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You have to wonder if ‘Dr. Saturday’ is even watching the games, as he makes the case here that USC’s current offensive problems are basically about turnovers and penalties.
No mention that the numbers put up so far have been against the weakest part of the Trojan schedule. USC is averaging 19.3 ppg the last three games and if you take away that last drive against Ohio State in the final minutes, it falls to 16.6 for a unit that returned nine starters from 2008 (also, two of USC’s scores against WSU came off of an onside kick and a turnover inside the Cougar 30). The Trojans are one of the worst teams in the country at third down conversions. But why get into that? Much easier to slap some selective numbers together to ‘prove’ that the latest edition of the USC offense compares to recent ones.
On most front (sic), they’re extremely competitive, actually. The numbers that really stand out are the per-play margins: Through four games, this relatively maligned group is outgaining by more yards per play and more yards per carry — it’s not even close on yards per carry — than any of Carroll’s previous five teams, and outgaining them per pass by more than all but last year’s dominant outfit. The gaping yards-per-carry margin makes very clear just how physically dominant the ’09 team has been in the trenches.
Calling last year’s USC offense a dominant outfit is an interesting claim when you consider that it failed to score more than 21 points three times on the year and couldn’t pass 30 five times (and most of the healthy margins cited are due to the dominance of the defense, which really held back the yardage output of opponents).
When you take away the 125 points the Trojans scored against Washington and Washington State–two of the worst teams in college football–USC averaged a pedestrian 33 points per game in 2008 despite fielding one of the most talented offenses in college football, led by a top five NFL pick at quarterback.
I’m not sure how anyone with a brain can watch the current USC offense and conclude that the problem is merely due to turnovers and penalties.
