Discuss The USC-Cal Game

Why can’t USC just blow a team out easily? USC had 11 penalties for 125 yards. The usual three turnovers. And remember how when USC lost to Utah, Justin Davis did not play in the fourth quarter because the backs supposedly had to rotate? But they couldn’t put Dominic Davis in at the end of this blowout? He was in on a key drive against Utah.

84 thoughts on “Discuss The USC-Cal Game

  1. If I want a good laugh this what I do. I light up a joint, take a few hits, read one of SW questions and laugh for hours!

    • He’s a gift that keeps on giving.

      “The blowout isn’t big enough – I want more!” – Ha Ha Ha.

  2. The same stuff is holding us back and it’s penalties and turnovers. Happy to get the conference win, but we gotta clean this stuff up.

    • Spot on. Offense looked great and Darnold is truly impressive. The defense held a good offense in check and but for the turnovers and penalties this would have been a near shutout.

      • I’m in full agreement. Looks like we’re laying down a nice foundation with this team. If we keep improving, we might be the toughest team we face in terms of not beating ourselves.

          • Some people put a lot of stock in the star system and some don’t. Where I fall is somewhere in the middle of the spectrum. I have some concerns about the quality of recruit we seem to be targeting, but you build a foundation with the people you already have. Recruiting is part of what you build on that foundation you’re building. If Helton can stay on the trajectory he’s on, the 4 and 5 star guys will want to be at USC and I think recruiting will take care of itself.

  3. You’re seriously complaining about the carries of the 4th string RB in a blowout?

    Again… STFU!!

  4. Wolf is an expert at finding the turd in the punch bowl. He’s already started the Washington is not that good thread. Still lots of work to do but this was a good win.
    #shartfest

  5. I’m still in awe of this team’s transformation since Darnold became the starter!!! It’s simply amazing to witness what a special QB can do for a football team! Much more important games are coming up, but I’m really enjoying watching Darnold make those great throws! He’s so good that even those few mistakes don’t look so big!

        • Darnold always was and is a Trojan thru and thru. With all that Marlboro Man blood in him, he committed early and never wavered, then refused to enroll early so he could play hoops and do the regular SR year routine.

          All the while, Town was at SC supposedly getting a head start – only it was a leap into oblivion for the massively over-ranked Town.

          Then prep kingpin Browne finds out sometimes it’s the guys who come in behind you that you really have to worry about, like when local El Toro phenom Bret Johnson at ucla got passed over by Tommy Maddox from Texas.

          • You’d think he of all people would understand that’s the business of college football. You compete just like Browne and Darnold and someone loses.

          • Neither did Bret. MICH ST didn’t exactly work out as I recall.

            Bret always had a huge chip on his shoulder, as his dad does. Bret used to stuff paper in his shoes in prep photo shoots so he would look taller.

      • LOL! Did I admire Gomer in there somewhere? Obviously not. Come on, Clay. Let’s not get petty here! This isn’t supposed to be a popularity contest between the Darnold fan club and Gomer fan club. This should be about SC winning. The truth is Darnold already looks to be a winner, and Gomer still needs to prove a lot more to me to make me a fan.

  6. A tab sloppy on the penalties, 21 point win is kind of a blowout, I would think, especially since Cal has been lighting up the scoreboard. On to the next game! #fighton

  7. Fired Scottie would be whining after this one. Yeah, they’re learning, still turning the ball over, but winning decisively.

      • Ewww…. how cryptic!

        Attendance will get much better…uh…for next game vs Oregon. If SC should beat UW, their games vs ucla and ND will draw BIG crowds…

        • Hey stupid , SC doesn’t host f uucla this year so it won’t count towards attendance. Why don’t you stop your little charade that you know anything about USC football? You aren’t fooling anyone.

          • Troller’s passive aggressive disorder is beautifully illustrated once again. Will the Dr. Rachel Maddow of Inside USC treat you for free since you are her main squeeze now?

  8. Californias defense is awful. They give up 42 pts a game before tonight and that trend continues. Lots of missed tackles by their defense. Add the fact that we had 13 days rest compared to their 6 and this game went about like it was supoosed to. Good thing for USC is by playing on Thursday we now get a couple days more than normal before next weeks game.

    • Sloppy performance by Gomer with 2 weeks off … Cal receivers cannot catch or that game is much closer. Cal has a high school type D , beyond weak why they don’t onside kick after every score is poor coaching … opponent is going to score anyway , better chance getting onside kick than stopping an O.

  9. His game was far from perfect against a very tired and awful defense. Little sloppy by USC with the penalties and turnovers . Everybody scores a lot of points against Cal

  10. One interception which would have been six had it been longer. One was a real fumbled exchange, the other forced by the defense. Why all the penalties, especially so many DUMB ones. These kids have to tighten up on these and I don’t see a problem running the table. Good job by coaching staff, except for the stupid penalty mistakes.

  11. Maybe the blowout would have been larger if Darnold didn’t have three turnovers. The Blogger likes to say Helton is living off Darnold’s success, but fails to point out his failures.

    • Every QB throws interceptions. His fumbled exchange was probably both players fault, his other fumble was because of a good defensive play. So lighten up Helen.

      • I’m cool. My point was directed at the Blogger, who believes Helton adds no value to the team and that Darnold is so good that he covers up Helton’s incompetencies.

        If USC can blow out a team despite turnovers and penalties, then they will be a force when these flaws are corrected. Helton has two weeks to fix things.

  12. Very happy to get the win. But we did not blow them out like we should have. They should have never scored more than 10 points. What happened to our pass rush?? Against that defense every time we handed the ball off it should have gone for 60 yard gain. The O line played much better, but we did not dominate the whole game like we should against their defense. Yes Sam played great, but against better D he will not get it done if the rest of the team does not step up for the whole game. I would give CAL a positive nod, they did not stop playing or coaching until the game was over. Helton and coaching crew did much better job. Still room for improvement for the D and O both sides if we want to win out.
    FIGHT ON

    • Pass rush was generally 3 or 4 man rush, not much blitzing. 60 yards per play?? Ya, I don’t know about that one.

    • Utah 3 fumbles/3 scores.Colorado (turnovers)….3/3scores.Cal3/3.The learning curve for this offense.But it’s sure fun to watch.

  13. Its hard to tell from this game how good the offense is. Cal gives up these kind of points to most teams including Oregon St and Texas

    • Get ready for 15 holding calls vs that big fast Huskie D … Oline is sloppy , had to hold every play vs bad Cal

  14. This is where Clay Helton’s football philosophies resemble his mentors, Steve Sarkisians. Because neither one have the ability to recognize an opponents defensive weakness. If Sam Darnold would have never made a pass attempt, and just handed the ball off to his running backs, the score would have been 50-0 by the 3rd qtr. But for whatever reason, Helton feels the need to show the Trojans can pass the ball all over the place. If Cal had any type of defense, then they probably would have gotten into a unnecessary shootout with USC, because Helton doesn’t know how to take advantage of his running game. I know a win is a win, but refusing to run the ball when you should will get SC in trouble against teams with reputable defenses.

    • Not sure I agree with you completely on this. The O was adjusting to what the D was giving them. They started putting 8 in the box and playing 1v1 with no over the top safety help. You pass on that. Period. The only reason it wasn’t 50-0 by the end of 3rd qtr was Darnold’s turnovers.

    • They ran for 400 yards last night and passed for 230. Cal committed 6 to 8 people to the box all night and you have to throw sometimes. You Helton Haters just become more and more ridiculous.

        • I’ll take 400 yds rushing against anyone and I’m certainly not going to complain about it.

          • Most of all the teams that play against Cal have these rushing results including Oregon St. 474 yards

          • That’s true, but you don’t wake up the next morning complaining about rushing when you put up 400 yards last night. There are things to complain about from last night’s game, but Helton and play calling aren’t them.

            People still waiting to see an “I” formation and 3 yds with a could of dust are stone-age thinkers. None of the coaching gods they mention are doing that anymore. You can’t run good read option unless your exercising all the options. You HAVE to pass, you HAVE to hand it off and you HAVE to have your QB run and the threat of all 3 has to constantly be present. Running for 400 and passing for 230 is a great mix for us and it’s nothing AT ALL to complain about unless you’re just ignorant and prehistoric in your “thinking”.

    • Funny … though Bama is supposed to be rolling their fans ( and Saban) are concerned about Goat Kiffin doing same thing … trying to be smart and cute so the media falls for his crap. That frosh qb can only complete the infamous bubbles and occasional broken play ( Darnold).
      The day is coming when Goat and eventually Gomer have only 2 star players … ut F ing Ohhh.
      We already know what others will find out.

  15. The only reason we didn’t score 60 was because Darnold (your dream child Mr. Wolf) keeps turning the ball over. He’s good, but he needs to learn to protect the ball better or he’ll never be great.

    And it should be pointed out that we did cover the spread.

  16. I know the guy ran for over 200 yds last night, but I still have some issues with Rojo’s game. I wrote a post earlier in the year about some of his rawness and I have seen improvement on some of those things. However, on both of Rojo’s long runs he should’ve scored both times. There is no way one guy should be tackling you in the open field. On the 61 yd run in the first quarter, you HAVE to be looking at either cutting it back towards the middle of the field or faking as if you’re going to cut it back and it just depends on what the defensive player is giving you. It should be almost impossible to be tackled by one guy when you’re in space.

    There’s a missing link in the way football is taught and its elusivity. Nobody on any level really teaches you how to be elusive. Being elusive and juking people is something you pick up on the schoolyard or on the street, but it’s not something that’s specifically and systematically taught. They run some drills that are supposed to allow you to work on your moves, but they leave you to bring your own moves and they don’t tell you what you should be looking at or what you should be recognizing when you look at it. Your moves have to be convincing, but more important to elusivity is using your vision to recognize the path you want to take through the defense. Once you see the path, then every move you make is made in order to facilitate that path and make sure it’s still available when you get there. By the time a guy gets in front of you, you should already know how you’re going to get by him AND the two guys behind him. You have to be thinking several moves ahead and recognize what the defense is giving you in terms of spacing, body positions and momentum. As a runner, YOU control what the defender does and you use what he gives you to beat him. It’s too complicated for a comment section and this will be another thing people accuse me of pulling out of my as*, but I know that Rojo and all of our skill people could be taught how to run with the ball better and be more elusive. It just isn’t a part of the game that really gets addressed to the level it should be. You’d have to start out in the classroom and then the film room and then develop drills that reinforce what you’re teaching in the classroom and film room. Nobody really does this, but we should and our players and team would be better for it.

  17. Just got a little sloppy the end of the 2nd quarter (and lack of concentration) the rest of the game. I think the players felt Cal was no match and eased up in their intensity?

  18. For the umpteenth time I left at the start of the 4th but nice win Trojans. I thought we played well.

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