First-and-10: Top takeaways from our in-depth film review of USC-Michigan

In the wake of USC's 27-24 loss at Michigan on Saturday, questions about the Trojans' offensive line, Lincoln Riley's play-calling and decision-making and laments over the officiating have dominated chatter on social media and our very own Trojan Talk board.

After our weekly in-depth film review, we certainly concur with two of those gripes but will push back on the other, along with the rest of our 10 most significant takeaways from the Trojans' performance.

Here's the weekly First-and-10 ...

In this contest, the Trojans were forced to scrap tooth and nail on both sides of the ball in an effort to wrest a win away from the Michigan Wolverines. Before the game, many expected the Trojans offense to pour on points with ease while the defense easily shut down a decidedly one-dimensional Michigan attack. Those expecting that were rather surprised by how this game unfolded, but not everyone was of that mind. Coming into this matchup, I felt as though USC had the better chance of winning with two major caveats. First, I expected the Wolverines rushing attack, one-dimensional as it may be, to at least strain the USC defense -- more on that later. Secondly, I saw this Michigan defense as the biggest test Lincoln Riley’s offense has faced during his tenure at USC. Though the Wolverines lost significant talent from last year’s generational unit on that side of the ball, that group remained more imposing than any of the Trojans opponents in two seasons. The beating they received at the hands of the Texas Longhorns convinced many that Michigan’s defense was no longer up to snuff, but a closer look at that tape shows a talented defense with a new coordinator that seemed to have not quite gotten clicking. By the time Saturday’s game had advanced through the first quarter, the ability of the Wolverines defense was obvious. Michigan is heavily talented in the back 7, headlined by the nation’s best corner in Will Johnson and stud linebacker Jaishawn Barham.

Though USC’s skilled weapons eventually found ways to produce all the same, things didn’t come open easy in the early going; especially given what was happening on the line of scrimmage. Coming into the season, it was still maintained that the Wolverines had one of the best defensive fronts in the nation, if not the best. The loss at Texas quieted that chatter considerably but left it no less accurate. Against a significantly weaker Trojans offensive line, the Wolverines defensive front absolutely feasted from the first drive. Thanks to the inability of USC’s linemen to move big bodies like Kenneth Grant and Mason Graham, the run game was utterly nonexistent in the first half. Things were hardly better in the passing game, where the interior of the line repeatedly caved to pressure from the aforementioned monsters on the Michigan interior, while Josiah Stewart absolutely bullied the Trojans’ offensive tackles off the edge. Miller Moss hardly had time to take the snap and survey his options before facing contact, decimating the passing game and leaving the Trojans unable to move the ball. Through the first four of USC’s five first-half drives, the offense managed to squeak just 11 yards on 13 plays. No matter how good you are at quarterback or every skill position, it’s extremely difficult to produce effectively with such a poor matchup along the line of scrimmage.

The USC offensive line is probably closer to average than what it showed Saturday, but the Michigan defensive front is arguably the best in the nation, an elite unit that might produce as many as three first-round picks in the spring. Scheming an effective offense on the fly in such circumstances is a tremendously tall task, as Riley quickly found out.

Being handicapped in such a manner reduces the options in a coach’s play-calling toolkit. Riley could not trust his 5-7 step drop-back game very often, as Moss was getting hit practically every time they went for one of those plays, even when he was completing passes. Unfortunately, that was really the only thing working well for the Trojans for long stretches of the game. In order to squeeze the most production out of those plays while still keeping Moss upright, Riley tried to run the ball early and leaned heavily on the screen game. In doing so, he hoped to force hesitancy on a Michigan defensive line that was already teeing off on Moss, forcing them to wait half a beat extra to determine if they needed to chase laterally or play the run before being able to rush the passer. Though it felt for much of the contest that Riley was simply bashing his head into the wall on unproductive play-calls, I’d argue that it was the only thing that really allowed USC to get some semblance of a downfield passing attack active in the second half. Had USC dropped back to pass on 75% of snaps like so many fans seemed to want, the Wolverines would have been even more unrestrained getting off the ball in their pass rushes.

Moss (who was already pressured a whopping 27 times, hit 7 times and sacked 4 times) would very likely not have made it out of this contest intact. Instead, by the end of the game, the USC offense was as functional as one could have hoped given the context of the first half; Riley’s play-calling actually deserves significant credit for slowly opening up the Michigan defense over the course of the game. Riley certainly made a few miscalculations, but in the big picture, I don’t blame him too much. Individual calls like the shovel passes on the Trojans’ penultimate drive or the attempted reverse pass by Kyron Hudson at the end of the first half drew plenty of ire, but I thought both were reasonable calls given the context and very likely could have worked out well with better execution from the players.

I understand entirely why the Trojans’ plan on offense was frustrating to watch, but I simply don’t think that there were many better options left at Riley’s disposal given the matchup on the line of scrimmage. I think the strategy was good enough to win the game, flaws and all. The execution simply wasn’t.

To be perfectly clear before I begin this section, the Trojans had every opportunity to win this game, and any analysis of why they didn't must be built on a thorough examination of what they did wrong. USC was right there on the cusp of victory at the end of this one; just one made tackle, one extra offensive play, one more fourth-down stop away from 3-0. Any number of the Trojans' errors or missed opportunities could have been enough to get the job done if avoided, and the team has plenty of learning to do from its performance in order to be better on both sides of the ball.

With all of that said, there's no way anyone with at least one eye and a cursory understanding of football could have watched the game in its entirety without questioning the performance of the officiating crew. I don't like to point out the officials as a major factor in games unless I must, but the crew at the Big House last Saturday made certain that I would have no choice. The way this game was called from start to finish put the Trojans in an obvious bind, particularly on the defensive side of the football. That's because not a single holding or block in the back penalty was called against Michigan on a whopping 46 rushing attempts; an aberration that's as rare as it is suspicious.

To the point, Michigan was in fact holding and blocking in the back rather often, in particular on some of the bigger plays that determined the outcome of this game. Michigan's offense was allowed to play this game the old-fashioned way; openly grabbing fistfuls of jersey, bearhugging defenders across the shoulders and even landing blocks by straight-up tackling USC players from behind. As the Wolverines grew more confident that this type of play was not going to be challenged, they leaned in further. These would-be fouls went uncalled all through the course of the game, culminating in an egregiously obvious hold on Michigan's game-winning touchdown which directly allowed for the score.

Elsewhere, Miller Moss was twice brought down by the facemask with no call, gunners on the punt team were mauled freely and a clear horse collar penalty went unnoticed. This Laissez-faire attitude toward calling penalties would be one thing if both teams received the same treatment. USC was whistled for a hold and a block in the back, while the Wolverines got away with nothing less than murder for four quarters (its only non-procedural penalty was a personal foul on a punt return in the first quarter). On a day when any one play might have swung the outcome in USC's favor, it felt obvious that any one of those calls, much less the totality of them, could easily have done the same.

Though that changes nothing about the Trojans' need to self-evaluate, it should certainly factor in when we evaluate this team's performance from the outside looking in, knowing how this result likely would have turned if the officiating had just been average.

The fact that Moss made it out of this game intact feels like an achievement in itself. USC's quarterback found himself ruthlessly hammered in his first career road start as Michigan's elite defensive front made mincemeat of his offensive line. As noted earlier, the Wolverines racked up 27 pressures, hit Moss 7 times and sacked him 4 times. Especially through the first half, Moss seemed to find a Wolverine in his face about two seconds from the snap without fail. At some point, it almost felt as though it might be reasonable for Riley to pull Moss from the game, just for the fact that his smaller frame may not be able to handle the punishment it was receiving on every passing down. Despite the blows adding up, at no point did it seem as though Moss was losing confidence or his physical ability to keep playing.

After some offensive line changes at halftime created an ever-so-slightly improved pocket for him to work with, Moss dialed right in and began to run the offense efficiently. After having put up basically no statistical production in the first half, Moss accumulated a game's worth of numbers in the second as he managed to throw for 283 yards and 3 touchdowns.

Of course, Moss also had one critical mistake in that half, a mistake that's likely as responsible for the Trojans' loss as any singular play. On a third-and-3, looking to build on a hot start to the third quarter, Moss fired an ill-advised curl route to Zachariah Branch at the sticks. The throw was inadvisable for two reasons. The first is that Moss was far too late to get over to that route; a short curl at the sticks should be thrown rapidly unless the quarterback arrives there late in the progression and there is obvious space with which to work. That's what Moss thought he had, but the problem is that he forgot about the other reason -- Will Johnson. Johnson is the best cornerback in the country and a certified superstar, who's athleticism, instincts and ball skills make him a complete prospect. Avoiding Johnson unless necessary is the advisable course, but if you're going to test him, you have to be absolutely sure he doesn't have an opportunity to take away the football. That wasn't the case here, as Moss seemed to decide reflexively to throw the curl after not finding an open receiver earlier in the progression. With his internal clock screaming that pressure was almost certainly due to arrive, Moss trusted the first thing he saw and fired the football, not considering the positioning of the cornerback nor who he happened to be. It was an egregious mistake that might have cost the Trojans the game, and Moss made it clear that he felt the weight of that decision postgame.

Costly as it was, Moss' play otherwise in the second half was highly impressive. His control of the offense, accuracy with the football and confidence in both his arm and decision-making allowed him to eventually get the Trojans' rolling rather smoothly. Marching USC down the field, he looked every bit as assured as we've seen him before, despite the unrelenting pressure and the high quality of coverage he faced. Moss completed some absolutely gorgeous passes in this game, fitting balls into deadly narrow windows with near-perfect touch and timing. His touchdown to Ja'Kobi Lane placed right between the corner and safety was a beauty, but my favorite Moss throw of the day came on a crossing route by Branch to jumpstart the team's first scoring drive midway through the second quarter.

With the pocket beginning to collapse around him, Moss found Branch as he cut up the right side of the field at a depth of about 20 yards. Despite the presence of a defender lurking underneath and another working to get over to the route, Moss fired the football decisively, layering the ball masterfully to place it just over the reach of both defenders and right to the spot where only Branch's two hands could get to it.