USC came away with a victory on Saturday afternoon against Rutgers in Piscataway, New Jersey, winning 42-35 to improve their record to 4-0 on the season. Although USC was able to come away with the win, it was by no means pretty to start off conference play.
If there is one positive thing to take away from this game, it’s the improvements within the rushing offense. Last season, USC struggled with injuries in their running back room making it difficult to establish the run game against more physical opponents. This year, the room is both healthy and deep, with third string freshman back Riley Wormley making his case to move up the depth chart.
USC’s running backs looked great all game, with redshirt sophomore King Miller finishing the game with 102 yards rushing and a touchdown. Redshirt senior back Waymond Jordan was also key in picking up essential short yardage first downs.
While Miller and Jordan are the usual stars, Wormley was also a huge asset in this game, providing a spark off the bench in the second half. He finished the game with 52 rushing yards and two total touchdowns.
“They are two of our strongest competitors on the team [and] two guys you never have to worry about their effort or their physicality or their competitiveness,” head coach Lincoln Riley said during a postgame press conference.
In this game, redshirt senior quarterback Jayden Maiava struggled on offense for his standard throwing for 277 yards and two touchdowns. While the pass game was off, it was the perfect time for the run game to pick up and lead the Trojans to a must-win victory.
Another light on offense was sophomore wide receiver Corey Simms, who finished the game with four receptions for 72 yards and a touchdown. On his touchdown scoring play, he saved a jump ball pass from Maiava and snatched it out of the air en-route to score a 52 yard touchdown.
The Trojans offense was solid this week, but struggled with several penalties at poor times, which was a point of emphasis for head coach Lincoln Riley after last week’s game against Louisiana.
On the Trojans’ very first drive, they were progressing down the field with a 20 yard run from Miller and followed that play with a 19 yard swing pass to Jordan.
After that sequence, however, redshirt sophomore wide receiver Zacharyus Williams committed a holding penalty which was followed by a false start from senior offensive linemen Alani Noa to back the Trojans up to first and 25. They were never truly able to recover from there, but obtained a field goal out of the drive from redshirt sophomore kicker Caden Chittenden.
Minimizing these unforced penalties will be crucial for the Trojans as they get deeper into conference play against tougher opponents. If they cannot execute in smaller games, it will be extremely difficult to win in tough environments like Penn State and Indiana where the margin of error is small.
On the defensive side of the ball, a clutch interception from senior safety Christian Pierce set the USC offense up on the next drive where they converted with back-to-back Miller runs to get into the endzone. Pierce ended the first half with four tackles.
Throughout the rest of the first half, Rutgers seemed to have all of the momentum. Despite the Scarlet Knights finishing the half down 20-14, the Trojans had no answer for junior receiver KJ Duff who finished the first half with a touchdown.
There were some bright spots with the pick six from redshirt senior safety Prophet Brown and Pierce’s interceptions, but the Trojan defense was brutal. The usually strong pass attack was less of a factor this game and the Rutgers offense was able to continuously throw passes over the middle.
“I would look more at some of the individual breakdowns,” Riley said “We obviously had to play with a lot of different guys in the secondary, but when we get teams behind the chains we got to do a better job of making them pay.”
If the secondary continues to play soft coverage and allow easy passes over the middle, more talented offensives will eat the Trojans alive. There needs to be some sort of pressure so that the opposing offense is more likely to make a mistake.
USC is set to take on the No. 21 Oregon Ducks next week in the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum, where they will look to lean on their rushing offense again to free up their star wide receivers. None of this will matter, however, unless the Trojans sharpen up on the defensive side of the ball.
Edited by Sammie Vassallo and Adriana Brady