This USC football team has been tested in almost every way injury-wise.

It's now gone three games without the true benefit of its top wide receivers, although Jordan Addison returned in a limited role Friday night against Colorado.

The Trojans have plugged holes and shuffled personnel on the offensive line weekly of late. They've were down two of their three main linebackers for a pair of games and continue to wait for star middle linebacker Eric Gentry to return.

And then on Friday night, running back Travis Dye -- in many ways the heart and soul of this team -- suffered a devastating season-ending leg injury.

Through it all, the Trojans are 9-1 overall, 7-1 in the Pac-12 and No. 7 in the AP rankings while awaiting the next CFP rankings release Tuesday.

The 55-17 win over Colorado, and the cost it came at, left plenty to critique, compliment and consider moving forward.

Let's get into the weekly First-and-10 breakdown with the 10 most significant Trojans takeaways ...

Quarterback Caleb Williams had another one of his strange off games against Colorado, something he’d avoided over the past month as he played the best football of his career. Against the Buffaloes, Williams appeared a bit out of sync as he had at times earlier in the year. He made plenty of big plays regardless, passing for 268 yards and 3 touchdowns along with 2 rushing scores for yet another 5-touchdown game in the end (his fourth straight!).

Despite the productivity, though, his normally dependable accuracy wasn’t quite up to standard, particularly early on. A number of the quarterback’s passes were off the mark throughout this game, missing open receivers and choking out promising drives. For that matter, his whole process appeared to be off-kilter as Williams held onto the football for far too long instead of delivering on time within the rhythm of the play. Given his absurd ability to calmly extend plays behind the line of scrimmage till the end of time, it’s understandable that Williams has a deep faith in his own ability to run around for long enough to find somebody coming open downfield. Often enough, that does end up being the case, resulting in a big play for USC as it did multiple times on Friday night. However, when Williams gets into the habit of sitting back like that on a majority of his dropbacks it totally nullifies the schematic advantages of whatever route combinations the designed play calls for. The problem there is that defenses adjust over time when they realize what’s happening. It gets harder for receivers downfield to work themselves back open when the secondary is looking to play the scramble drill preemptively, and the pass rush can work to smother opportunities for Williams to escape wide. The offense suddenly operates in binary; each snap is either a big play downfield or a complete wash. The smaller gains that keep the chains moving consistently evaporate, leaving the offense vulnerable to boom-or-bust drives. That style of play resulted in multiple sacks given up unnecessarily, along with a handful of incompletions and failed drives.

Colorado is a weak enough opponent that Williams and company managed to do plenty of damage regardless down the stretch, but against tougher competition those bad habits will threaten to stifle the offense. Williams is a wizard off-script and might be the best quarterback in the country at creating for himself in those situations, but there’s an essential balance to be maintained with executing the play as called. It’ll be critical for Williams to get back into the groove of keeping that balance as the Trojans prepare to take on UCLA and Notre Dame in the coming weeks.

The loss of star running back Travis Dye to a season-ending left leg injury may just be the biggest takeaway from this game for USC. Dye has been integral for the Trojans as the workhorse back, offering a spectacularly well-rounded skill set as a runner, receiver and pass blocker. His ability to execute each of those functions at a high level made him an indispensable component of the USC attack, especially in the closing phases of games. Without him, the situation in the backfield becomes very different with Austin Jones, Darwin Barlow, and Raleek Brown left to fill the void. Jones performed very well in relief duty, making easy work of the Colorado front seven on every touch. He showed off his very particular set of skills to rack up 74 yards on 11 carries, using strong one-cut vision, power and surprisingly quick footwork to move the chains. Jones also contributed as a receiver with 4 catches for 39 yards, taking one of those 12 yards for a touchdown in impressive fashion.

Darwin Barlow and Raleek Brown handled significant snaps down the stretch as well, both faring well as they each topped 70 scrimmage yards and scored a touchdown. With Dye’s exit from the picture, it’s more likely that the Trojans will revert to a multi-back setup rather than relying on one workhorse to shoulder the load. Right now, it’s likely that Jones will still handle a significant majority of snaps with Barlow and Brown rotating in behind him.

Jordan Addison’s re-entry into the lineup was a big development coming into this contest, but the reigning Biletnikoff winner didn’t see too much action, hardly playing after the 1st quarter. The star receiver caught just one pass for 2 yards early on before essentially sitting out the remainder of the game, clearly indicating the need for further recovery before he hopefully takes the field against UCLA. With Mario Williams out as well for the third straight week, the remainder of USC’s receiving corps was asked to step up once again, and once again the group largely responded well. Brenden Rice was asked this time to carry the load for the group, with an obvious focus on getting the ball to the big receiver as he faced his former team for the first time. Early on, that strategy appeared to be a mistake. Rice’s shaky hands have been a concern for USC all year and they again caused problems for the offense as he dropped multiple passes that should have been easily catchable in the Trojans’ first few drives. Particularly egregious was a heave to him from Caleb Williams on a post route downfield, on a ball that was admittedly slightly underthrown. Nonetheless, with a massive height and leaping advantage over the defender Rice was in perfect position to snatch the ball out of the air. Instead, after the ball had already touched his hands, Rice allowed the defensive back to tear it straight out into his own possession to inflict only the second interception of the year on the Trojans.

Despite his significant early blunders, Rice remained in the game and continued to see key targets. His redemption began on the snap immediately following Travis Dye’s injury, making an exceptional diving grab by the sideline to snag the football with outstretched arms to give USC a much-needed first down. Just moments later, Rice made another big-boy play as he ran a deep post and masterfully boxed out the smaller defender with his frame, securing a throw that came 32-yards on a rope from Williams for a touchdown. On the next USC drive, Rice delivered again as he snagged a pass over the middle before turning on the jets and using his unique pairing of explosiveness and size to break tackles and blow past defenders for a gain of 29 yards. His big play put the Trojans squarely in field goal position, allowing them to tack on 3 more points to their lead heading into halftime.

Those two quarters of play fully encapsulate who Rice is as a wide receiver at this point in his career; a freakish athlete with incredible size for the position and hands that just can’t be trusted yet. His potential is tantalizing, and there isn’t really anyone else on this USC roster who can do the things he’s capable of despite the depth at the receiver position. When he’s making the plays he should be making, it isn’t hard to see why the coaching staff continues to afford him so many opportunities. Nonetheless, his inconsistencies make it awfully difficult to rely on him, especially in big moments. Until he can start to perform the way he did in the second quarter over the course of an entire game, it’ll be hard for Rice to nail down a bigger role in the passing offense. I wouldn’t be shocked if he sees considerably fewer targets against UCLA and Notre Dame. Rice finished the game with 3 receptions for 70 yards and 1 touchdown.

Across the board, this wasn’t really the kind of banner game the USC receiving corps has managed over the past few outings in the absence of their top two guys. It certainly wasn’t a bad one; the Trojans moved the ball well with important contributions through the contest from the wide receiver position. With that said, no Trojans receiver caught more than 3 passes, thanks to both drops on their part and errant play from their quarterback. The team’s leader in receiving yardage was Kyle Ford, who came up huge in the second quarter to rescue the Trojans from a pair of difficult situations. Within the same series, Ford converted on a third-and-19 and a third-and-23 to get USC out of trouble after poor early-down plays and extend what ended up as a touchdown drive. The conversions were strikingly similar, with Ford coming open on a crossing route both times before accelerating into space to pick up the first down. His contributions in that critical juncture were vital for USC to pull away after its muddled first quarter, giving Ford his third straight strong performance with 3 receptions for 73 yards.

Elsewhere, Tahj Washington continued to be highly productive in his opportunities, doing well to get open though he didn’t see much of the ball. Washington’s big moment came in the third quarter when he made what was likely the play of the game, turning on the jets after a 13-yard reception and zooming past the Buffs’ secondary for a 61-yard touchdown. He finished with 2 catches for 66 yards and the 1 score. The remainder of USC’s receiving corps didn’t contribute much at all, with only CJ Williams notching 2 receptions for 9 yards.