USC Football: 3 keys to victory vs. Washington in Week 5

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LOS ANGELES, CA – SEPTEMBER 07: Running back Vavae Malepeai #29 of the USC Trojans points to the sky after scoring a touch down in the fourth quarter of the game against the Stanford Cardinal at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum on September 7, 2019 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Jayne Kamin-Oncea/Getty Images) /

2. Run the ball effectively

It’s the air-raid, this is true, but USC has to have some semblance of a run game to have a chance against the Huskies. They don’t want to put themselves in a situation facing coverage with that secondary.

The Husky secondary will squeeze coverage by keeping everything in front of them and daring USC to go downfield. However, if the Trojans can get anything going on the ground they can keep the Washington defense honest.

Clay Helton and Graham Harrell need to get creative with the run game. Use some window dressing when they want to run. They have perimeter speed, so use some jet sweep action with Tyler Vaughns. Use the screen game, and some swing passes. As long as they show they are willing to run; they need to do something that will keep the Huskies from dropping everyone into coverage.

Leading rusher Vavae Malepeai is healthy and ready for this game, so he needs to touch the ball more than 11 times like he did against Utah. Harrell doesn’t run as pure an air-raid as Mike Leach does, so there are plenty of run plays and wrinkles in the Trojan playbook.

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