I’m sure it felt like a long flight for the USC players and staff as they returned to Los Angeles a 1-2 football team late Saturday night. Coach Helton is facing severe criticism, much of which is deserved, some maybe too much.
So let’s look at what exactly went wrong in Palo Alto. First and foremost Christian McCaffrey lived up to every bit of hype in the contest. McCaffrey ran 31 times for 172 yards and added 3 receptions for 66 yards. He alone accounted for 238 of Stanford’s 404 offensive yards.
Now let’s look in the mirror…8 penalties for 56 yards. 7 of which came in the first half, and most being offensive line calls, causing us to never capitalize on our 3rd and short opportunities. One particular low point came when USC put only 8 men on the field for a PAT….still puzzled by that (picture below). Max Browne did move the ball and spread the receptions around to different receivers but very few looks to JuJu (3-34). Browne finished 18 of 28 for 191 yards. The rushing game was consistent and Ronald Jones and Justin Davis combined for 126 yards. Ultimately, a very good Stanford team behind a Heisman effort thwarted our stalled out and penalized offense, and corrections must be made to improve quickly.
On the heels of the loss, Coach Helton announced Monday that Sam Darnold will take over as the starting quarterback. Darnold has played in all three games this season and has looked good. He is a quick release precision passer with good field awareness. The unfortunate part of the story here is that Max Browne did not necessarily play so poorly that we were forced to bench him. It’s more that Helton and his staff are facing extreme pressure to produce offensively and a change had to be made. I’m not sure if it’s the right change, but it will leave no stone unturned and on a short week getting ready for Utah on Friday, there is little time for pause as travel day approaches.
In the brief time we do have as fans, it is important that we too look in the mirror and judge the program fairly. Yes, Clay Helton was given the keys to one of the most storied and winning programs in the country, but he was also given the hardest schedule in the nation. USC has lost to the #1 and #7 ranked teams in the nation. Let me make one thing clear before I continue, what I’m about to say is not making a case that USC is a top 25 team. We are not. But guess who is? Oklahoma comes in at #25 with, oh yes, a 1-2 record. Their opponent’s rankings at the time the contest was played? #15 Houston and #3 Ohio State. Just interesting don’t you think? And let’s look at the last time USC was 1-2. We are back at 1-2 for the first time since 2001 when Pete Carroll debuted as head coach and opened 1-4, to ultimately finish his first season 6-6.
So maybe it’s us, the fans, that are creating undue pressure for staff’s and programs by bombarding twitter, message boards, media outlets and so on. We have been trained through good fortune to expect excellence from USC. The mindset among many is that in every game anything less than excellence will be a fire-able offense. Perhaps it’s time to take a deep breath, look in the mirror, and recognize that our precious USC is going through a rebuilding. The weapons are in place, and the staff is learning how to fit all the pieces together and three games into a long grueling schedule, we are looking to get back on track.
Here’s to roaring back to .500 and beating the Utes Friday night at Rice-Eccles.
FIGHT ON
The Late Game 
Good one Jeff. Max may very well have received a bum deal but Coach needs to try something. I do question the timing of this change given the short prep week, travel game, etc.
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