The Rebel Game

Trojan nation, we are 1-0. Under hot clear skies at the “construction site” stadium, Helton and JT Daniels led our team to a season opening win over the UNLV Rebels. Let’s take a look at what went well on both sides of the ball, what can be worked on, and how the Pac 12 fared overall with respect to other conferences.

Offensively, we put 28 points on the board. The other 15 came from a strong performance from kicker Chase McGrath who was 5/5 on the day. JT found his rhythm over the course of the game and showed that the Mater Dei connection is alive and well with fellow freshman Amon-Ra St. Brown. Daniels found him 7 times for 98 yards and for a nice long touchdown post route. More impressively, Daniels completed passes to 8 receivers showing he is not one dimensional and can spread the ball around. This should only improve as he settles into his progressions later in the year. On the ground we brought a balanced attack led by Aca’Cedric Ware who totaled 100 yards and scored a nice diving touchdown. Ware finished with 10 carries, Carr with 9, and 8 for Malepeai. Each looked good in their own right and we should trust that our running game can move the ball. The Trojans did have 16 third downs, and only converted 7 of those (43%). If we can increase our efficiency there, it will greatly help extend our drives. Another positive from the day was that we did not turn the ball over. JT sure did toss a few that looked to be interceptions but we escaped with no fumbles or INT’s. Overall it was great to see our unit shake off a slow start and extend the lead into the second half.

Defensively, we held the Rebels to 21 points. Cam Smith and Isaiah Pola-Mao both had great performances, each tallying 7 tackles. Remember Isaiah only had about 48 hours to prepare to be the starter for this game and he rose to the occasion. We still looked very susceptible to the big the play though. The Rebels managed a single run of over 70 yards and we allowed 308 total yards on the ground. This should be a glaring concern with Stanford’s Bryce Love waiting to run through us this coming weekend. If we can contain the run, we will have a reasonable chance to beat now #10 ranked Stanford this weekend. Another good stat for us is that we only had 4 penalties on the day resulting in 35 yards. This has been a real problem in recent years so it was good to see us playing disciplined ball.

All in all, we got the win in decent fashion. There is much to prove yet though and we will know a lot more about this USC team come Sunday morning. Here is to a pleasant surprise against my season prediction and BEATING THE FARM. Now let’s quickly look at how the Pac-12 fared over the opening weekend.

Pac-12: Overall record 8-4, 3 games against Power 5 schools, 1-2 v. Power 5.

ACC: Overall record 10-4, 4 games against Power 5 schools, 1-3 v. Power 5.

SEC: Overall record 13-1, 5 games against Power 5 schools, 4-1 v. Power 5.

Big 10: Overall record 11-2, 4 games against Power 5 schools, 2-2 v. Power 5* Includes Michigan v. Notre Dame.

Big 12: Overall Record 6-3, 3 games against Power 5 schools, 1-2 v. Power 5.

FIGHT ON