By Kyle Golik
It was a tale of two halves in Boulder today.
The first tale told saw a Southern California Trojans team motivated to make a big statement to Colorado, Coach Prime, and the A-List celebrities visiting Boulder that are usually reserved for the Men of Troy in Los Angeles. It was also one where a much-maligned defense was ready to play. The Trojans were up 41-14 and 48-21 with commanding 27-point leads and were looking to put an exclamation point on their statement win versus Deion Sanders and the nation.
While not the dominant display we saw last week for an Oregon defense that suffocated Colorado until they let up, the Trojan defense played well enough. The Trojans surrendered 242 first-half yards, forced a turnover, and allowed only 12 first downs. It seemed defensive coordinator Alex Grinch had an aggressive plan and his defense responded well with three sacks and eight tackles for loss led by their revamped defensive line which suffocated Colorado early.
The second tale is one that has many similar volumes written about it in the Lincoln Riley and Alex Grinch partnership. One that points to a defense that either self-destructs or in this case almost self-destructed.
In the second half, it was Colorado who made timely adjustments outscored Southern Cal 27-14 and dominated the struggling Trojans’ defense.
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Riley mentioned in postgame that it was the touchdown Colorado scored to make it 34-14 that turned the tide. His defensive line had been suffocating Colorado quarterback Shedeur Sanders and dominated and then all of sudden couldn’t contain the elusive Colorado quarterback.
Colorado exposed Grinch’s defense outgaining Southern Cal 306 to 165 in the second half. That included Heisman Trophy winner Caleb Williams’ first interception of the season, and the Buffaloes’ offense successfully moved the ball gaining 20 second-half first downs on the Trojans defense compared to Williams and company only getting eight.
What averted another defensive second-half collapse for the Trojans was some questionable coaching decisions by Sanders. It was Sanders’ frivolous use of second-half timeouts that came back to bite him at the end of the game.
Other Sanders coaching miscues came for Colorado on its final offensive possession where the Buffaloes demonstrated no sense of urgency and overall poor time management for the rookie Power 5 coach.
Riley’s Trojans were saved by Colorado’s mistakes but it does not absolve his defense from fault or blame. Since Riley’s days at Oklahoma and his partnership with Grinch, this is another game to add to the case that Southern California won’t win their conference and make the College Football Playoff.
It seemed the Trojans were complacent going up 48-21 and allowed Colorado to push them to the brink. On the day, Colorado outgained Southern Cal 564 to 498 on the day, as well with edges in first downs (32 to 26) and time of possession (32:05 to 27:55).
Any chance for Riley and Trojans to make the College Football Playoff is its continued reliance on Caleb Williams, who had another Heisman statement game himself on the day completing 75% of his passes on 30 for 40 passing for 403 yards and six touchdowns with an interception.
The ground game for the Trojans was effective when they were called upon. Riley seemed to forget he had MarShawn Lloyd who after his 27-yard touchdown run on the Trojans’ opening possession was seldom used.
MarShawn Lloyd’s cutback pays off w/ a trip into the endzone.#USC #Trojans #FightOn✌?pic.twitter.com/j18O7F7qka
— Whamshki (@whamshki) September 30, 2023
While Riley mentioned in his postgame thoughts, the offensive line wasn’t winning many battles against the Colorado defensive line, he completely ignored Lloyd.
Lloyd is a weapon Riley needs to leverage more and get his backs more involved in the offense, one of the main reasons Southern Cal self-destructed on offense last year was when Travis Dye went out with an injury Austin Jones wasn’t effective enough to complement Williams and Jones finished today with a forgettable three carries for six yards.
Riley postgame acknowledged the two tales, he felt they had their best half during the first half, it was a meltdown in all three phases in the second half. While Troy exhales after this scare, it is still the same questions that hinder Southern Cal from a national championship being too reliant on offense and a defense that cannot make plays when they need to.
Until Riley has solutions to these questions, Southern Cal will always be a fun team to watch but not a championship team.
