4-Game Analysis

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Hard to believe the season is already four games old. And right now, it is equally difficult to believe USC was ranked No. 1 in the preseason Associated Press poll.
USC’s not played a complete game yet, which is not necessarily surprising. But the offensive inconsistency is unexpected. With so many marquee players including a four-year starter at quarterback, USC’s offense is an enigma.
It is not picking up where it left off last season and seems out of sync at times. No deep throws against Syracuse, nothing to counter Stanford’s pass rush, an inability to find Robert Woods against Cal.
These issues might not be significant if they were isolated but it led to a shocking loss to a Stanford team that barely beat San Jose State and featured an inexperienced quarterback.
It is early but right now what is USC’s philosophy? It did not want to run against Hawaii or throw deep against Syracuse or short against Stanford. Perhaps USC should worry less about its opponent and just do what it does well offensively.

34 thoughts on “4-Game Analysis”

  1. “Perhaps USC should worry less about its opponent and just do what it does well offensively.”

    Bullseye!

  2. “led to a shocking loss to a Stanford team that barely beat San Jose State”

    That Stanford team also happens to be the #9 team in the country. They may have barely beaten SJSU, but they destroyed Duke infinity to not much and don’t forget, the game was on the road.

    USC has built itself to beat teams that run the spread. That’s why they have guys like Dion Bailey at linebacker. Stanford has a bunch of roadgraders and they’re all smart kids. I wasn’t happy about the loss, but losing at the (now) #9 team in the country is nothing to hang your head about. SC just needs to keep on grinding and hope the offense pulls it together. They also need to hope that Khaled Holmes ankle is okay. They definitely need the big All-American candidate in there at center. As crazy as it sounds, he might be the team’s most important player.

  3. What’s more surprising is that the Daily News is still a for profit company and they can continue to employ a substandard writer like Wolf…

  4. Football is like chess because no two games are alike.

    And in football, sometimes a team has to take what it’s
    “given” by the other team, whether that be a compromised approach to the running or passing game.

  5. “It did not want to run against Hawaii or throw deep against Syracuse or short against Stanford.” All true, all indicitive of what a crap playcaller Kiff is – how ironic that Kiff sells himself as a baby genius playcaller. Look in the back of the baby’s diaper for what Kiff’s playcalling has been this season.

  6. Hackiffian …. Hackett, Kiffin, Suckisian. The worst worst play callers in USC football history. How these fraud got and kept jobs in football is just amazing.

  7. Hey goatgirl, if you don’t like what you’re seeing, then don’t watch, run along, the cadre is in need of more idiots

    You’re starting to sound like the biggest fuckin idiot around here, sorry bucket, you’ve been dethroned

  8. Here’s some ranking analysis. We are currently ranked 13th in the country, with 1 loss against a top 10 team on the road by 7 pts. If we continue to improve over the course of the season and win out, we will be in great shape. Of the 12 teams in front of us, 2 are from the Pac-12. If we win out and win the Pac-12 title game, we move in front of both. We play Notre Dame – beat them and they’re behind us. 5 are from the SEC: Alabama, LSU, Georgia, South Carolina and Florida. Only 1 of these teams can go undefeated — all the others will have at least 1 loss, most will end the season with 2 or more. 2 are from the Big 12. One of these will drop out. Frankly I see both Texas and KSU losing at least 1 game this season. That leaves Florida State. If they can run through the ACC they will get and deserve a shot at the national title. 1 loss to a lowly ACC counterpart and they move behind us. My point is, win out, and win out in style, as we have done in the not so distant past, and we will have a good shot at the BCS Championship. At the very least, we would win the Rose Bowl as a 1 loss team and finish no lower than #3 or #4. That would be pretty darn good for a team on probation with limited scholarships. There is a lot of work to do between now and then, but championships aren’t won in September.

  9. Championship for 4th and 40 Kiffin LOL … that loser will lead his garbage O to 3 more losses. And this year will be as good as it gets …. next year SC loses 6 games under this moron

  10. Me, Testicle 1, and Testicle 2 — the three greatest play callers in USC football history. Indeed, in the whole history of All Things. How we three Masters spend our time merely coaching football, as opposed to Running the World, is just amazing.

    Championship for Honest Lane Kiffin on the horizon, after CRUSHING IT the rest of the season. Next year, even better — going undefeated, championship on shelf. The year after that, even better still. HOW? you ask, dumbfounded. Just wait for the addition of Testicle 3!

  11. Maybe Pat Haden needs to tell Kiff defense wins games. Defense, not your precious passing game. Monte needs to go back to the NFL and leave the more challenging college defensive gameplanning to those who know how to defend it!

  12. Maybe Haden should get the F out of SC athletics so it doesn’t go completely down the tubes.

  13. SLOtrojan,

    I Appreciate the positive outlook, I am a huge usc fan, but lets be real…
    USC does not look like a contender! They have to truly go back to basics and find a identity
    I know there in the “hunt” still, but this team won’t beat Oregon! Let alone beat them twice!
    Reasons I and everyone else are frustrated

    1) we have no o-line..
    Too thin and plays to soft. None of the remaining o line guys has the experience or balls to Beat their man in front of them. This is where everything matters… Can they protect mb7 against the big boys? Can they run the ball at will?? No

    2) kiffins play calling..

    Because of arrogance kiffin assumed he can beat the 1st teams on his schedule with literally 2 receivers and 3 different play calls.. He was humbled. And now kiffin seems like he’s lost? Where’s the game plans we saw last year? The execution? Against Cal they ran the ball finally but it’s Cal..

    3) the defense is good!!! But it won’t matter

    Some of u guys are hard on the defense but their the bright spot! Teams like stanford or bama.. are built to destroy small, quick defenses like ours.. but our undersized boys held stanford to 21! If usc group of top ten picks on O can’t score 21+ plus than theres a bigger problem! The defense should get more credit but the story of the offense playing like crap steals the attention from them.

    Sorry guys had to vent!

  14. Hey Bri12….you got your banana hammock all twisted, settle down. It’s only September and you act like the season is over. Last year the season started off real shaky, we were 3-0 and lost to Arizona St. on the road, a game we were favored to win by 2 TD’s, then the next week at home, against a 1-4 Arizona team, the score was 34-27 to start the 4 quarter. We pulled out a 48-41 win thanks to Barkley’s 470 yards of passing, which is now a team record. From that point on, the team showed marked improvement in each game that followed

    We finished as a top 5 team, and in my opinion I thought we would of given Bama a better game than LSU

    PS…Don’t forget we had to block a last second field goal by Utah to preserve the win, which was the second game of the season

  15. BRI12:
    You put it better than anyone of us could have. Kiff is clueless, our O line is earning failing grades, lee and woods are disconnected and dropping easy catches, MB7 needs the heimleich, the defense is a bright spot sometimes but our line has no push and our secondary gets burned on easy slants, Monty needs to retire, our offense, Inc our RB’s are sluggish . . .I can go on but ill stop.

    TrojanFan: its cute to be optomistic but don’t insult our intelligence. We go 9-3 this season if all goes really well. . .8-4 or 7-5 is a lot more realistic. what im rooting for is at least 9 wins. . .a good wind would have us having a better season.

  16. ^^^^What intelligence!!!!….When you say it’s realistic that the team will finish the regular season going 4-4….Dude, every time you make a stupid post like that, you level of respect and credibility DROPS besides your football IQ

    Did you even watch the game on Saturday or are you just going off others opinions…..Let me see here, we rushed for over 290 yards and gave up only 1 sack for 7 yards….Wow i would have to say the o line deserves some high marks for that performance, along with the running back….if you don’t know how to break down a good don’t try….we have enough idiots around here….and you try to say Kiff is clueless…LOL

  18. “Banana Hammock” TroJaneFap:
    Poor idiot. Your sorry anal-ysis is based on one game. Im basing my facts on all four games so far!

    And where didyou get “4 – 4” you reject??! There are 12 games in a season. Count em.. .12. How does 4+4=12?. . .douchebag. I wrote “8-4”. Rou bang.

    Some of what you wrote makes 0 sense. This is my challenge to you, rookie. Remember, remember the 24th off September when I gave you my honest prediction for our season (even last season I was right) and then you can come kiss my rou bang on Thanksgiving weekend after the reg season is over.

    Fight on! bitch tits!

  19. Hey GoatGal…does Kiffin have pictures of you boning a goat? Why do you have such a hatred pervasive theme on your posts on a daily and weekly basis? MLK said “Hate cannot drive out hate. Only love can do that.” So, keep loving your goat and sheep and any other animal that makes you angry and hopefully one day you might find at least a transsexual to make you happy…unless you already have one. Good chance there too, though. You’re way too angry. Give it a break. God still loves you!

  20. Hey USConquer, you fuckin idiot, you are dumber than I thought…you wrote:

    “And where didyou get “4 – 4” you reject??! There are 12 games in a season. Count em.. .12. How does 4+4=12?. . .douchebag. I wrote “8-4″. Rou bang.”

    and you also wrote:

    “8-4 or 7-5 is a lot more realistic”

    Let me do the math for you, since your addition skill are shaky, if we are 3-1 right now and “finish the regular season 4-4” that would equal a 7-5 “regular season” record, which is what you see as realistic,,,,so who is really the douchebag…LOL

    What facts did you post,all I’m seeing is a bunch of negative opinions….once again did you even watch the last game? The stats from the game don’t lie, I see an improvement from the previous game, which is a step in the right direction

    you fuckin idiot, you can’t compare what a team did in the first game to what it did in the fourth game, totally different game plans against different teams…you have a lot to learn, young grasshopper

    PS….correction: bucket said there was no banana hammock down there, nothing to support….just saying

    One more thing, IMO had Holmes been healthy for the Stanford, we would of pulled out a win, but injuries happen and we can’t control that

    If we win that game, all your great facts(opinions) would of been a moot point….

  21. FYI: I’ve seen some blogs and chats of other schools that will go unmentioned (ahem…Oregon, ND, & Bama) generally talking smack about our team and fans but more specifically ragging on SC fans here on Wolf’s blog and to a lesser degree on Conquest Chronicles. Lets not give them more fuel for there fire. Theres been some embarassing comments by some Trojans here and by other schools’ fans. Fight On!

  22. The fuel comes from what happens on the playing field. when you’re the hottest chick in school, people will be jealous of you, there is no way around that

    I really don’t give a shit what people say on this site, but when it’s directed at me I will fire back

    There’s a lot of eggs in this basket, and some have yet to hatch

  24. @ The Palms, relaxing by the pool, drinking a Bloody Mary USCuntquer, but I’ll respond to u later. You are such a hypocrite its not even funny.

  25. . . .like I said: your a douchebag and you just proved it again. If moms basement feels like the Palms to you then congrats. We can all fantasize. Back to work.

  26. sad sad sad!!!, when you have to trade hours for dollars…You’re right, you can only fantasize when you’re lite in the wallet….Have you ever been to a USC game?

  27. Guys,
    I like being realistic when I judge the team I’m going for.

    Trojanfan,
    When u refer to last season that’s exactly what frustrates people… We improved throughout the year and ended as one of the top teams in the nation. I agree we could’ve even beat a bama or LSU. That said, why does usc look like a 1/4 of that team now? Poor preparation. You don’t start over again with a slow start?

    As stated in Wolfs recent post kiffin keeps bringing up how defenses are adapting to the Trojans.. No shit!! So kiffin expected no one to strategize against slants all game!
    Basic game prep for any opponent would say “don’t let 2 receivers beat us”

  28. I’ve been to a lot of college teams’ football blogs. No one has more disrespectful, uneducated, and unpolished fans than the USC Trojans who frequent Scott Wolf’s blog page.

  29. ^^^^It’s the culture of the site… what makes you so special

    Go visit all the blogs you want, just skip this one

    Have a nice day

    PS…the cadre is recruiting new members, maybe that’s your cup of tea

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