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.

2. Caleb Williams keeps doing Caleb Williams things

It’s easy to take Caleb Williams for granted. He is so consistently playing at a high level and making remarkable throws, and he makes it look so easy, that sometimes you forget to appreciate it.

For example, his stat line yesterday: 20-of-31 for 322 yards, three touchdowns, and no picks. UCLA would have killed for that on Saturday. Auburn would have taken half of those numbers. Colorado desperately missed that level of quarterback play.

At USC, however, it’s just another Saturday.

Oh, and as far as highlight plays? There was his scramble and touchdown throw to Brenden Rice:

There was his willingness to block downfield.

There was his conversion on third and 20.

That’s just three, but we could do this all day. Caleb Williams is special, and don’t forget to appreciate what he does every time he steps on the field.

3. Here comes Colorado

Well, this game felt a lot more exciting before Saturday afternoon. In Colorado’s first test against legitimately high-level competition, the Buffaloes got boat raced.

Oregon pretty much had its way with Colorado. Bo Nix made his Heisman case on this massive stage, scoring four total touchdowns to go along with three touchdowns from other Ducks. The final score was 42-6, and that six came in garbage time.

After Saturday, we’ve got a much better idea of what Deion Sanders’ program truly is, and that bodes well for USC. The Trojans don’t play defense as well as Oregon, but Caleb Williams is going to have an absolute field day with the porous Colorado secondary.

This one will still get a great deal of attention, with Fox’s Big Noon Kickoff in town, but a bit of the excitement was wiped away from this one.

There’s a good chance we see Colorado get beat handily for the second week in a row.