Pro Football Focus snap counts and grades for USC offense vs. BYU

A number of questions arose about USC's offensive performance and approach in the wake of the Trojans' 30-27 overtime loss at BYU on Saturday.

One prominent one was the usage (or lack thereof) of redshirt freshman running back Markese Stepp, who had 3 carries for 33 yards in the second quarter before being relegated to the bench until re-emerging as a short-yardage specialist in the fourth quarter. We covered that in-depth here.

Another was the play-calling in general in the second half. USC's pass-happy attack was totally grounded coming out of halftime as quarterback Kedon Slovis had just one pass attempt in the third quarter, in part because the rushing attack struggled while leading to two quick punts.

Coach Clay Helton had said BYU's commitment to dropping eight defenders in coverage prompted the adjustment, which is totally logical. Still, fans started wondering aloud if Helton had taken over any portion of the play-calling from offensive coordinator Graham Harrell. (Harrell wasn't available to reporters after the game).

He dismissed that notion Sunday night in his weekly conference call with reporters.

"We always, whether it's offense, defense or special teams, I communicate with each coordinator and we discuss what's going on in the game. Ultimately, Graham's making all the calls and I thought he did a great job," Helton said. "We're seeing drop-8 and all of a sudden we're handing the ball off 45 times for 171 yards. That's what the game dictated and that's what the offense [does] -- it takes what the defense gives you. ...

"But I thought the communication was good as far as exactly what was going on and that the ball needed to be run, and then Graham did a great job of staying patient, staying disciplined and kept on giving it to some good backs and a good offensive line who maintained the line of scrimmage."

RELATED: PFF snap counts and grades for the USC defense vs. BYU

Helton was further asked about the play-calling in overtime, in which Vavae Malepeai rushed for a loss of 1, then rushed again for 5 yards to set up the fateful third-down interception.

"Graham called the plays based on what he felt was going on in the game. We felt like we were running the ball pretty good," Helton said. "We end up getting the first down run where we end up having a little bit of a hole and just missed it. We're sitting there, I'm thinking it's second-and-10, second-and-11 maybe, I thought it was a good call by Graham to get third-and-manageable. ...

"[We had a] third-down spacing play if you go through the read correctly there is a man open, so I thought Graham called a good game. You can always go hindsight after the game, but I thought Graham, for what everybody says is Air Raid, did a wonderful job staying disciplined while the defense was dropping 8 and continuing to run the ball."

Here's what Pro Football Focus thought of USC's offensive performance: