USC football: 3 takeaways from win at Arizona State in Week 4

USC football pulled away in the fourth quarter to secure a victory over Arizona State. Here’s what we learned from an exciting Saturday night affair.

1. The defense stepped up

One of the most consistent storylines in Lincoln Riley’s time as a head coach, and Alex Grinch’s time as a defensive coordinator, has been the porous defenses. Riley’s teams have always approached the game from the standpoint of, “Whatever you score, we’ll score more”.

It’s alsmost as if they are choosing not to play effective defense.

That’s why Saturday night had to be encouraging for the Trojans. The Sun Devils threw for just 263 yards on 39 attempts, and gained just 90 yards on the ground.

The Trojans also got to the quarterback eight times, with Tackett Curtis, Solomon Byrd, and Romello Height all registering two sacks, and Jamil Muhammad and Bear Alexander each adding one of their own.

USC lived in Arizona State’s backfield, racking up 14 tackles for loss on their way to stymieing the Sun Devil running game.

This was a good night for the USC defense, a unit that has quietly put together three strong weeks in a row after that questionable start against San Jose State.