The prevailing thought going into this season was that if USC's defense could be just a little better, a little more disciplined under new coordinator Todd Orlando, the Trojans offense could do the rest.
After all, USC had ranked 20th nationally with 454 yards per game last year and only seemed to be getting better and better as the season went on.
Instead Saturday, it was the Trojans' defense doing the heavy lifting in a 33-17 win at Utah, allowing the Utes' offense only 10 points (7 came off a fumble return for touchdown) and shutting out the home team after halftime.
With each passing week, fans' concerns have continued to mount about the offense.
Statistically, the unit isn't that far off its 2019 rates -- in fact, the Trojans are averaging even more yards overall (470.3 through 3 games to rank 21st nationally). Scoring-wise, USC is 45th nationally at 31.7 points per game after ranking 35th (32.5) last year.
It's just that it hasn't looked the same. Or rather, it's seemed like more a struggle.
The self-inflicted errors and short-yardage failings have been a big part of that. The latter wasn't the issue this week, but a fumble returned for touchdown after a sack on QB Kedon Slovis, and Slovis' interception in the red zone on a miscommunication with tight end Erik Krommenhoek were both costly.
"A lot of teams would be happy with 33 points … and we’re sitting here and saying, gosh, there’s still meat on the bone," coach Clay Helton said. "The biggest thing I took away, I thought we had the chance to put the game away in the first half. It could’ve been a 31-10 ballgame. ... That’s why I thought the opening drive of the second half was so important. Make it a two-score game, challenge the offense, and I thought it was probably the most rhythmic they’ve been during a game. It was nice to see that. But there’s still meat on the bone. I think this is a high-powered offense with a lot of good skill players, and hopefully we can continue to gain rhythm and gain points because I truly believe this can be a 40-, 50-point offense."
As always, we dive deep into the PFF grades, snap counts and advanced metrics to see what it all says about the Trojans' offensive performance.
As a reminder, grades in the 90s are elite and rare, 80s are very good, 70s are solid and as it goes down into the 60s starts to become the dividing line between average and below.
