Inside the PFF numbers for USC's offensive performance last weekend

Clay Helton mentioned that he had told junior wide receiver Amon-Ra St. Brown not to worry about the lack of touchdowns through USC's first three games -- that the scores would come if he kept doing what he'd been doing all season.

And sure enough, St. Brown tallied a season's worth of TDs in the first quarter alone Sunday vs. Washington State, scoring four times while showcasing the versatility of his talents.

One was a simple quick slant, two showed off his sure hands and ability to beat defensive backs with minimal separation and the other came on a quick pitch as he motioned right to left before the snap and raced around the edge into the end zone.

RELATED: WATCH: Analyst Max Brown dissects Amon-Ra St. Brown's 4 TDs

Offensive coordinator Graham Harrell was asked if he ever makes it a point to get certain guys more involved, such as St. Brown in this case.

"That's kind of the beauty of what we do. I think you can look at last year as an example of that -- early on, I can remember after the first game, after Fresno last year, Amon-Ra was frustrated because the ball didn't find him much. We tried to say, 'The ball's going to find people' and at the end of the season he looks up and has over 1,000 yards receiving last year. I think that's just kind of the way the offense works," Harrell said. "You can look at, Gary [Bryant] obviously had a big game last week, and after a lot of good practices, [we felt] we've got to find ways to get him on the field and the ball's going to find him and that's what happened. You can also look at Amon-Ra last week, who had had a big year, but hadn't got in the end zone yet and then has four in the first quarter.

"Obviously the little quick pitch to him on the goal line was game-planned to just get him a touch there, but everything else was just, hey, the ball's finding the open receiver and it happened to find Amon-Ra four times for a touchdown. And that's kind of what we try to preach to these guys is just, hey, be patient, trust the process and we're going to get you on the field and then the ball's going to find you when the balls find you."

St. Brown leads the Trojans with 26 catches for 331 yards and 4 touchdowns in four games. Those per-game rates of 6.5 catches, 82.8 receiving yards and 1 TD are all career bests. (He averaged 5.9 catches and 80.2 receiving yards per game last season).

St. Brown was one of the players fans worried might opt out of this season, like NFL-bound defensive tackle Jay Tufele did, but in talking to him that never seemed to be a serious threat. St. Brown was locked in on proving he could be an effective outside receiver (he got a ton of work back in the slot this past game and has moved around all season) while in general looking to boost his draft stock.

From Harrell's perspective, he said he's seen St. Brown more locked in than ever before this year.

"I think that Amon-Ra has a really, really unique mindset and he's one of the more competitive guys I've ever been around, and I think that entering this year, like I said, it's not like last year he didn't have some killer mindset, but this year it's like gone to a new level, to be honest with you," Harrell said. "Just the way he approaches practice he goes as hard as he can go. We tell him to jog through and he's probably running the route full speed and that's just kind of his mindset and it's been his mentality this year -- 'This is a year I have something to prove.'

"He's obviously played at a lot of different spots, like we talked about. We motioned him in the backfield a couple times, he's played on the outside, he's played in the slot. I think by doing that he's able to bring value and show how versatile he really is. [Michael] Pittman kind of had that mentality last year. I think a lot of guys when they think this could be their last year in college football, the mindset -- even though both those guys probably had elite mindsets before their final year -- it just goes to a new level. ... If this is his last season, he knew that every day counts because you're competing not only with the guys in your program, but you're competing with everybody in the country when you start getting into the NFL draft and stuff. I think that's where you've seen the biggest difference in Amon-Ra -- it's kind of like that leadership role, he's not scared to speak up because he knows if this is it I want this to be a special one for me."

Meanwhile, we take our weekly deep dive into the PFF grades, snap counts and advanced stats from USC's offensive performance last weekend.

-The story of the game was the offensive line, which Harrell later revealed didn't get to practice together in any team periods all week (or the week before, really) due to the Trojans' COVID-19 situation. USC was without starting left guard Andrew Vorhees and backups Justin Dedich and Liam Douglass. True freshman Courtland Ford started in place of Vorhees and fellow freshman Jonah Monheim played most of the game at right guard after Liam Jimmons left with an elbow injury. It was the first collegiate snaps for both players. Here's the breakdown of how the offensive line performed and graded out in different categories.

-A major positive is that despite not working together in practice as a unit, the USC offensive line wasn't whistled for any penalties against Washington State.

-The Trojans also rotated in some other young linemen late in the game as freshman LT Casey Collier and redshirt freshman right guard Jason Rodriguez played 2 snaps each.

-Quarterback Kedon Slovis' 92.7 PFF grade was not only his highest of the season but the highest of his college career. He had one other game grade in the 90s (90.5 vs. Cal last season). He completed 18 straight passes at one point and finished 25 of 32 for 287 yards, 5 touchdowns and 0 interceptions before letter Matt Fink close out the game. Most impressive in breaking down the advanced stats, Slovis was 4 of 4 on passes more than 20 yards downfield for 108 yards and 2 TDs, including his absolutely perfect dime to Tyler Vaughns down the sideline for a 35-yard scoring strike. He also handled pressure well. Here's a closer look at how his passing plays broke down:

-As for the wide receivers, Drake London had a team-high 5 catches for 92 yards, Vaughns finished with 5 catches for 69 yards and the TD, St. Brown had 7 catches for 65 yards and the 4 TDs, Gary Bryant Jr. caught a season-best 4 passes for 31 yards and Bru McCoy had 1 catch for 8 yards. Here's a breakdown of how each WR handled his targets:

-It was the most extended action yet for Bryant, the speedy 4-star freshman who had 1 short catch entering the week. He talked about his development so far this season.

"Just learning, learning different techniques and things from the guys. You know, obviously TV's an older guy, St. Brown, he's been here for a while. Learning what they do and learning how they do it has been good on my end so when I'm their age I'll know the ins and outs of it, and just being there behind them, they just teach me to win," he said.

The 5-foot-11, 170-pound slot weapon said one of his takeaways from this season is that he needs to get bigger and stronger in the offseason.

"One thing I can do is just get bigger. Something else I work on, just evolving my game and learning the plays inside and out, being out there, being comfortable, knowing what's going to be called and just being out there to play loose," he said. "I got a pretty good feel of that last week when we played against Washington State and it feels pretty good learning the plays and being out there. So having another year under my belt and knowing the plays like the back of my hand it will be pretty easy for me."

Bryant was USC's highest-rated signee in the 2020 recruiting class, but he he was slowed by injury in the preseason.

"Early on he had kind of been nicked up, so unfortunately with spring ball getting cancelled and he didn't get to go through a ton of fall camp just because of little tweaks, he didn't get to get the reps that he necessarily needed early on," Harrell said. "But as he's gotten healthy he's been back and getting more and more reps in practice, you see he's got a special skill set."

-Much was made about USC finishing with just 5 net rushing yards. That included lost sack yardage, so really the it was 16 carries for 25 yards. Definitely not good. We covered that in-depth here. So there's not much to report here on the running backs, but here's the breakdown nonetheless.

-Most telling from that, it was the first time the Trojans used a balanced four-way split. Kenan Christon had been the odd man out when the other three were healthy. Perhaps there was some frustration expressed behind the scenes that led to the adjustment, or the coaches just decided the sophomore speedster deserved his shot.