The fact that Caleb Williams set a career-high with 411 passing yards and delivered another 5-touchdown, 0-interception performance while playing without his top two receivers is the reason why his name deserves to remain at least on the fringe of the Heisman Trophy conversation.

The fact that the absence of Addison and Mario Williams due to injury only led to two other receivers -- Tahj Washington and Kyle Ford -- delivering their first 100-yard games of the season shows the wealth of talent this offense has up and down the depth chart.

And that an offensive line without its top player in injured left guard Andrew Vorhees, with redshirt freshman Mason Murphy making his first career start at right tackle, still managed to clear the way for a season-high 621 yards merits some credit for the job OL coach Josh Henson has done developing his group.

The defense had its struggles, allowing at least 540 yards for the second consecutive week while down two of its three main linebackers in Eric Gentry and Ralen Goforth, and we'll cover that too.

But there were a lot of positives to take away from the Trojans' 45-37 win at Arizona on Saturday.

There are nits to pick -- and you can bet we'll pick them -- but this USC team is 7-1, ranked No. 9 in the country and highly entertaining to watch. Let's start there as we get into the weekly First-and-10 breakdown ...

Caleb Williams seems to be stuck into whatever extra gear he found during the Utah game, as he followed up that season-best performance with an equally impressive showing against Arizona. Despite the absence of his top two targets Jordan Addison and Mario Williams, the quarterback was in control of the game from start to finish. His composure and elusiveness in the pocket were as pristine as ever, as he calmly kept himself clean while maintaining his vision downfield. With his two favorite receivers out, Williams spread the ball around masterfully, getting the ball into the hands of 10 different pass-catchers over the course of the game. He was efficient and smart with the football, hitting short and intermediate targets on time to get the team’s rotation receivers involved. As a downfield passer, this may have been Williams' best game. He uncorked a host of deep throws against the Wildcats, connecting on a majority of them for field-flipping yardage. By my count Williams had 4 completions of over 30 yards on the night, with another handful that were well-placed but just didn’t end up caught.

The effortlessness with which he’s able to drive the ball downfield is something to behold. That skill allows him to push the football deep even when he doesn’t have his feet properly set, making him a threat to take the top off the defense regardless of his positioning in the backfield. Despite the explosive productivity of the USC offense most of the fall, the go-ball hasn’t been a particularly integral component of the passing attack. This was the first contest where the Trojans really consistently leaned into the vertical component of their offense, and it really paid off. Williams’ ball-placement on those throws has been up and down for much of the season, but he showed his high ceiling as a vertical passer in this contest, dropping the ball right in the bucket on a number of occasions. Most impressive was his 46-yard hookup to Tahj Washington late in the first quarter, on a throw that could be best described as a (prime) Russell Wilson-esque “moonball.” Williams noticed as Washington stacked the cornerback downfield before stepping into his throw with ease, flicking the football at an impossibly high arc and allowing it to drop perfectly into the receiver’s basket, right in stride. That isn’t a throw that many quarterbacks can make, and the idea that Williams has skills like that in his bag which we’re only beginning to see is an exciting one.

He finished with a career high 411 passing yards and for the second straight game had 5 touchdowns and 0 interceptions in what was possibly his best performance of the year, potentially placing him right back in the mix for Heisman contention.

In the absence of lynchpin and potential first-round draft pick Andrew Voorhees, the USC offensive line stepped up and delivered a strong performance, one of its best in recent weeks. Though the Arizona front was far from imposing, the Trojans’ line handled its assignments with admirable consistency all night, largely keeping Williams clean and creating sizable lanes for the team’s running backs. On a night where the team needed every bit of offensive execution to stay ahead of a feisty Arizona passing attack, the offensive line delivered, hardly registering a drop-off in play despite position changes and substitutions.

Mason Murphy deserves credit for managing the right tackle position capably in his first-ever start, holding up well against the speed rushers Arizona deploys at the edge. Murphy’s composure and athleticism both stood out to me throughout the game, as he hardly struggled to mirror the pass rush or to seal powerfully in the run game. Elsewhere on the line, Jonah Monheim performed well after sliding over to the right guard spot, as did Courtland Ford after subbing in for an injured Bobby Haskins later in the game. Their efforts resulted in a sack-free day for the offense to go with a 210-yard performance in the ground game.

For most of this game, it appeared as though the Trojans had decided to eschew running the football in favor of a passing-dominant gameplan. Through the first three quarters, USC leaned heavily on the aerial attack, handing the football off just around a dozen times. It’s not that they weren’t having success when they did; the Trojans were averaging healthy yardage on their carries all throughout the game. Even still, given the vulnerability of the Wildcats’ passing defense there wasn’t much to be lost by keeping the ball in the air through most of the early going. Buoyed by the efficiency of the passing game, the offense suffered little from the lack of a running game for most of the night. As has been the case in previous weeks, however, USC still managed to finish the game with strong rushing totals, mustering 210 yards as a team on 32 attempts (6.6 yards per carry).

Much of that production came in the final phase of the game, starting in the late third quarter in what has become something of a tendency for this Trojans team. It appears to me that the coaching staff intentionally seeks to let Travis Dye take it easy early in games, giving him enough run to get a feel for the defense without wearing him out too much. That allows him to be fresh heading into the closing stages against defenses that are winded from three quarters of keeping up with the USC passing game. Dye is deeply invaluable in late-game situations, thanks to his ability to eat up the clock as an efficient ball-carrier as well as the utility he provides on passing downs as both a blocker and receiver. He once again showed up in a big way to help USC ice the game, handling 10 carries from the final drive of the 3rd quarter onward.

Dye finished the game with a full load of carries despite the lack of work earlier in the contest, toting the ball 20 times for 113 yards and a touchdown. He’s consistently been closing games with around 20 carries -- the standard load for a true workhorse back. Even though the USC game script leans heavily on the pass early in games, we’ve repeatedly seen Lincoln Riley's preference to run the ball to close out the final stretch. Although it often appears that the Trojans aren’t running the ball much, Dye has been finishing games with an average of 18 carries since he’s become the clear lead back. The recipe for his usage over the course of games might shift some here and there, but we’ve got enough tape now to see how the coaching staff likes to schedule his moments.

Without Jordan Addison and Mario Williams, USC really needed a big game from its receiver depth in order to keep up in what was always likely to be a shootout. The group did not disappoint, with standout performances across the board from a whole host of Trojans receivers. Tahj Washington was at the forefront of that effort, leading the team in all receiving categories with 7 catches for 118 yards and 2 touchdowns. He was everywhere, creating chunk gains with his run-after-catch ability underneath while also creating big plays with his route running and speed down the field. Washington was superb in this game, making plays left and right to keep the USC offense moving. He made a handful of standout plays, including the aforementioned “moonball” reception and a filthy catch-and-run touchdown of 47 yards that saw him shake a would-be-tackler out of his cleats. Washington has been a net positive for USC all year, thanks to his consistency as a receiving threat and the surprising juice he brings to the offense as a run blocker. This was his first real opportunity of the year to work in a featured role and he seized the moment with gusto en route to a team-leading performance. He’s done nothing but impress this season, and I think this performance should be more than enough to warrant a big uptick in targets and snaps for him, even when Mario Williams and Jordan Addison return