The USC defense hasn't exactly assuaged any concerns or delivered on preseason optimism through the first two games, and yet the Trojans are 2-0.
If they want to keep that unblemished record, there are a few obvious fixes that will need to happen -- and perhaps happen quickly with a tough test awaiting at Utah this week.
Foremost, the linebacker play has been the opposite of the hype that was emanating from the coaches during the preseason. The group has been the weakness of the defense as a whole.
And the Trojans continue to abandon the middle of the field and allow opposing quarterbacks to scamper for key first downs. Arizona QB Grant Gunnell, who had all of 14 net rushing yards last season, had 55 in the first half alone Saturday.
In general, head coach Clay Helton thought coordinator Todd Orlando made some adjustments in the second half that paid off.
"I thought we turned it around at halftime, third down-wise. They were 6 of 10 on third down going into half, then we come back in the second half and they were 0 for 5, which I thought was big in the game," he said. "In the first half offensively, I thought, man we’re not getting a ton of opportunities here. We only had four opportunities in the first half, and we scored on 3 of the 4. You go back and look at it, you look at the third downs that were being made, and it’s sustained drives of 10, 11, 13, 9. They had 43 plays in the first half. That’s a lot of plays and a lot of opportunities. We shored things up, got some three-and-outs in the second half that were critical, when we hit a lull offensively in the third quarter.
"Then the red zone, I thought the red zone play by the defense was huge part of the game, huge part of the story, to be down there three times, and Arizona got one touchdown of the three, probably the difference in the game how the defense did in the red zone."
As we do each week, we take a closer look through the lens of the PFF grades, snap counts and advanced stats to learn more about the Trojans' defensive performance.
As a reminder of the PFF grading scale, grades in the 90s are elite and rare, grades in the 80s are all-conference level, grades in the 70s become the line between average or a little above and down from there.
RELATED: Inside the PFF grades, snap counts and advanced stats for the USC offense vs. Arizona
