One could harp on some of the sloppiness USC's offense showed early Saturday night, with dropped would-be touchdown passes, misfires and a fumble in the red zone ... if it mattered at all in this one.

It didn't.

Even while leaving some potential points on the table, the Trojans continued their early-season surge by closing out an impressive 48-0 win over Utah State in their home opener inside the Coliseum, outpacing the Aggies in offensive yards 544-190 as D'Anton Lynn's USC defense delivered another emphatic statement.

Utah State (1-1) only crossed midfield twice in its first 10 offensive possessions -- and even then only briefly -- as the Trojans (2-0) were smothering and sound on the defensive side from start to finish en route to the program's first shutout since a 50-0 win over UCLA in 2011.

It wasn't another win over a ranked SEC opponent on a marquee stage like last week vs. LSU, but the Trojans' encore performance was plenty convincing enough to continue raising expectations for this team.

"We've only played two games. I think we're still not even close to as good as we can be," linebacker Easton Mascarenas-Arnold said. "I think that's truly how a good defense should operate -- just always wanting to be one step better. Tonight still wasn't perfect, even though we got what we wanted, which was the win, but we're still climbing to be better every week."

Said quarterback Miller Moss: "I don't think we want to get caught up in where we can go -- I think we're more focused on the present moment. There was a lot of stuff in the first half that we left out there and we've got to continue to climb."

RELATED: Everything Lincoln Riley said after USC's win over Utah State | WATCH: Postgame interviews with USC players

To Moss' point, USC's opening drive of the night was kind of a harbinger for how the first half would go for the unit.

The Trojans drove 77 yards with relative ease, only to then have Moss sail a pass too high for Ja'Kobi Lane, who was open in the back of the end zone. On the next play, Moss fired a precise dart to Lane in the front of the end zone ... but the talented sophomore wide receiver dropped it. USC settled for a field goal.

Two drives later, Zachariah Branch dropped a swing pass to the left with a clear path to the end zone. This time, Woody Marks cleaned things up for the Trojans with a 2-yard touchdown.

But on USC's next possession, Moss immediately hit tight end Lake McRee for a 34-yard strike deep in Utah State territory only to have McRee fumble it away at the 17.

And on the Trojans' next drive, Moss had Makai Lemon wide open down the seam on a flea-flicker but uncorked the pass a tick too late and it was broken up downfield. USC settled for a field goal.

For all those miscues, though, the Trojans still managed to pile up 379 yards and a 27-0 halftime lead, led by touchdowns from Quinten Joyner (9-yard rush on the heels of a 32-yard run), Marks (the aforementioned 2-yard score) and Lemon (on a shake-and-bake move to free himself on a screen for a 6-yard score).

The awakening of the run game was the story of the night for the offense, as USC rumbled for 249 yards on the ground with Marks totaling 103 yards and a TD on just 13 carries and Joyner adding 84 rushing yards and 2 TDs on 10 attempts. The Trojans had rushed for just 29 yards in the opening win over LSU.

"We only need a little bit of hole and [the offensive line] gave it to us really all night," Marks said. "Just coming up from practice from Monday to now, it's been the same. Just doing everything right from practice."

Said coach Lincoln Riley: "It's important. Guys ran hard, we blocked well up front. I thought we took some steps. That was the big thing offensively -- we wanted to be cleaner in the run game, and the big thing defensively is we wanted to be cleaner in our pass defense and communication. I think we did a pretty good job of both tonight. So, yeah, we've got to get better. We did a good job of it. We know we've got some exciting challenges coming up."

Joyner tacked on his second touchdown run (from 2 yards) with 5:31 left in the third quarter to make it 34-0, backup quarterback Jayden Maiava had a Caleb Williams-like scramble to set up his path for a 7-yard touchdown run early in the fourth quarter, and A'Marion Peterson rushed in for a 9-yard score late in the fourth quarter.

The only real threat to the shutout came on Utah State's final drive as it got to the USC 20-yard line, but freshman Kameryn Fountain stuffed running back Herschel Turner for a 4-yard loss, a false start pushed the Aggies back 5 more yards and Fountain and freshman cornerback Braylon Conley then stopped Turner in the backfield again for a loss of 6. The eventual 52-yard field goal try wasn't even close, preserving that 0 on the scoreboard.

"Obviously very hard to shut people out in modern day college football, so really proud of us maintaining our play defensively the entire night," Riley said. "... The guys never really took their foot off the gas, which was exciting to see."

Said Mascarenas-Arnold: "I think that's just a good visualization of our defense and how much work we put in."

Moss finished 21-of-30 passing for 229 yards, 1 TD and 0 interceptions while giving way to Maiava late in the third quarter. Marks did all of his damage in the first half, with those 103 rushing yards and also caught 3 passes for 39 yards. And Joyner finished with 84 yards and 2 touchdowns on 10 carries.

Defensively, Mascarenas-Arnold had an interception on a tipped pass at the line by defensive tackle Gavin Meyer that set USC up for Lemon's score just before halftime. And safety Kamari Ramsey had a sack and forced fumble on fourth-and-long just inside midfield in the third quarter to set up another short USC touchdown drive.

Mascarenas-Arnold tied for the team lead with 7 tackles along with Eric Gentry, who also had 1.5 tackles for loss, including a big sack to help stall Utah State's first drive of the second half.

As for the sterling defensive performance, defensive end Jamil Muhammad echoed the sentiments of his teammates and coach -- this is only the start.

"We can also be much better. Myself included. I'm just not satisfied," he said. "I know what we are going to do, so I'm just excited. I'm not satisfied, but I'm excited at the same time."

USC moved up two spots in the AP poll to No. 11 with the impressive win, and the Trojans now get an early bye week before traveling to Michigan for its Big Ten opener in two weeks.

First quarter

11:13, USC -- Michael Lantz 23-yard field goal, USC 3-0

4:23, USC -- Quinten Joyner 9-yard run (Michael Lantz kick), USC 10-0

Second quarter

13:06, USC -- Woody Marks 2-yard run (Michael Lantz kick), USC 17-0

1:41, USC -- Michael Lantz 24-yard field goal, USC 20-0

0:04, USC -- Makai Lemon 6-yard pass from Miller Moss (Michael Lantz kick), USC 27-0

Third quarter

5:31, USC -- Quinten Joyner 2-yard run (Michael Lantz kick), USC 34-0

Fourth quarter

14:15, USC -- Jayden Maiava 7-yard run (Michael Lantz kick), USC 41-0

6:32, USC -- A'Marion Peterson 9-yard run (Michael Lantz kick), USC 48-0

Running back Woody Marks

He was the only USC starting offensive skill player who didn't have a missed opportunity of some sort. Marks was just straight solid again for the Trojans, rushing for 103 yards and a touchdown on 13 carries and catching 3 passes for 39 yards while only playing the first half.

Linebacker Eric Gentry

We could have gone a lot of ways with this -- it was another true team defensive effort. Gentry tied for the team lead with 7 tackles and had 1.5 tackles for loss, including a big sack to help stall Utah State's first drive of the second half and show the Trojans weren't going to let up at all.

"EG is like energy just bottled up. I'm excited for him," Muhammad said.

Said Riley: "Well, he's healthy, I think No. 1. ... He's done a good job and he's been really engaged, high-energy, as he always is. And I think he's taken to our new defensive staff and scheme and his new teammates really well."

We easily could have made redshirt freshman running back Quinten Joyner the offensive player of the game, as he finished with 84 yards and 2 TDs on 10 carries.

But we wanted to recognize him here!

The best sequence of the game was Joyner's back-to-back runs of 32 and 9 yards as he looked shot out of a cannon in turning USC's second drive into a touchdown.

There was an extended delay in the game during the fourth quarter as the stadium lights shut off abruptly, and Riley said there was a question as to whether the game would continue.

"You're trying to determine at that point if you're going to keep playing or not because you don't know when the next one's going to pop, and right as we were considering maybe not playing anymore they came on, so it was good," he said. "We wanted to play -- the opportunity for our guys to play. These guys work a lot of long hours, man, to be able to play a game."

Passing

Miller Moss - 21/20, 229 yards, 1 touchdown

Jayden Maiava - 8/11, 66 yards

Rushing

Woody Marks - 13 carries, 103 yards, 1 touchdown

Quinten Joyner - 10 carries, 84 yards, 2 touchdowns

Bryan Jackson - 7 carries, 34 yards

A'Marion Peterson - 3 carries, 18 yards, 1 touchdown

Jayden Maiava - 1 carry, 7 yards, 1 touchdown

Miller Moss - 1 carry, 7 yards

Receiving

Lake McRee - 4 catches, 81 yards

Zachariah Branch - 4 catches, 19 yards

Woody Marks - 3 catches, 39 yards

Makai Lemon - 3 catches, 23 yards, 1 touchdown

Walker Lyons - 3 catches, 13 yards

Kyle Ford - 2 catches, 35 yards

Ja'Kobi Lane - 2 catches, 16 yards

Jay Fair - 2 catches, 3 yards

Jaden Richardson - 1 catch, 19 yards

Kyron Hudson - 1 catch, 16 yards

Charles Ross - 1 catch, 11 yards

Kade Eldridge - 1 catch, 11 yards

Quinten Joyner - 1 catch, 9 yards