USC is two games into its adjusted offensive line alignment with Jarrett Kingston at right tackle and Mason Murphy at right guard.

The results weren't quite as smooth vs. Cal as they looked the previous week against Utah, but it still seems like the right grouping to go with moving forward.

This line has been talked about as a work in progress all season, but with just three regular-season games left and stakes escalated the rest of the way, the time is now for the USC offensive line to find the consistency it's lacked for much of the fall.

"It's been very positive these last two games," center Justin Dedich said. "The Utah game was a really good performance, vs. Cal we had a couple pressure issues in the pocket, but overall I was proud of the group. We're growing. We did pretty well as a unit, especially in that fourth quarter when we needed it most."

As we do each week, we deliver our own assessment of the O-line's performance from our detailed film review ...

(Note, PFF grades on a scale of 0-100 with the mid-70s reflecting above average performance, the 80s very good performance and grades in the 90s are rare and elite.)

LT Jonah Monheim (84 snaps): While the PFF grade doesn’t show Monheim had a strong performance, he actually did. He was very consistent as usual. While he struggled with the speed rush, as he has done all season, that was really the only big problem he had in this game. He lost his defender now and then but when you play 84 snaps in a game, slip-ups are going to happen. This was a strong performance by Monheim, and the Trojans need him to continue to be the steady lineman he has this whole season if they are going to have any chance of making the conference championship this year.

PFF grade at Cal: 60.0 overall, 58.0 run blocking / 73.5 pass blocking

Stats: 2 pressures (0 sacks) and 1 penalty

LG Emmanuel Pregnon (84 snaps): This was not Pregnon’s sharpest game of the season. USC needs Pregnon to forget this game and get himself back to being the physical lineman that was getting better and better each week. The problem with Pregnon is his issues are inconsistent. He had trouble driving defenders off the ball. He had issues losing his defenders early in his blocks. There is a lot he needs to clean up in practice.

PFF grade at Cal: 65.2 overall, 64.9 run blocking / 83.4 pass blocking

Stats: 0 pressures and 1 penalty

C Justin Dedich (84 snaps): This was an average game for Dedich. He didn't do anything special but had his stumbles in the game, like his two penalties. The holding penalty was, in my opinion, a bad call by the referees, and the false start penalty is just bad discipline. It is very strange how undisciplined Dedich has been this year compared to his previous seasons at USC. The Trojans will need their leader to clean up his penalties and be an overall net positive.

PFF grade at Cal: 59.0 overall, 61.5 run blocking / 60.1 pass blocking

Stats: 3 pressures (0 sacks) and 2 penalties

RG Mason Murphy (84 snaps): This was a bad game for Murphy. Worst performance of the season for him. He really struggled to get any push off the line of scrimmage. That is the reason why the Trojans decided to throw him inside, to get more push off the line of scrimmage. He did it well vs. Utah, but this was a setback. While Washington doesn’t have the best defense, Murphy still needs to get in great reps and continue to improve during the week and get more and more comfortable with this grouping. While this was a bad game for Murphy, I expect him to bounce back against Washington.

PFF grade at Cal: 55.8 overall, 56.8 run blocking / 62.3 pass blocking

Stats: 3 pressures (0 sacks) and 1 penalty

RT Jarrett Kingston (75 snaps): This was another improved performance out of Kingston. This is a lot better than what he was doing at guard. He still had his troubles this game holding onto his blocks and struggled in pass protection. Pass protection at tackle is so different then it is at guard. The different skill set is something that will get better with each rep he takes at tackle. The 5 pressures against Kingston are alarming, but I’m not sure all off those are really against him. For example, the sack PFF pins on Kingston is really on Murphy as I explain below. I’m confident he will figure out that problem. He was replaced by Michael Tarquin for a couple of series early on in the first half and I'm not sure why they made that switch and why it was so short of a switch as they went right back to Kingston. I think USC needs to ride with Kingston at tackle and hope he can figure out his issues as I think he is just the better lineman over Tarquin. If USC wants a chance at beating Washington and possibly beating Oregon on the road, they need him to improve.

PFF grade at Cal: 54.6 overall, 54.1 run blocking / 52.7 pass blocking

Stats: 5 pressures (including 1 sack) and 1 penalty

Here were our detailed notes from each series ...

1st Series: LT Jonah Monheim, LG Emmanuel Pregnon, C Justin Dedich, RG Mason Murphy, RT Jarrett Kingston