Keeping with USC's consistent inconsistency in alternating lopsided games, the First-and-10 column is back with some positive vibes.

At least for this week.

USC did what it was supposed to do against a Colorado team that should finish at the bottom of the Pac-12 standings, winning 37-14 on the road in Boulder, Colo., on Saturday as both sides of the ball delivered big highlights for the Trojans.

Here are our 10 most significant takeaways and observations from that victory.

It took four games to get there, but on Saturday we finally saw Kedon Slovis play like the top-tier quarterback he’s supposed to be. Slovis’ final statline of 276 yards, 3 touchdowns and 0 interceptions was almost entirely generated in the first half (220 yards, 2 TDs), with the QB hardly needing to throw the ball through the final two quarters. A lack of decisiveness had been my greatest criticism of Slovis through the early stretch of this season, but against Colorado he wasted little time dawdling. Slovis was quick to make his reads, locating windows and getting the football out of his hands much faster on average than he has in recent weeks.

Of course, the superhuman known as Drake London played a huge role in Slovis’ success on the day, serving as the quarterback’s target for 14 of his 29 pass attempts and turning them into 9 catches for 130 yards and a score. Despite London’s unmistakable prowess at adjusting to the ball in the air and coming down with contested catches, it’s not as simple as “throwing it up for Drake to get it”. I’ve seen Slovis’ play widely discredited by the logic that all he does is toss up prayers for his playmakers to come down with, and truthfully I find that argument a bit silly.

To begin with, of course he’s throwing on contested-catch opportunities to his big receivers; that’s what you have to do when there’s no distance between your pass-catchers and the guys guarding them. As magnificent as London has been this season, a quick look at the film makes it clear that the big-bodied receiver isn’t really generating much separation. For Slovis to get the ball into his hands, he needs to throw it to a place where he knows that London can find it and the defender cannot. On so many of the “jump balls” Slovis threw on Saturday, the ball was exactly where it needed to be. On a 31-yard completion to London over the middle, the signal-caller threw it on a rope exactly to the high point of London’s reach; just low enough for the receiver to corral it, and just high enough that the three Colorado defenders nearby had no chance at touching it.

Two of London’s grabs deep down the sideline came on similarly well-placed passes; passes intentionally thrown for London to box out and leap for, not for him to run under. Slovis’ downfield touch was evident again on two similar sideline shots for Michael Trigg, who caught both despite an offensive pass interference penalty on the second. Slovis’ 15-yard touchdown to Gary Bryant Jr. on third-and-long was a reminder of his accuracy in tight windows, hitting Bryant perfectly in stride with a defender draped over his back for the score. It’s easy to forget after two years, but ball placement and aggression were the two traits that set Slovis apart as a freshman and made him one of the most promising young quarterbacks in college football. Though I’m not ready to declare him “back” to his old form, we saw both of those traits on display in spades against Colorado.

This version of Slovis, the one that makes quick decisions and takes shots without fear, is still probably the best quarterback in the conference. We’ll soon find out whether or not it’s back to stay.

We’re running out of superlatives for Drake London out here. The Oxford dictionary has a few thousand words in it, but it’s hard to figure out which of them best apply to the freak of nature that is London. He is like nobody else in college football -- there isn’t another wide out you can point to with his combination of size, contested catch ability and ability to generate yards after a reception. On Saturday, he was every bit as electric as he’s been all season, racking up 130 yards and a score on 9 catches. Almost all of London’s damage came in the first half, after which the Trojans hardly needed to throw the ball.

He made three spectacular high-point catches, and though being 6-foot-5 helps, it’s his ability to time his leaps, adjust his body and box out the defender that allows him to do that so well. London also created big plays with the ball in his hands, landing a spectacular hurdle after turning a screen pass upfield on one play and shaking off would-be tacklers on another. I’ve been critical of his drops through the previous couple of games, but London eliminated those from his game yesterday. In case anyone needed more clarity on the state of his hands, London snagged one of the most ridiculous catches I’ve seen for his lone touchdown, plucking the football out of the air with a single outstretched hand with a defender draped all over him.

Though he’s not creating a lot of separation, it doesn’t much seem like he needs any. London is playing like the best receiver in college football right now, and I don’t see any indications that he’s going to slow down anytime soon. The double coverage he’s going to command week-in and week-out from now on will open up plenty elsewhere in the passing game for USC as the season winds on.

I wrote in the roundtable before the game that I expected Michael Trigg to be the Trojans’ standout freshman on the offensive side of the ball through the remainder of the season, but I can’t say that I expected him to have his breakout moment so soon. Trigg was on the field early and often for USC, playing the big-slot role that London had mostly handled in recent years. It didn’t take the freshman too long to make his presence felt, leaping and boxing-out for a deep completion from Slovis before shaking off the defender, keeping his balance, and taking it to the crib for a 46-yard score. The play was a spectacular effort that exemplified the dynamic threat that Trigg might be for the Trojans down the stretch.

Outside of that play, he only had 1 catch for 5 yards, but he came close to a couple of other big moments, narrowly missing a ball from Slovis on a corner route, dropping a third-down pass over the middle and having another long reception negated by that iffy offensive pass interference call. Though Trigg only made one major play for USC on Saturday, it was a spectacular one, and it was abundantly clear that he’ll have plenty more opportunities in this offense.

As he and Slovis develop a stronger connection, I truthfully wouldn’t be too surprised if he winds up as the quarterback’s second-favorite target by the end of the season.