It was an evening of role reversal Saturday for USC, as the offense weathered through game-long struggles but delivered at the most important moments, while the defense was the reliable rock of the operation for the Trojans.

Go figure.

It was a different formula, but it keeps the Trojans unbeaten as they rallied for that dramatic 17-14 win at Oregon State to improve to 4-0 and move up a spot to No. 6 in the AP poll.

Perhaps more than any game so far, though, it left a lot to dissect and critique, which is what we do here at First-and-10 headquarters.

So on with it -- the 10 most important takeaways, praises, critiques, etc., from Week 4.

There’s no way to sugarcoat the totality of Caleb Williams’ passing performance Saturday night. Put simply, he was extremely off. Many of the issues he displayed in the Fresno State game the previous week resurfaced and this time persisted through four quarters. The two core problems that plagued him on Saturday were poor reads and shaky accuracy. Both are uncharacteristic of Williams; his greatest attributes as a passer have consistently been his decision-making prowess and his spectacular ball-placement skills. If you watch his film from the first two games of the season and compare it to this one, it’d be hard to see how the same player could be wearing the No. 13.

Williams finished 16 of 36 for 180 yards and 1 touchdown. The accuracy struggles are puzzling to make sense of, as we all know for a fact that Williams is a remarkably precise passer. Against the Beavers, however, he just could not place the football well, overthrowing open receivers downfield, placing intermediate routes off-stride, and repeatedly throwing easy checkdowns too short for receivers to corral. As far as decision-making, Williams appeared to be looking for the big play on almost every snap, often disregarding his open receivers underneath and keeping his eyes locked on downfield targets. On a night when the Oregon State secondary turned in a stellar performance covering deep, taking advantage of the short-area passing game would have gone a long way toward getting the offense on schedule.

Instead, Williams held the ball forever far too often, inviting pressure and forcing himself to take off too many times. He was masterful on those escapes, per usual, showcasing his top-level elusiveness as he danced past would-be-tacklers, but at the end of the day the offense gained far less from those plays than what Williams gave up by not throwing sooner. His field vision struggled throughout the game, as he often failed to locate open receivers away from his eyes. On one such play, Williams rolled out to the right and had an eternity to throw, with a wide-open Jordan Addison hauling down the opposite side of the field. However, Williams never even took a glance to his left; he had his eyes fixed straight ahead, eventually finding Tahj Washington instead for a decent gain.

With the game on the line on the Trojans’ final possession of the game, however, Williams showed the ”it” factor that separates top-tier quarterbacks from the rest. He regained his composure, got the ball out quickly when he needed to and made some excellent plays to move the offense down the field. In the redzone, he delivered a well-placed go-ball to Brenden Rice that should have been caught, following up with a beauty of a strike into the cover-2 hole for the game-winner to Addison.

Williams’ ability to lock in was the difference at the end of this game, but going forward he can’t have outings like this one if this team is going to get where it wants to go. He’s far too talented to be completing less than half of his passes and manning an offense that doesn't find the end zone until the fourth quarter. The good news is that we know he’s capable of so much more, and we should expect him to return to his normal standard of play. It’s just a matter of waiting to see when and how the issues get fixed.

For the third straight week, Travis Dye topped 100 yards on the ground for USC, this time serving as the engine for an otherwise sputtering offense through the entire game. Dye continued to play as he has this season, showing great vision and lateral agility to make his way to the right opening and using his burst and contact balance to get through the hole and generate yards after contact. Though USC only managed 3 points in the first half, Dye was already hot, piling up 92 yards on just 9 carries to that point.

Even as the Beavers’ run defense started to create more congestion at the line of scrimmage in the second half, Dye kept finding ways to generate yardage, bouncing and spinning off defenders. He was key to both of the Trojans’ touchdown drives in the fourth quarter, capping off the first of those with a fantastic 6-yard score on fourth-and-2 to give USC its first lead of the game. He came up big again on the game-winning drive as the Trojans came from behind, ripping off a 16-yard rush and creating 9 yards on a catch-and-run situation on back-to-back plays to get to the Oregon State 25-yard line.

Dye’s consistent excellence on the night kept the USC offense on the field for long enough to not get decimated in the time of possession battle, and he came up big when it mattered most to secure a win for the team. He was easily the player of the game on offense, finishing with 142 scrimmage yards and 1 touchdown while averaging 7 yards per carry (close to his season average). Dye is firmly in contention for the title of best running back in the conference right now and feeding him will have to be a priority for this offense going forward.

The Trojans offensive line was tested more than it might have expected Saturday, as the Oregon State front seven battled hard for four quarters to make it difficult in the trenches. The Beavers were largely gap-sound and consistently tenacious, stopping USC runs at or near the line at a greater rate than any of the team’s prior opponents. Nonetheless, the offensive line remained solid, opening lanes for Dye and generating push down the field often enough for the rushing attack to find success.

In the passing game, the amount of time Williams spent holding onto the football made things really tough for the line, but it navigated the circumstances as well as could be expected, keeping the QB from taking many hits and giving him plenty of time to make decisions. That the unit only allowed 2 sacks on the night is a spectacular feat given just how risky many of those situations got (and certainly Williams shares in the credit by escaping a number of those perilous moments).

The offensive line went on to make what was perhaps the play of the game in crunch time -- a sentence that I doubt I’ll ever have the chance to write again. Down by 4 with just over 4 minutes to play, a do-or-die 4th-and-6 near midfield loomed for USC -- the result of the game hanging in the balance. On a designed pass play, Williams scrambled, sneaking tactfully past defenders to make his way right up to the sticks. Just as Williams looked poised to get the ball to the line-to-gain, a linebacker engulfed him on a spectacularly-timed tackle, immediately working to drive Williams away from the marker and essentially end the game. But Brett Neilon and Jonah Monheim had other plans, and the center and tackle rushed to their quarterback and began plowing him forward the final 2 yards he needed to secure the first down and keep the comeback hopes alive.

It was an extraordinary demonstration of situational awareness and determination by the duo, and their effort there spoke to the mental makeup of the offensive line and the focus with which the unit has been playing. Oregon State certainly made more of an impact against the group than the Trojans would prefer, but at the end of the day the line stepped up throughout the game to make plays happen when they were needed most. This is a highly-capable unit, and despite being far from perfect, it remains a real plus for this offense.