First-and-10: Top takeaways from our film review of USC's win over Badgers

Give it to this No. 11-ranked USC football team -- when it wants to put everything together it really showcases impressive upside and potential.

That has only come in spurts to this point but significant ones, like the 28 unanswered points in the second half Saturday to power a 38-21 win over Wisconsin.

There's a lot to be said for closing strong -- more on that in a bit -- but also plenty to critique from the Trojans' latest performance.

Which is, after all, what we do here in the weekly First-and-10.

Let's dive into what our eyes on Saturday and our subsequent film review revealed, as we spotlight our top 10 takeaways from the win.

RELATED: Another USC second-half resurgence provides more reason to believe

If the 2024 second-half Trojans were their own team, they’d likely be competing for a spot in the top 5 of this week’s AP poll. USC has been decidedly better in the latter half of each of their three games against Power-4 competition to date, perhaps most dramatically so in this weekend’s Big Ten home opener against Wisconsin.

After a sloppy, discombobulated mess of a first half on both sides of the ball, the Trojans found themselves trailing the Badgers 21-10 with next to no momentum to show for their efforts. The defense appeared uncharacteristically out of sorts, with cornerbacks allowing explosive plays on the boundary and the defensive front seemingly unable to play its assignments in coordination. On offense, the Trojans could not stop getting in their own way, consistently failing to get all 11 players on the same page and twice turning the ball over just on the cusp of the red zone. Even on special teams, Zachariah Branch managed to inexplicably muff a punt, giving the Badgers possession in the red zone and setting up a touchdown on the ensuing play.

By half, it appeared evident that the Trojans had shown up to play without their screws tightened, doomed to defeat as a result of their dysfunction. They’d played a horrid half of football that left little room for optimism, despite their clear talent advantage and the fact that the game was taking place within the friendly confines of the Coliseum. The sight was not unfamiliar in the slightest. We’ve seen plenty of halves much like this in years past, going back through the Clay Helton era and even beyond. Those halves would almost inevitably be followed by another of comparable ineptitude, then a loss, and then a press conference full of excuses and promises to come out with a different mentality the next week. Those promises were not frequently fulfilled.

However, what we saw on Saturday followed a very different script, one that saw the Trojans buckle up and come out in the second half decidedly locked in and ready to play their game. It’s safe to say that Wisconsin was not ready for the version of USC that came back out of the tunnel after halftime, as the Trojans rolled over the Badgers 28-0 in the latter half of the contest. Miller Moss and the offense carved through Wisconsin methodically, while D’Anton Lynn’s defense hunkered down and entirely smothered the Badgers' attack, holding them to just 82 yards and no points in the second half. Much as we saw last week against Michigan and to a lesser extent in the opener against LSU, this team was able to make sweeping improvements across the board at halftime, not only in terms of scheme and strategy but also in the players’ actual quality of performance. The difference has been night and day, each time resulting in the Trojans outplaying their opponent by a significant margin to close the game despite a first half deficit.

In college football, the ability to do that is often the trait that separates the elite teams from the rest when all is said and done. Last year’s undefeated Michigan squad was fantastic at adjusting for the second half -- so were Nick Saban’s Alabama teams and Pete Carroll’s Trojan squads of old. This coaching staff has decisively proven that they’ve got the smarts, vision and connection with their players to be at their best through the back end of games, and that’s perhaps the biggest reason to have faith in this team’s prospects for the 2024 season.

Through four games, they’ve now outscored their opponents 87-24 in the second half (the defense has actually only given up 17 points when you factor in Michigan’s pick-6 last week). With that said, the Trojans cannot afford to keep coming out flat and out-of-sorts to start games. The previous week at the Big House, it cost them a precious win despite the fact that they clearly looked like the better team in the second half. Wisconsin wasn’t good enough to make them pay for the slow start in this game, but other teams certainly will be should the Trojans allow them the opportunity. There’s no reason USC has to be so poor in the first half; it clearly has both the talent and coaching to better handle the early parts of games.

Getting that to manifest is now the objective, and I’m honestly not particularly worried about the Trojans' ability to do so. It’s far, far harder to flip the flow of a game on its head after the half than it is to come out confident and playing your game well in the first place. Since they’ve overwhelmingly shown us their ability to do the former, the latter should not take too long to attain, especially given that it must be a conscious focal point of the team’s attention after consecutive slow starts. We’ll see how that plays out, but the ability to make adjustments and attack the second half gives this team an edge that few of its opponents other than the very elite will be able to match.

There are many kinds of quarterbacks -- scramblers, game managers, big-play hunters and so on. With four games of tape to work with now, I feel that we can pretty accurately label Miller Moss for the kind of QB that he is: gunslinger.

Moss' defining trait is his supreme, irrepressible confidence in his ability to put the ball where he wants to. When he sees a window he can test, he will test it. Though he doesn’t have the elite-tier arm strength that characterizes many other quarterbacks that play this way, what Moss does possess is an exceptional proficiency at identifying which windows he is in fact capable of threading and an uncanny ability to place the football with near-perfect touch. Together, those traits allow him to be far more aggressive than most quarterbacks, throwing without hesitation to test openings that defenders often aren’t ready to defend. With the sample size of tape we have now, we can say definitively that Moss is able to win these bets far more often than not.

That skill has been key to the USC offense in prior weeks and was once again on Saturday, as he made a bevy of gutsy, tight-window throws in order to keep the Trojans marching. He made those throws from a variety of platforms, fading away from pressure, rolling to his right, climbing up in the pocket, even while taking the impact of a hit. Moss’s arm talent is not stationary; his consistent mechanics and feel for space allow him to get the ball where he needs to get it reliably, even if the defense has managed to put him in an uncomfortable position. Watch him fire this touchdown pass to Duce Robinson perfectly on a rope off his back foot with pressure about to engulf him.

Or this rolling dime to the perfect spot on third-and-15, placed where only the receiver could get to it (54 second mark)

Moss is a remarkably skilled player, the kind that doesn’t need the best circumstances around him to bring the best out of his teammates. He’s been able to perform at a very high level behind an offensive line that hasn’t been reliable, often without the help of a consistent running game either. Moss plays like he knows it’s on him to keep the offense moving, and it often is. However, that aggression and willingness to pull the trigger quickly gets him in trouble sometimes and likely always will. Consider his early-game interception on an attempted back-shoulder fade to Zachariah Branch.

The look Moss gets here on the one-on-one is technically a go for a back-shoulder fade; the receiver and DB are positioned reasonably to go for it, provided that you trust the receiver to adjust and attack appropriately. The problem here is that he’s throwing the ball to Branch, who has not at all shown the ability to win at the catch point. On top of that, Moss' throw is just a shade inside of where it would ideally be. Were this Duce Robinson or Ja’Kobi Lane the attempt may have worked out, but it wasn’t. Moss fired this ball with all the confidence in the world, but in this case it probably wasn’t warranted. Such is the nature of a gunslinger at quarterback -- the possibility of a misfire will always remain imminent. However, Moss has shown that he’s able to hit far more often than he misses.

Look at where he fits this ball in and ask yourself -- how many quarterbacks in the country have the skill to complete this, or the guts to even attempt it?

Guts are what make a gunslinger. Moss' are made of steel -- there’s no fear to be found in his eyes, no matter the situation. It's sourced from an earned confidence in his ability to get the thing done. That doesn’t just go for his skill as a passer. Moss has to be accounted for on the ground as well. He can be a threat there not because he’s a top-notch athlete but because his awareness of space and his feel for how to manipulate it on the fly allow him to succeed when given the opportunity. That only works because of his lack of fear -- a more timid player could not even attempt what he does with the same physical skill set.

Moss has his limitations, and they will always matter, but I’ve seen enough now to feel confidently that he can be one of the best quarterbacks in the country this season. His physical talents are well past the thresholds for success, and his intangible attributes may be close to the gold standard in college right now.

Lincoln Riley said after the game, "Show me a tough team, and I'll show you a tough quarterback.” Moss is as tough and cold-blooded as they come, and I think we’ve seen the rest of the team reflect that this season, particularly in the second halves of games. I’ve got no reason to think any of that changes on his end as the season winds on; I’m planting my flag right now on Moss making it to New York as a Heisman finalist by the end of the year.

That USC’s wide receiver group is chock-full of talent has long been common knowledge, but the pecking order of those receivers has been unclear from a production standpoint through the early portion of the season. The team adopted a run-first approach against Utah State before benching the starters in the second half, and the offense wasn’t able to get any semblance of passing attack going for the entire first half of the Michigan game due to the lack of pass protection. As a result, coming into this week we really only had 1.5 games of good data to make inferences about the receiver rotation, which is really not any kind of reliable sample size to work with. This game gave us a clearer opportunity to watch things play out for that position group, and I feel as though I have a solid grasp of how things have presented themselves.

First off, I felt as though this game cemented my belief that Ja’Kobi Lane is primed to be the No. 1 receiver on this team. Lane is simply a monster at the catch point; few cornerbacks in America are going to be capable of beating him out for a well-placed 50/50 ball. His vertical explosiveness is outstanding, as is his ability to make the most of his massive frame in order to out-position defenders for the football. In this contest, Lane was utterly unguardable as he snagged 10 receptions for 105 yards and 2 touchdowns. The tape is littered with SportsCenter Top 10 worthy plays, coming in a constant stream from the first quarter to the last.

It’s not just his ability to catch the football that pops, but also his body control, footwork on the sidelines and ability to absorb contact. The one knock against him right now might be that he could stand to create more separation as a route runner, but as of yet that hasn’t done much to slow him down. When little else was going for the Trojans offense, Moss just kept finding Lane, despite the fact that the Badgers knew the ball would likely come to him. It’s good to have a diverse receiver rotation to spread targets amongst, but every team needs to have one player they can trust to be a true No. 1 target when required. Lane has proven that he’s capable of being that guy, and I think this team would benefit from treating him as such going forward.

Though the rest of USC’s receivers were somewhat lukewarm throughout this game, Duce Robinson managed to show up in a big way when called upon. Though he failed to haul in a tough contested catch on his first target (nullified by a roughing the passer penalty anyway), he made the most of two consecutive passes that came his way shortly thereafter. He made a fantastic contested catch at the high-point on the first, securing a crucial third-down conversion as he rose over the defender to pluck the football out of the sky. That’s the kind of play you want to see more of from Robinson going forward, using his ridiculous size to play bully ball against smaller DBs much like Lane routinely does. Though he’s still working on fleshing out that part of the game, where Robinson already surpasses his fellow tall teammate is with his route running skills. Robinson is a freakishly smooth mover for a man of his size, capable of creating legitimate separation when he breaks on his routes. He’s gotten open a lot more than he’s been targeted this year and is bound to see more looks come his way as a result in weeks to come.

His second catch showed off that aspect of his game, as he ran a sneaky good route to box out the defender on his in-cut at the goal line for a touchdown snag.