Another late surge allowed No. 5 USC football to pull away from Cal in the Trojans’ first road game of the year. Here are three concerns from the win in Berkeley.
For most of the first half on Saturday afternoon, California looked like the better team against No. 5 USC. The battle of undefeated Pac-12 teams was deadlocked at 13-13 going into halftime, and after three quarters remained tied. It was anyone’s game to lose as the teams switched fields for the final 15 minutes of the game.
Both teams had been strong fourth-quarter performers through their respective starts to the season. The Trojans lived up to the billing as they scored 17 points in the final frame and ran away with a 30-20 victory on the road. Away from the familiar surroundings of Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum for the first time this year, the College Football Playoff contender kept its name in the hat for another week with their second conference win of the year.
Clay Helton‘s team is tenuously hanging on to its position among the national contenders, though it continues to skirt by against What did we learn from USC’s win over the Golden Bears? Here are three takeaways after the Trojans moved to 4-0 and held their position in the AP Top 25.
1. USC quarterback Sam Darnold is still a work in progress
Sam Darnold won lucky number 13 in a row as the starting quarterback for the Trojans. But the redshirt sophomore, as he has throughout this year, looked far less impressive against Cal than he did during a stellar 2016 season.
Yes, he completed 26 of his 38 attempts against California. But Darnold threw for just 5.9 yards per attempt against the Golden Bears secondary on Saturday. He repeatedly missed open receivers and tried to force balls into too-tight windows. Darnold finished with 223 yards and two touchdowns, but his one interception could easily have been two or three if Cal defenders had better hands.
USC continues to win in 2017, and they will likely remain in the top four of the AP Top 25 this week thanks to their win over a fellow unbeaten. But Darnold effectively drove the final nail into the coffin of his prematurely deceased Heisman campaign with another lackluster performance in his first road game of the year.
2. Without Ronald Jones II, USC’s running game was inconsistent
Ronald Jones II didn’t practice this week, but it was unknown until warmups whether he would play against Cal. The tailback ended up sitting out the game with a thigh contusion sustained last week. His absence was felt as USC struggled to sustain drives on the ground. The Trojans ended the day with 136 rushing yards on 35 carries, averaging less than four yards a run as a team.
Stephen Carr led the way with 20 carries for 82 yards and a touchdown, and the freshman showed some deft moves. But he was also nowhere near as explosive as Jones, with his longest run of the day going for 13 yards. No Trojan runner managed a single run of 20-plus yards on Saturday, and part of the reason why Darnold struggled was the lack of run support to balance the offense and keep Cal’s defense honest.
Jones will probably be back in time for the Friday-night showdown at Washington State in Week 5, and he will need to be in good health if the Trojans are going to survive another undefeated opponent. If the injury is more serious than reported, and Jones is forced to sit out for any length of time, it could disrupt the balance in the USC offense.
3. Defense will make or break season as unit fuels another USC win
Had USC’s defense been even a bit less stingy, this could have been a much closer game. Tied at 13-13 going into the fourth quarter, it was still any team’s game to win. But the Trojans clamped down on their hosts, generating four turnovers in the final 15 minutes to secure the runaway victory on Saturday.
Ross Bowers threw for 303 yards, but he completed just 44 percent of his 50 passes to get to that mark. The young Cal quarterback also threw four interceptions on the day and took three sacks. For most of the game, the Trojans just rushed four. But they still managed to disrupt the Golden Bears’ passing attack, flustering Bowers when it mattered most.
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Clay Helton definitely has a championship-caliber team. But with Sam Darnold struggling to start the year and the running game looking rather ordinary without Ronald Jones II, USC needed its defense to step up again to secure their first road win of the year. Things won’t get any easier as the Pac-12 schedule ramps into full force, and if USC is going to be a College Football Playoff contender in 2017 they will need the defense to remain among the nation’s best.