First-and-10: Top 10 takeaways from our film review of USC's loss to Utah

USC is at a crossroads in its season, coming off back-to-back losses -- one stunning in its one-sidedness, the other stinging in how it ended -- with its College Football Playoff hopes looking dashed.

The path is most certainly there for the No. 24-ranked Trojans to play their way into the Pac-12 championship game with pivotal games against conference favorites Washington and Oregon ahead, but that would require a different level of performance than this team has shown in a while.

In dissecting the film of USC's 34-32 loss to Utah on a field goal in the final seconds, we focused more on big-picture takeaways that were further illuminated and magnified in this defeat.

From there being something off with quarterback Caleb Williams, questions about the run game usage, our opinion that USC is starting the wrong linebackers, curious decisions within the defensive front and some due praise for the defensive backs, we cover it all in the weekly First-and-10 -- our 10 most significant takeaways from the Trojans' performance.

Caleb Williams is not himself.

For weeks, I’ve pointed out that the reigning Heisman winner has been showing uncharacteristic lapses in his game -- missed reads, shaky accuracy, and generally questionable decision-making. All along, I’ve held to the belief that Williams was stuck in some kind of minor mental rut that he’d soon pop back out of, and I was quite certain if there was to be a game that brought him back to form, it would be this one, with all the stakes of vengeance in play and the Trojans’ season on the line. But after what we saw last Saturday, I can say clearly (and with no pleasure) that right now, Williams simply isn’t the player he was last year.

Until a few weeks ago, you could take for granted that Williams was going to always be the best player on the field; that his accuracy would be near spotless, that his pocket presence would be immaculate, that he would always find the right place to go with the football, and that he’d reliably keep the ball out of harm’s way. After weeks full of concerning moments, against Utah Williams reached a point where he could not be relied upon for any of those things. Rewatching the tape, I was stunned at what I saw.

Though the physical talent is the same as ever, it was clear to see that something is deeply broken in Williams’ mental approach to playing the game right now. Most ruinous for the Trojans offense was the indecision that seems to have flooded his game, manifesting snap after snap as he inexplicably refused to fire the ball to receivers who came open. On many a play that wound up a sack, throw away or scramble for some yardage, Williams locked onto receivers coming open in the rhythm of the called play and simply declined to fire the football. On more than a handful of occasions, you could actually see him winding up to throw before awkwardly turning it into a pump fake and trying to readjust to another target. Some of those windows may have been tight, but a quarterback of his caliber has to have the confidence and talent to put those balls where they need to be.

Though we know Williams to be fully capable of doing just that, time and time again, he allowed route concepts to shrivel up and die as a result of his hesitation before attempting to conjure something out of thin air. Unfortunately for him, the Utes’ defense was well prepared to cover downfield on extended plays, leaving him with little to do but attempt a scramble, throw it away or take a bad sack. It’s not that his receivers weren’t getting open in the designed play calls; Williams just wasn’t decisive enough to hit them.

On a first down in the third quarter, he faced early pressure and rolled to the right with his eyes downfield, looking to make a throw as receivers crossed over to his side. Both MarShawn Lloyd and Lake McRee flashed over the middle of the field, right into his line of sight -- Lloyd in particular was about 15 yards down the field surrounded by nothing but green grass. Williams had an easy first down if he wanted to go to his tight end and a potential touchdown if he just fired it to his wide-open running back, but he instead chose to continue running toward the sideline before firing the ball out of bounds. My jaw was on the floor watching that play, as I couldn’t begin to fathom what could have held the reigning Heisman winner back from taking advantage of such an opportunity. But that was the story of the game -- all night long, instead of making something out of nothing as we’ve grown so accustomed to him doing, Williams turned promising chances into nothings, wasting away precious snaps due to a lack of decisiveness.

For all the problems USC had elsewhere in this game, I have to say that it was Williams’ play that lost it for them. Last year’s version of Williams would have torn up the field to the tune of multiple touchdowns and near 400 yards given the opportunities he was presented with in this contest; it was all there for the taking, despite the strength of Utah’s defense. Even on the Trojans' penultimate drive, Williams had a chance to put his team firmly ahead to complete the comeback on a third-and-4 deep in the red zone; instead, he almost comically let the football slip straight out of his hand as he wound back to throw, falling upon the fumble for a big loss of yardage, which would then force a field goal.

We hold Williams to such a high standard because he’s proven over a large sample size that he’s capable of being the best quarterback in college football by a significant margin, thanks to his physical abilities and his tremendous mental and instinctual feel for the game. The hopes for this year’s USC team were entirely predicated on the assumption of his excellence, with the hope that just enough around him would be enough to take the squad to the next level. Instead, Williams has regressed in the biggest of moments -- and mightily. The player we saw on the field Saturday and at Notre Dame is a shell of the Caleb Williams we know; something is deeply broken in his play on the field right now. I can’t begin to guess at what that is and why it’s happening, but whatever it is has dealt a fatal blow to the Trojans’ season. Williams’ mental struggles will seriously limit the ceiling of this offense no matter how much else around him goes well, and it should be the undisputed priority of Lincoln Riley and his staff to get him right if there’s to be any hope of salvaging something of this season. We know the otherworldly excellence the young quarterback is capable of producing, and even against Utah we saw many glimpses of it, including on the stunner of a deep touchdown he threw early to Tahj Washington. All the same, until Williams is able to recapture his groove and find his confidence again, this team is in trouble.

It’s ironic that we can so clearly say that the offense’s struggles in this game largely fell on Williams’ shoulders, because if you’d asked anyone last week they would have told you that it was the struggles of the offensive line that would be destined to doom this offense against Utah. After all, the line was abysmal against Notre Dame, unable to run block or pass protect, leading to a total breakdown of the offense. Matched up against a Utes defensive line that might be even better than that one, it was entirely reasonable to expect the Trojans front to find itself hopelessly outmatched. Incredibly, that couldn’t have been further from the truth.

Despite incurring a few frustrating penalties of the sort they’ve drawn all year, the offensive line’s performance in this game was very good -- easily their best of the year. The group was extremely stout against a Utah pass rush that’s been one of the best in the country, consistently giving Williams clean pockets that remained intact for as much time as could be hoped. The PFF grades reflect as much -- the entire starting offensive line received pass blocking marks of over 78 for the night, with three of them notching grades above 80. The pressures (4!) and sacks (3) given up were far more a result of poor decision-making by Williams than bad blocking up front.

The group was nearly as impressive in the running game, despite their utter implosion in that area just the week prior. Matched up against the Utes’ elite rush defense, USC’s offensive line rose to the challenge as it came out controlling the ground game from the very start. On the first two drives of the game, the team handed the ball off 6 times for 83 yards and 2 touchdowns as the guys up front blasted defenders off the ball, creating sizable lanes for the Trojans’ runners. Though the play-calling went away from the run later in the game, they ended the game with 145 yards and 3 touchdowns on the ground despite just 23 carries for the night; by far the best efficiency any team has managed against the stingy Utah run defense all year.

From top to bottom, this was a stellar performance by the offensive line, not just a good one. Heading into this game, there was serious concern about whether or not this group would be the liability that would lead to the unraveling of USC’s season. Just one week later, after switching Mason Murphy to right guard and Jarrett Kingston to right tackle and totally dominating one of the nation’s best defensive fronts, it’s clear the unit is capable of playing football of the highest quality. Their inconsistency in previous weeks and their penchant for drawing flags remains a concern, but to do what this unit did against Utah’s defense speaks to the fact that it's capable of performing at a very high level. As a unit, the offensive line takes my vote for the most impressive performance of this game for the Trojans.