First-and-10: The top takeaways, thoughts and criticisms from USC's win

Reactions are bound to be mixed after USC's come-from-behind 35-31 win at Colorado Friday night.

Quarterback Kedon Slovis was a higlight. The defensive was a lowlight for most of the night. The win keeps USC in control of its Pac-12 destiny, but that the Trojans barely escaped a Buffaloes team mired at the bottom of the standings is cause for concern. Etc, etc.

Nonetheless, USC (5-3, 4-1 Pac-12) continues on with the last four games remaining plenty meaningful at the moment.

Here were the 10 top takeaways, thoughts, evaluations and, yes, criticisms.

It’s time we talked about fourth quarter Kedon Slovis. Despite a slow start to the game that included an interception and a number of bad misfires, the freshman QB took control for the Trojans down the stretch. In the final frame of play, Slovis went 9 of 13 for 148 yards and 2 touchdowns to complete the comeback. Through five fourth quarters on the year now, Slovis is 35-of-45 passing (77.8 percent) for 449 yards, 5 touchdowns and 0 interceptions (that doesn't include his OT pick at BYU). Slovis made one fantastic play after another in the second half, including a beautiful deep strike, perfectly placed back-shoulder fades and dimes down the seam past tight coverage. That’s exceptional play in crunch time -- and one of the main reasons why I have so much faith in the freshman as the guy for USC going forward.

It was far from a perfect game for Slovis; for much of the night he was taking forever to make decisions and missing easy throws underneath. Even though he had his hiccups in the late stages of the game, including a near interception on a botched shovel pass and a fumble that USC recovered, the cool confidence of Slovis with the game on the line is what pulled the Trojans to a hard fought victory.

Despite his play down the stretch, Slovis and the passing offense had a bumpy go at things through much of the earlier portion of the game. Colorado employed the same strategy teams have used to combat the Trojans aerial attack, dropping 7-8 defenders into zone coverages every play, daring them to attack on the ground. However, offensive coordinator Graham Harrell opted not to do so, keeping the majority of the offense on the arm of Slovis. Kenan Christon was able to produce when given the ball, but the freshman only ended his first start with 14 carries (for 76 yards). As a team, the Trojans ran the ball with their running backs 19 times, including three carries by Amon-Ra St. Brown. Despite the eventual comeback facilitated by the passing game, it’s not unreasonable to think the Trojans may not have been in that position to begin with had they taken what the Buffs’ defense gave them early in the contest.

Once again, the Trojans played an impressive game up front in pass protection. Slovis had all day to throw on almost every play -- often it seemed as though the issue was just that he couldn’t find his receivers or that they couldn’t get open. The line allowed only allowed a few pressures on the night, most coming late in the game when Colorado blitzed furiously. Altogether, this unit has been stellar in protecting the quarterback week in and week out; a large part of Slovis’ early success has to be attributed to the five guys in front of him.

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