As there isn’t much else to scrutinize about this high-scoring USC offense, led by Heisman winner Caleb Williams at quarterback and littered with top-end playmakers all over the field, the Trojans’ offensive line is the variable that will determine just how productive this unit can be.
So each week of the season we are reviewing the film and delivering our own assessment of the offensive line’s performance.
The Trojans were exceptional in run blocking in their 42-28 win over the Sun Devils, paving the way for 213 rushing yards on 7.3 yards per carry.
The pass protection was a different story …
"I mean, solid, not great,” OL coach Josh Henson said. “I thought Jonah [Monheim] uncharacteristically missed some guys around the edge. You know, it was just OK. We can be better.”
Monheim has been the rock for the unit while the two guard spots, now manned full-time by Emmanuel Pregnon and Jarrett Kingston, have been the areas needing continued development.
“Progressed well from Week 1 to Week 5 now. I think there's been a lot of improvement,” Henson said. “There's a lot of improvement still to make. We've got to play with our hands better, we've got to control people better. We can't let guys that we're blocking separate from blocks and make tackles. That's really our challenge for our two guys interior wise. A lot of those other things they've continued to progress and get better at, but that's something I know we've been working on and it will be a challenge with these guys this week.”
The biggest issue at Arizona State, though, was the operational issues, from false starts to delay of game to generally looking out of sorts in the early going.
“We had some cadence things, we addressed those, and I think it’s just our first time in that atmosphere. As coaches, I've got to do a better job preparing them for that and we've got to do abetter job of handling it,” Henson said. “Obviously, we'll be in one of those again Saturday."
With that said, here is what we saw on film from USC’s O-line performance last weekend …
(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 (62 snaps): As all USC fans know, this was a bad game for the team overall, but this was Monheim’s worst performance of the year. It was an inconsistent game from USC’s best lineman. He got beat multiple times in multiple ways. He got beat on the inside, got beat on the outside, and even got beat on the bull rush. The bull rush has always been an issue for Monheim, but as his career has gone along, he was gotten much stronger so he can handle the bull rushes better. Linemen get beat every now and then. That’s football, but the speed rush against Monheim is his consistent issue. The edge rusher was just faster than Monheim so he used that to his advantage and made the left tackle’s night tough. The Trojans need him to bounce back against Colorado as that is a must win game.
PFF grade at Arizona State: 67.3 overall, 62.6 run blocking / 72.4 pass blocking
Stats: 3 pressures allowed, including 1 sack, 0 penalties
LG Emmanuel Pregnon (62 snaps): This was probably Pregnon’s best performance as a Trojan. He actually looked really good pulling, which was very surprising to see. However, sometimes he wouldn’t completely engage in a block. Meaning instead of hitting a defender and staying on him, he would just charge in and get a good hit on the guy and watch him bounce off. He was actually one of the only linemen to drive defenders back somewhat consistently off the line of scrimmage. He would get beat once in a while, but he always adjusted. As mentioned in the play-by-play recap down below, he had one play where he went backward to get his missed assignment rather than go downfield and find someone to hit. That’s a pure coaching moment for Henson to yell at him in film review.
PFF grade at Arizona State: 61.9 overall, 62.8 run blocking / 77.6 pass blocking
Stats: 1 pressure allowed, 1 penalty
C Justin Dedich (62 snaps): Blocking-wise, Dedich did fine. He struggles to get a push off the line of scrimmage, but that is something USC knows about Dedich. Not the biggest guy, but he works hard and has done a fine job. But his penalties are starting to become an issue. His five penalties this season is already a season-high for a guy who is usually pretty disciplined. The two false start penalties last Saturday are just a killer for a team looking for momentum. These are just careless penalties that can be easily avoided. False start penalties frustrate coaches so much because it’s just bad discipline. A holding penalty is bad, but that happens from time to time. Dedich has played in much more hostile environments so he needs to get over the pressure of playing center in away games quick as he is going to be playing in the biggest home Colorado game this season so they are going to be twice as hostile.
PFF grade at Arizona State: 57.6 overall, 65.4 run blocking / 64.0 pass blocking
Stats: 1 pressure allowed, 2 penalties
RG Jarrett Kingston (62 snaps): Kingston is a hard lineman to truly figure out. The thought was Kingston cleaned up his act before the bye week and was going to be the best lineman on the team not named Jonah Monheim. That has certainly not been the case. He struggles to drive defenders off the line of scrimmage, sometimes missing defenders completely. Kingston gets lucky at times where he will lose his defender, but the mistake doesn’t get magnified because the running back was able to avoid him. Being on a team with this many top-of-the-line skill players lets you get away with that. The first three series of the game, he was easily the best lineman on the team, besides the brutal fourth-and-2 false start, which again he got away with because of the brilliance of Caleb Williams. Josh Henson preaches consistency, but that is something we have not seen from Kingston.
PFF grade at Arizona State: 56.6 overall, 58.2 run blocking / 65.5 pass blocking
Stats: 3 pressures allowed, 1 penalty
RT Michael Tarquin (48 snaps): This game was probably the worst game for Tarquin this season. He was able to get to the second level with success multiple times but struggled to drive defenders off the line of scrimmage. The two pressures, which included one sack, were both pass protection where he would get beat to the outside and pushed back into Williams, causing him to either scramble or go down in a sack. Even though this was his worst performance of the season, he was still probably the best lineman this week.
PFF grade AT Arizona State: 63.1 overall, 55.3 run blocking / 74.6 pass blocking
Stats: 2 pressures allowed, including 1 sack, 0 penalties
RT Mason Murphy (14 snaps): It’s hard to truly grade Mason Murphy as he only got 14 snaps in the game, however he was in the last touchdown scoring series, which could be something of note. He gets a little “shove heavy” when it comes to run blocking, which is something we don’t like to see. I would much rather have my lineman engage in the block and truly drive someone back. In pass protection, even though he got a horrible PFF grade, he looked fine. The one pressure he gave up isn’t really a pressure. He got pushed back multiple times in pass protection, but he always was able to anchor down and make sure the defender doesn’t affect the play. We need to see more snaps from Murphy. Fourteen snaps isn’t truly enough to evaluate him vs Tarquin, who had 48 snaps. Henson noted he wants to continue to get him game reps.
PFF grade AT Arizona State: 66.7 overall, 69.1 run blocking / 46.7 pass blocking
Stats: 1 pressure allowed, 0 penalties
Here’s more detail from what stood out on film.
1st series: LT Jonah Monheim, LG Emmanuel Pregnon, C Justin Dedich, RG Jarrett Kingston, RT Michael Tarquin
-Second play of the drive, a free defensive lineman comes in and bites on the option and goes straight for MarShawn Lloyd. Caleb Williams pulls the ball back and goes to the right, but the play gets blown up by a surprise blitz by the corner no one saw coming. Good defensive play call.
-Third play of the drive is a false start by Dedich.
-Fourth play of the drive is a very questionable delay of game call.
-Fifth play of the drive, Monheim does a good job of adjusting as the defender cuts inside, but Monheim is able to power to the side, so he doesn’t affect the play.
-Seventh play of the drive, Monheim and Pregnon pull to the right and make crucial blocks against their defenders, opening a hole for Lloyd to run 18 yards.
-Eighth play of the drive, Kingston blocks his defender when he pulls to the right and Tarquin comes in after him and cleans up on the defender as he starts to get loose, but all that doesn’t matter because Lloyd bounces it to the right for another 17 yards.
-Eleventh play of the drive, Pregnon starts to lose his defender to the inside, but he was able to sandwich him into Dedich’s defender, sort of corralling them together like cattle. Williams was able to step to the left and make the throw to Brenden Rice for 6 yards and a first down.
-Twelfth play of the drive, Pregnon misses his defender, but not only that, he turns around to go after him instead of going up field and trying to find someone to block. Turning around to get your assigned defender normally doesn’t help the play, rather it’s another player the running back has to avoid. Lloyd was able to jump cut and make it to the 1-yard line.
(Drive ends in a 1-yard touchdown run by Caleb Williams)
2nd series: LT Jonah Monheim, LG Emmanuel Pregnon, C Justin Dedich, RG Jarrett Kingston, RT Michael Tarquin
-The potential on the first play was at the very least a massive run. The play looked like a read option for Williams to either hand it off to Lloyd or keep it and either run or pass. Williams looks to hand the ball off but Lloyd thought Williams was keeping it while the QB intended to let the RB take it, so the ball falls of the ground and Arizona State jumps on it for a big turnover.
(Drive ends in a turnover via fumble by Caleb Williams/MarShawn Lloyd.)
3rd series: LT Jonah Monheim, LG Emmanuel Pregnon, C Justin Dedich, RG Jarrett Kingston, RT Michael Tarquin
-The first two plays of the drive the offensive line truly gives Williams all day to throw, especially the second play where he can sit back and then step up to make a 16-yard completion to Michael Jackson III.
-Third play of the drive was a mess for the offensive line. The only linemen who block their assignment well is Kingston Pregnon, who actually has a nice block driving his defender past Williams. Tarquin starts to get beat to the outside and gets pushed toward Williams. Monheim gets beat immediately to the inside giving the defender pretty much a free lane on Williams. Williams was able to step up, but no one got open. He ends up scrambling up the middle but gets stopped for no gain. Just a bad play for the offensive line and the wide receivers for not getting open.
-Fifth play of the drive, Kingston and Tarquin pull to the right for a screen pass to Austin Jones. They end up not doing anything as Jones ran through the hole before they could engage their defenders. If Jones slowed down for a half second and waited for the linemen to engage with their defenders, it could have been a much bigger run.
-Sixth play of the drive, the offensive line does their job. One note, though -- Monheim’s defender gets past him pretty quickly, so he decides to go up field and help Tarquin with his linebacker. It was a good move as Tarquin was starting to block his defender into the hole.
-Seventh play of the drive, the offensive line keeps defenders on the line of scrimmage besides Monheim. He gets driven back and starts to get beat to the outside. The defender gets close enough to Williams to hit him and knock the ball loose.
-Eighth play of the drive, it’s a tough false start by Pregnon. He sees more pressure coming up to the line and he jumps.
-Tenth play of the drive is a crucial false start by Kingston, pushing the fourth-and-2 back to 4th and 7.
(Drive ends in a 43-yard touchdown pass to Brenden Rice.)
4th series: LT Jonah Monheim, LG Emmanuel Pregnon, C Justin Dedich, RG Jarrett Kingston, RT Mason Murphy
-First play of the drive, Pregnon pulls to the right even though it’s in pass protection and gets a good hit on the edge rusher. That gave Williams extra time to hit Dorian Singer for 14 yards.
-Second play of the drive gets 7 yards, but it could have been better. Murphy gets a little shove happy, meaning he didn’t truly engage his blocker, he just keeps shoving him. Kingston struggled to drive his defender downfield. Pregnon and Monheim pull to the right and execute their blocks, although Pregnon only chips his defender.
-Third play of the drive, Murphy pulls to the left and makes a crucial block on his defender and it was a great one. The entire offensive line does its job extremely well; only tight end Lake McRee missed his defender, who didn’t even affect the play.
-Fourth play of the drive, Kingston loses his defender at the end and makes first contact with McRee. That’s because the defender had his hands in the face of Kingston and got a penalty against him.
(Drive ends in a 1-yard touchdown run by Caleb Williams.)
5th series: LT Jonah Monheim, LG Emmanuel Pregnon, C Justin Dedich, RG Jarrett Kingston, RT Michael Tarquin
-First play of the drive, offensive line does a good job, though Monheim starts to get beat and the defender gets close to Williams, but it doesn’t affect the play.
-Second play of the drive, it’s a perfect play call. It’s an easy run up the middle, but the defensive line rushes to the backfield immediately, opening the hole WIDE OPEN with Kingston as a lead blocker. The run goes for 16 yards.
-Third play of the drive, Tarquin gets beat to the outside but that doesn’t make Williams scramble. This is more of a coverage scramble as the offensive line, besides Tarquin, help their defenders away from Williams.
-Fourth play of the drive, both tackles get beat to the outside causing Williams to step up in the pocket to make the throw.
-Fifth play of the drive, Monheim gets beat to the outside again, causing Williams to scramble out of the pocket. Before he does that, the defender gets his hands on Williams, but he was able to escape. This play ended in an incomplete pass -- McRee was wide open, but Williams decided to throw it to a well defended Rice.
(Drive ends in a 49-yard punt by Eddie Czaplicki.)
SECOND HALF
6th series: LT Jonah Monheim, LG Emmanuel Pregnon, C Justin Dedich, RG Jarrett Kingston, RT Michael Tarquin
-First play of the drive, Dedich gets beat to the outside right off the bat, but it doesn’t affect the play. USC got lucky because Monheim didn’t know the play and started to run up field before Williams threw the ball.
-Second play of the drive, the offensive line does a great job giving Williams time for the play to develop. Pregnon starts to lose his defender to the outside toward the end of the play, but Williams was able to get the ball off.
-Third play of the drive, Dedich whiffs on his defender, causing Williams to scramble. Dedich came back and got a shot at the defender, giving Williams more time to make the pass for 20-yards.
-Fourth play of the drive, Kingston takes a horrible angle to the defender and he ends up making the play. Another note, Dedich gets no push off the line of scrimmage, while Pregnon drives his defender back multiple yards.
-Sixth play of the drive is a tough one for the offense itself. I think this was a bad call by Lincoln Riley. Arizona State is showing six defenders coming with pressure, but USC only has the five offensive linemen for protection. They should have called McRee down to the line of scrimmage for additional protection. If not that, then it should have been a quick pass. Instead, it’s a multiple step drop for Williams and they show all six blitzing, except one of the middle linebackers rushes until he is right in front of Dedich, then falls back, leaving Dedich free to help block the other two interior defensive linemen. With Dedich free, that means someone has a free lane for Williams. That would be the right edge rusher. Williams steps up but gets caught on Tarquin and his defender as Tarquin was driven back. Very bad play for the Trojans.
(Drive ends in a 53-yard field goal by Denis Lynch.)
7th Series: LT Jonah Monheim, LG Emmanuel Pregnon, C Justin Dedich, RG Jarrett Kingston, RT Mason Murphy
-First play of the drive, Dedich isn’t quick enough to get to his defender, but that doesn’t affect the run at all. The rest of the offensive line do their jobs, but the 43-yard run was all on Lloyd’s explosive skill.
-Second play of the drive, Murphy gets pushed back but is able to recover and not affect Williams at all.
-Fourth play of the drive, both Monheim and Lloyd do a great job of adjusting. Monheim pulled to the right, but his assigned defender was already blocked. He ended up making the adjustment on the fly and blocking a free defender, while Lloyd sat back and waited for Monheim to engage the defender.
-Fifth play of the drive, Murphy gets beat to the outside, but Williams already threw the ball to Lloyd.
(Drive ends in a 36-yard field goal by Denis Lynch.)
8th series: LT Jonah Monheim, LG Emmanuel Pregnon, C Justin Dedich, RG Jarrett Kingston, RT Michael Tarquin
-First play of the drive, Kingston and Tarquin fail to drive their respected defender off the line of scrimmage. Dedich also takes a bad angle on the linebacker, who makes first contact with Lloyd.
-Second play of the drive, Monheim gets pushed back again, almost into Williams, but he gets the throw off before contact can happen.
-Third play of the drive, Pregnon loses his defender rather quickly, who ends up making the play for only a 2-yard gain.
-Fifth play of the drive is a bad false start by Dedich. Not only was the false start bad, but he snapped the ball when Williams wasn’t looking, hitting the QB in the groin.
-Sixth play of the drive, Tarquin loses his defender to the inside, causing Williams to jump over the defender and scramble to the left.
(Drive ends on a turnover on downs via incomplete pass.)
9th series: LT Jonah Monheim, LG Emmanuel Pregnon, C Justin Dedich, RG Jarrett Kingston, RT Michael Tarquin
-Third play of the drive, the offensive line does a great job of giving Williams time to find someone, but no wide receiver gets open so Williams has to scramble and make a tough throw that ends up going incomplete.
(Drive ends in a 41-yard punt by Eddie Czaplicki.)
10th series: LT Jonah Monheim, LG Emmanuel Pregnon, C Justin Dedich, RG Jarrett Kingston, RT Michael Tarquin
-First play of the drive, the offensive line does a good job of giving Williams time to make a throw. He can’t find anyone open so he starts to run to the left, but then Monheim’s defender was able to get off the block and put pressure on Williams. He senses that and moves back and then up in the pocket to clear air to throw a perfect 29-yard touchdown pass to Rice, who got wide open.
(Drive ends in a 29-yard touchdown pass to Rice/2-point conversion good via pass to Mario Williams.)
11th series: LT Jonah Monheim, LG Emmanuel Pregnon, C Justin Dedich, RG Jarrett Kingston, RT Mason Murphy
-First play of the drive, Monheim gets pushed back a bit, but he was able to recover and actually pancake the defender.
-Second play of the drive, Kingston loses his defender on the run, but Lloyd was able to run right past him for a 14-yard gain.
-Third play of the drive, the offensive line does a great job of giving Williams a great pocket to make the 45-yard touchdown pass to Tahj Washington.
(Drive ends in a 45-yard touchdown pass to Tahj Washington.)
