The Difference a Year Makes as Trojans top Cardinal

Saturday marked 364 days since Stanford ran USC off the Coliseum field and helped usher in a new era of Trojan football. It was one year since the boos of USC fans and a 42-28 Stanford win pushed the administration to make the decision to relieve head coach Clay Helton of duties and begin a coaching search that would ultimately net Lincoln Riley. Following a 41-28 win against Stanford in Palo Alto, it’s safe to say the turnaround has been swift.

This is almost certainly a better Stanford team than last season considering the returning players for the Cardinal. It was also the difference between playing at home and on the road. Stanford doesn’t present the most intimidating environment, but memories of great Trojan teams struggling in their first conference road game are still easy to recall. And this was a complete reversal of what happened last season.

There are areas where this USC team can improve. Any mention of the Trojans as a competitor for the Pac-12 title and possible College Football Playoff berth has to include a reference to rushing yards allowed, penalties and now a confusing second-half offensive lull. But Riley made it clear that for this game, he and the team are going to savor both the win and the work it took to earn it.

“Just look at 12 months ago,” Riley said. “Look at 12 months ago. This is a good Stanford team and a lot’s changed. I’m proud of the way our guys responded.”

Riley said being thrilled for winning at Stanford, a place USC had won just once since 2008 heading into the game, was absolutely his overriding emotion following this one. And it was the same for the team in the locker room.

An Early Offensive Explosion for USC

USC’s offense scored touchdowns on its first five drives of the game against Stanford. The Trojans eventually held a 41-14 lead going into the fourth quarter. It was amazing display of offensive firepower. The Trojans did it in all kinds of different ways.

Tight end Lake McRee caught the first score of the game, which marked his first touchdown as a Trojan. Jordan Addison and Mario Williams both caught quick throws to the edge and made defenders miss to get into the endzone. Addison also got on the end of a long bomb from quarterback Caleb Williams. And running back Travis Dye finished the touchdown assault by finding a gaping hole in the middle of the Stanford defense to go untouched into the endzone from 27 yards out.

Williams finished the game 20-for-27 for 341 yards and four touchdowns. Addison caught seven passes for 172 yards and two touchdowns. Dye had 105 yards and a touchdown on 14 carries.

Riley Wants to Raise the Floor

Riley said the goal moving forward is partly to improve upon the areas where the Trojans are already proficient. But the bigger focus is erasing mistakes and bringing up the overall level of play.

“The good is really, really good on all three sides,” Riley said. “The bad is not good enough right now. That’s coaching, that’s offense, that’s defense, and that’s special teams. There’s too much inconsistencies. For us, that would be great to raise the ceiling of our play. But more than anything, we’re got to take the bottom part of our play, the not good plays, and we’ve got to raise those up.”

Riley took part of the blame for a second half offensive performance that netted just two field goal drives. Stanford outscored the Trojans 14-6 over the game’s final 30 minutes. Riley said the performance wasn’t up to the standard, offensively, for the Trojans.

“Wasn’t very good by me,” he said. “Wasn’t very good for the offense in the second half.”

Fixing the Defensive Issues

Stanford gained 441 total yards against USC, including 221 on the ground. The Trojans got hit on a misdirection play for 50 yards. And both running backs E.J. Smith and Casey Filkins picked up chunk yards as Stanford consistently ran its slow mesh RPO play.

“We needed to do a little bit better job in the run game,” Riley said. “We were explosive defensively. The sacks, the turnovers were great. We’ve got to be more consistent.”

Riley said it came down to too many mental mistakes on that side against the run.

“We’re still making a few too many mental mistakes throughout the course of the game where we’re not in a gap or not lined up or not playing a call the way that it’s designed,” Riley said. “Right now in this game we gave up a few too many plays where we’re not in the gap. And against a good offense like that, you make it a lot easier on them than obviously we planned to.”

USC Moving Forward

It certainly didn’t sound as though there were any worries in the locker room following the win. The celebrations each of the first two weeks have reverberated into the media interview rooms. And this rendition of Fight On! might have been heard all the way to the Coliseum.

It’s clear Riley wants to celebrate how far this team has come in a very short amount of time. But he knows there’s more out there for them to accomplish.

“We’re just on our climb, right?” Riley said. “We’re just on our journey. I think all three units of this football team can be really, really good. But we’ve got to continue to improve.

“We’re doing a lot of good. We know we’ve got to get better,” Riley said. “Coaching-wise, we’ve got to get better. Playing-wise, we’ve got to get better…Should it get better as we go? If we’re the team we think we can be, then yes.”