All of the attention this week has understandably been on breaking down the aftermath of USC's 52-42 loss to Washington -- defensive coordinator Alex Grinch's firing and where the Trojans go from here -- but we'd be remiss if we didn't deliver our usual film review breakdown of the game itself.

We'll skew a lot of this forward-looking as the Trojans look to find some spark toward a better finish these last two regular-season games.

As always, our top 10 takeaways/thoughts from the week ...

You could write a thesis on everything that went wrong for the USC defense against Washington last weekend, but thankfully that tortuous task doesn’t need doing anymore as a result of the decision that followed less than a day later. Alex Grinch has been fired, and this football team finds itself at a crossroads, with an opportunity to redefine its identity on the defensive side of the ball in the coming weeks and to potentially make a hire that finally puts it on the right path.

All the worst elements of USC’s defensive performance in two years under Grinch were on display in this game -- the head-scratching schematics, the poor personnel management, shoddy tackling and a collective defense that often appeared to not know what it was being asked to do. I’ve bemoaned the Trojans’ troubles in maintaining their run fits properly for a long time, and never did they look quite as bad as they did on Saturday. It’s one thing to miss tackles -- and make no mistake, there were plenty of those to go around -- but to not even touch runners as they burst through open holes for the entire duration of a football game is something else. According to PFF, of UW running back Dillon Johnson's 256 rushing yards, only 86 came after contact. Think about that for a minute.

This performance was a mess across the board, as the USC defense struggled to do anything right from front to back, costing the Trojans what should have been a win with even a normal “bad game” on that side of the ball given the success of the offense. As painful as it was to watch, that miserable performance might have been necessary. At long last, the loss triggered the move that needed to happen at least 11 months ago -- the one move with the chance to start righting the ship for USC as it prepares to enter the Big Ten. There’s no getting around the magnitude of the sunk cost -- the Trojans will have wasted two seasons of one of the best quarterbacks college football has ever seen without a conference championship (most likely) or playoff appearance to show for it, and Lincoln Riley will have to be held accountable for that. Nonetheless, the correct move has finally been made, and it gives USC a chance to go where it needs to go.

The upcoming DC hire will be the biggest decision of Riley’s career as a head coach thus far, and the direction he goes will be telling. It’s not just about hiring the right name- it’s also about whether or not Riley will be able to adjust his overall management of the team enough to really allow a strong, capable identity to emerge on the defensive side of the ball. I think it’s fair to say that thus far in his career, the young coach hasn’t really done that with his approach. But the best coaches learn and grow, and at just 40 years old, Riley now has the chance to do just that if he’s willing to take the golden opportunity in front of him. If he’s able to pull it off, the Trojans might finally be poised to take the final leap forward in the coming years to join the ranks of college football’s perennial contenders.

With Shaun Nua and Brian Odom jointly coordinating this defense for the remainder of the season, what we should be hoping to see is a cleanup of the basics to whatever extent can be achieved on such a short timeline. Though it would be silly to expect pursuit angles or tackling abilities to improve significantly overnight, what the new coordinators can do is simplify the structure of this defense and manage its personnel better. Even small strides in that regard might be enough to make the on-field product look markedly better for the Trojans in these final weeks. Players like Ceyair Wright and Raesjon Davis should be given a chance once more, rotations on the defensive line should be better suited to the opponent matchup, and most importantly, the team should be running a more standard, gap-sound approach up front rather than the aggressive “movement” defense that the team struggled to execute for the better part of two seasons.

Heading into this matchup against Oregon, I don’t expect to see a good defensive performance, but I am hoping to see the right changes. The Ducks are very likely going to run all over this defense no matter what, but I dearly want to find out how different things look for this set of players when asked to play in a system that’s far more conducive to maximizing their abilities. I’m also interested to see how the players respond on an individual and holistic basis -- do they come out fiery, angry, and determined to prove something? Whether or not they do will be telling as to how well this transition is being handled internally.

Back to the other side of the ball, this was Caleb Williams’ best performance in my eyes since the Stanford game all those weeks ago. After weeks of struggling by his lofty standards (despite largely faring well statistically), Williams finally looked once more like the best player in college football. The occasional and unexpected lapses of accuracy that had affected his throwing for the past month and a half were nowhere to be seen as Williams managed to place the ball with incredible touch, velocity, and precision over the duration of the night. He made some absolutely silly connections in this game at every level of the field, showing off the effortless arm talent that’s long been the hallmark of his game.

Most impressive was the touchdown thrown to Mario Williams on a back-shoulder fade -- a ball thrown with hardly an inch of separation between the receiver and cornerback as it left Williams’ hand before leading the receiver to the sideline and zipping into his grasp with dead-perfect accuracy and velocity.

The quarterback was totally in control of this game in a way that we haven’t seen him be in weeks, though we’d grown used to it as a weekly occurrence over the past season. The version of Williams that we saw on Saturday -- 27 of 35 for 312 yards, 3 TDs and 0 INT, plus a rushing TD -- is the best player in college football, capable of doing things that no one else can really hope to imitate with consistency.

It’s tragic that his lone two mistakes of the night -- the fumble late in the second quarter and the sack in the fourth quarter to knock the Trojans from field goal range -- likely provided the swings necessary for Washington to take control of this game, both on poorly timed sacks that resulted from his persistent desire to extend the play and make something more out of the moment despite the presence of better options. I’ve previously said that this USC team isn’t really built to absorb big mistakes from Williams; unfairly, it requires him to be at his best at all times in order for games to go the right way, particularly against serious competition. As magnificent as he was in this game, his two crushing mistakes made the difference at the end of the day, a fact that I’m certain contributed to his anguish in the aftermath of the final whistle (more on that later). Even still, this was a game the Trojans should have been able to win if the defense had even put up a C- quality performance.

Williams’ is responsible for his mistakes, but the totality of the performance he gave was spectacular and should provide every reason to believe that he’s back to the player we’ve seen him be in the past -- the best player in the country. As long as that’s the player under center for USC, this team has a chance to win any game.

The clip of Caleb Williams jumping up to his family in the stands and breaking down in the arms of his mother has been shared, dissected and commented on to no end over the past few days. For starters, I’m rankled by the fact that the camera crew felt the right to zoom in and broadcast that moment for as long as they did on national television, and grateful that his mother had the wherewithal to cover her son’s face with the cameras on him.

Williams is 21 years old. He poured his heart and soul onto that football field, only to be let down by the ineptitude of others as he has been so many times in his young career. For all his brilliance on the night, he made two costly mistakes that may have turned the game, and the weight of that fact surely rested heavy on him. In that moment, he saw everything he’d worked for in his college career likely slip through his fingers -- the hopes of a conference championship, a playoff berth and a national title, all washed away. To have that sorrow and disappointment manifest in a burst of emotion in the immediate aftermath is a sign of just how much the young quarterback cares -- and that is exactly how much anyone should hope the game matters to those who play it.

I have seen far too many great athletes break down and cry in the wake of crushing defeat over the course of my life to hold that as a mark against Caleb Williams. I’ve seen Kobe Bryant with tears streaming down his face after being eliminated in the playoffs, Messi sobbing quietly as he sits in the grass after a World Cup loss, Mike Tomlin croaking through the tears in a postgame press conference. Are any of them any less as competitors, as winners, as leaders, as men, for it? Those who’d like to make fools of themselves by pointing to Williams' moment in the stands as an indication of weakness or unworthiness on his part are welcome to, but in doing so they only expose their own lack of empathy.

To care is to be hurt; that is the nature of the thing. And if the fact that the crying was done in the arms of his mother is what bothers you, I have even less sympathy for your arguments. To share our grief with those who love us and support us is the most human response of all -- how can you fault a 21-year-old for it? You can ask questions about Williams' demeanor on the field or his attitude in interviews or whatever else you like to your heart’s content, but don’t make a buffoon of yourself by piling on the young man for seeking comfort in his mother’s arms in the lowest moment of his career. If I’m choosing, I want that guy leading my team every time over someone who seems unbothered after a loss like this one.