoma and just ahead of Baylor and Tennessee.  Keep that up, and we might actually have something here.

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Of course, USC needs to protect Caleb Williams better if they’re going to win any kind of championship.  And if they can’t, they’re going to need to get the ball out much faster.

Williams is a fantastic athlete, and he was eluding unblocked rushers all night. But he also wasn’t setting his feet, hurting his accuracy, and he wasn’t seeing opportunities downfield, probably because of the pressure.  

Williams struggled last night. He looked confused, frustrated. He missed opportunities he usually doesn’t miss. Oregon State bottled him up for much of the night and made him look like a freshman rather than a Heisman candidate.

But the guy came through when he absolutely had to, and this is the sign of a great player. That laser he threw to Addison for the winning score will go down in Trojan Lore along with Fertig to Sherman, Marinovich to Morton, Marinovich to Wellman, Leinart to Jarrett, Peete to Affholter, and Darnold to Burnett.  

The Trojans need to get better. This won’t be the last time this year when they will face real adversity, and you don’t want to get into those difficult situations too often; eventually, you’ll pay the price.  

But I feel like enjoying this one. This is a game that championship teams win. It’s the type of game that USC would have lost pretty consistently for the last decade or so. And it likely sets the Trojans up for a gigantic, top-10 clash in Salt Lake City on October 15, on a day that is looking like the college football weekend of 2022, with USC traveling to Utah, Alabama traveling to Tennessee, and Penn State traveling to Michigan. If you have plans that day, cancel them.

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So about this sonic weapon tactic of Oregon State’s…that’s not cool, is it? Seems like a bush league move.  Instead of adding a whole bunch of new speakers to fill the stadium with artificial noise, why not demand that USC wear all of their Beats by Dre headphones with the volume turned to 11? 

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Has anybody checked on Mario Cristobal today? I’m worried about him. He’s been talking about the return of the U, so I’m confused. I may have missed it, but I don’t remember Jimmy Johnson or Dennis Erickson getting run off their home field by a nobody program that is just weeks away from losing its opener to James Madison 44-7.

Nobody’s perfect, of course. But one thing you really can’t do as a high-priced coach of a major college football power is get blown out on your home field by Middle Tennessee State. A major power getting blown out on its own field by MTSU is like a prime Mike Tyson going outside to get the mail the day after the Michael Spinks fight and getting pummeled by the fifth grader who lives down the street.

We talk all the time about programs that carry a giant chip on their shoulder – like Fresno State – because virtually every player on the roster wanted to get an offer from the major in-state power but didn’t.  But that’s not Middle Tennessee. Middle Tennessee players didn’t get offered by the programs with players that didn’t get offered by the major powers. It’s like the old Seven Degrees of Separation game, and MTSU is two or three levels removed from a program like Miami. That didn’t stop MTSU from putting up more than 500 yards and 45 points on the Canes.  

Hey recruits: I hope that Miami NIL money is worth it. 

Wazzu, did you guys have to coug it again this week? I usually don’t care what you do – live and let live, I say – but I certainly do care when you have Oregon in your sights and you choke. You have to make that shot, Elmer Fudd.  Very disappointing for all of us Duck haters.

I’m rooting for Oregon State the rest of the way. Jonathon Smith has done a great job with that program, and that team will be a challenge for the conference’s big dogs going forward. But probably not this Saturday at Utah. It’s very difficult to play inspired football the week after a physical, highly emotional loss, especially when you have to go on the road. But Washington and Oregon might want to look out later in the season.

Oklahoma is a good football team and, as usual, they’ll be just fine. But that disastrous defense on 3^rd and 16 in the fourth quarter last night is going to sting for a while. With the chance to get the ball back late in the fourth down one score, the Sooners let Adrian Martinez loose for a 55-yard scramble to the four-yard line to ice the game.  

It’s probably not nice to say, but I think Sooners fans deserved that one. Enjoy the weekend, fellas.