First-and-10: Taking the Trojans to task after latest dispiriting defeat

What more is there to say about USC's dispiriting 42-26 loss to Utah on Saturday night?

Well, plenty, actually.

The Trojans' latest ugly defeat and the string of three straight lopsided home losses -- each by at least 14 points and each even more one-sided than the score indicates -- leaves a lot to dissect about this team and this program.

As always, we break it down in the First-and-10 -- the 10 most significant thoughts, takeaways, criticisms and conclusions from the Trojans' performance.

By halftime, I think most everyone who’s watched USC play football this year knew that this game was over. As the Trojans walked up the big, red tunnel after the final disappointing seconds of the second quarter whittled down, a collective pall sunk into the Coliseum. With the deficit already at 21-10 on the back of an inexplicable defensive gaffe in the closing moments of the half, this felt eerily like a movie we all saw just weeks ago, and again just weeks before that. Sure enough, the ending was the same; USC shot itself in the foot time after time and thrashed itself into a deepening hole, all until defeat was an apparent inevitability.

The Trojans had come out early displaying promise, looked to have been locked in a competitive game and let it all slip through their fingers once again, watching a 3-point lead dissipate into a 25-point deficit in a matter of 10 minutes of game time from the late second half into the third quarter. The shares of blame to be distributed are numerous and extensive. Poor decision-making from the sidelines along with missed opportunities and a lack of focus on the field bore USC the result it deserved, as it has so often this season.

I can’t help but note the difference from the Clay Helton era, wherein this team frequently found its way out of its well-deserved deficits with questionably-deserved magic when it played on its home turf in the Coliseum. Helton’s USC teams were deeply flawed, but there was something to be said about the ways they’d figure out to win in games they probably should have always won, admittedly. Last season especially stands out, when the Trojans staged three highly-improbable comeback victories against all odds before ultimately falling apart at season’s end. Though there’s no doubt that moving on from Helton was necessary for USC to ever reach for its aspirations for playoff contention, sometimes the absence of one problem is not the solution to the rest.

This Trojan team sits in limbo. There is no direction, there is no vision, there is not even an embattled coach that the players rally around. The word “disjointed” describes everything about this team; the parts of the whole don’t ever seem to be functioning in tune with one another and that manifests everywhere from the inconsistency of offensive drives to a defense that seems to be made up of 11 individual players playing 11 individual games of football. It’s possible that interim coach Donte Williams will be able to find whatever this team needs from within himself and pull the pieces together, but at this point it’s not a possibility worth waiting on. Things look and feel fundamentally broken because they probably are. I can’t see them being fixed until the next head coach is settled upon -- at the earliest.

The Trojans lost both exciting freshman tight end Michael Trigg and star outside linebacker Drake Jackson to injury in this game, adding to the long list of disappointments left in the aftermath of Saturday’s matchup. Trigg took an ugly shot to his right knee while securing a pass down the seam from Kedon Slovis during the Trojans’ comeback bid, ending his night and possibly his season. (Williams said Sunday night that nothing is broken and that Trigg didn't sustain an ACL tear, but he said another MRI was needed to reach a diagnosis.)

Trigg had just begun to emerge as a new focal point for this offense, showcasing dynamic flashes of potential before going down. It remains to be seen how long this keeps him out, but given the way it looked it’s hard to imagine that he could make it back before the end of this season. Jackson’s injury was less dramatic but perhaps much more important, as it potentially leaves the Trojans without the best player on their already-beleaguered defense. Jackson sustained an ankle injury near the middle of the game that caused him to withdraw from the action, and he eventually had to leave in a walking boot. We’ll have to await the official word on the nature of his injury, but if he’s going to miss any time it’ll be a devastating blow for this team.