It slipped when Sam fumbled. It slipped when RoJo and Justin fumbled, and it slipped again when Adoree lost a shoe on the game winning pass. It’s taken until late Thursday for me to weigh in on another disappointment for the Trojans. The frustration lies in that USC did so much right in the contest but the win literally slipped away from us on a gut wrenching 95 yard drive to lift Utah over USC as time expired. Let’s examine what we did well, what we did poorly, and most importantly how we recover against ASU.
The Good
- Sam Darnold shines going 18-26 for 253 yards
- Justin Davis find his gear and runs 10 times for 126 yars or 12.6 ypc, more on this later
- Adoree Jackson replicates his 2014 kick return and takes another one 100 yards to the house.
The Bad
- Three fumbles all occurring in critical offensive moments
- Seven penalties for 49 yards, the most costly coming on a Utah 3rd & 10 inside their 10 yard line which would have halted the game winning drive
- Justin Davis gets 0 carries in the 4th quarter. Helton later comments he was sticking to their normal rotation of backs. I cannot defend his decision here, simply poor coaching.
The Moving On
- Limit scoring. Sounds trivial but ASU is a scoring machine and we’ll have trouble if we get into a shootout with them
- Play smart. Penalties continue to plague us.
- Make the right decisions. Everyone will have laser focus on Helton and he’ll need to make critical decisions to keep his seat in the Mckay Center. He can do well for himself by impressing the home crowd when it matters most.
There are probably a few more points people would like to add to the bad column, and maybe even a couple good things that we didn’t key in on. At the end of the day, USC had every chance to extend a lead, control the clock and win the football game. Unfortunately they were unable to do so and much of the weight falls on Helton and staff.
Patience has clearly expired amongst the Trojan faithful for the new coach and he now faces even more pressure, to win, and win at home. USC will find respite in playing 4 of the next 5 at the Coliseum, but all will be against high tempo spread offenses who will aim to wear us out and find opportunity in exhaustion.
FIGHT ON
The Late Game 
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