USC's much-needed bounce-back 42-20 win over Rutgers last week showed some willingness from the Trojans coaching staff to adjust and make needed changes.

Inserting Makai Lemon on kick returns paid immediate dividends, and defensive coordinator D'Anton Lynn's tweaks led to a season-high 24 quarterback pressures and 4 sacks with a pair of young edge rushers in Sam Greene and Kameryn Fountain making big impacts in increased roles.

While the Trojans (4-4, 2-4 Big Ten) can't turn back the clock and undo the damage already done this season, the developments last week were encouraging for what this team can be the rest of the way.

As always, we combed through the film and go in-depth on the details in our top 10 takeaways from USC's performance.

By now, we all have a clear image of what a Lincoln Riley offense is supposed to look like. With a sample size of multiple seasons at Oklahoma and USC, the defining traits and aesthetics of Riley’s offense are well-established at this point. It’s characterized by a machine-like feel, working as an engine destined to execute its processes reliably to move the football down the field on what feels like every possession. Predicated on a pass-first approach that builds with efficient runs and short throws before expertly manipulating the downfield passing game, the Riley offense is almost expected to score every time it hits the field when it’s working as designed.

In the head coach’s debut 2022 season at USC, his offense fit the bill almost to a T under the direction of Caleb Williams, finishing the year as one of college football's most productive and efficient groups. That success carried over to 2023, albeit more spottily as the Trojans hit prolonged dry spells in which the offense couldn’t get moving. This 2024 offense, however, might have been difficult for anyone with a previous familiarity with Riley’s units to recognize.

Though the Trojans have remained generally productive, through the first seven games they’d hardly come close to scratching the level of efficiency we’d come to associate with Riley’s offenses. Starting with the opener against LSU, this offense had not at any point looked like an machine-like force destined to carry the football to the end zone. Thanks to shaky line play early on, unreliable wide receiver performances, inconsistent quarterbacking and often the coach’s own decision-making, the Trojans have been fairly normal on the offensive side of the ball; capable of producing the yards and points necessary to win about any game but not the deluge of scoring Riley squads have historically used to drown opponents wholly.

Given the significant improvement of the USC defense so far this season, that limitation may have cost this team tremendously. Last year’s USC squad would have very likely been a contender to win the conference had it possessed this year’s defense. This year’s team, whose four losses have come by margins of 3, 7, 3, and 1, would very likely be undefeated or close to it had the offense been able to match the pace we’ve come to expect of Riley’s groups.

Coming into the game Friday night against Rutgers past the halfway point of the season, we hadn’t seen the offense put up a single performance at that standard of quality against a power conference opponent. There was good reason to wonder if this team would at all be capable of conjuring such a showing and adjacent questions about Riley’s failure to optimize what’s supposed to be his calling card as a head coach.

It turned out that USC’s performance against Rutgers was a vintage Riley offensive masterclass, one that saw each position group on that side of the ball play up to its capabilities in coordinated and complementary fashion. From the start of this contest to the finish, the offense felt as though it was in control of the game, consistently turning its possessions into touchdowns. In the first half of play, the unit was practically flawless, turning each of its four chances with the football into 7 points. Riley’s balance between the rushing and passing attacks played a significant role in that efficiency, handing the ball off 11 times alongside 16 pass attempts.

Woody Marks was dynamic on the ground once again behind an offensive line that did great work in the run game, providing for 67 rushing yards and a career-high 3 touchdowns on his 10 first-half carries. Marks’ productivity was paired with a return to normal for quarterback Miller Moss, who threw the football with the same kind of decisiveness, smarts and accuracy as he had earlier in the season. Moss (20 of 28 for 308 passing yards, 2 TDs and 0 INTs) did his work this week carefully within the bounds of the offense, making good reads and getting the ball out of his hands quickly when he needed to. He seemed to mostly have kicked the habit of big-play hunting that cost the Trojans so dearly in recent weeks, instead trusting his own decision-making and his playmakers to keep the offense moving. As a result, the offense was once again a machine chugging reliably downfield, its very appearance on the field serving as an omen for imminent points to a strained Rutgers defense.

Though the Trojans slowed down somewhat in the second half (2 TDs on five real drives), the unit remained consistent enough to actually allow the team to pull away for a comfortable victory for the first time in a long while. Even despite some struggles from the defense down the stretch, 42 points wound up being plenty enough for the Trojans to win in healthy fashion. For the first time all season, we got a glimpse of what Riley’s offense is supposed to look like for four quarters. This is how the USC offense should function on a weekly basis; taking care of the football, keeping defenses guessing with a balanced approach and consistently scoring points when given the chance. What was frustrating throughout the seven games prior for USC was that they often appeared capable of doing just that but routinely failed to get it done, due to some combination of errors by the quarterback, offensive line, receivers and play-caller. This week, we finally received a clean performance from each of the responsible parties, all working in concert within their respective spheres of responsibility.

If the Trojans can maintain some semblance of that confidence and reliability over the remainder of the season, this team should sincerely be capable of outstripping most of its competition. It remains to be seen whether or not Riley has firmly gotten the ship back on course, but this performance provided reason for optimism toward the affirmative.

After consecutive poor showings against Penn State and Maryland, questions began to swirl around Miller Moss’s place at the helm of this USC offense. His calling cards prior had been his pristine decision-making and stellar accuracy with the football, making his struggles in those areas over the course of those two contests highly concerning. A third straight uneven performance from Moss would only have caused those fires to burn hotter, regardless of the outcome on the day. To Riley’s great relief (ostensibly), Moss answered the bell, putting together a clean, efficient and controlled performance over the course of four quarters.

Moss’ play was once more reminiscent of his early season outings as he showed a steady handle on the offense, making good decisions within the framework of the play call and reliably placing the football where it needed to be. Though he did have a few misses on what should have been better reads and throws, Moss was on the money for most of the game. He made the most of the good blocking he received, maintaining great pocket presence without allowing himself to hold onto the football for too long in a fashion he’d failed to optimize in previous weeks. Moss’s ability to fire the football over the middle of the field is perhaps his greatest strength as a passer, and he was again able to strain the defense with his success in that area as he found receivers on-time with near-perfect ball placement.

Take for example his gorgeously placed dart up the seam to Lake McRee or his twin pair of passes to Makai Lemon for gains of 70 and 40 yards.

Moss remains a player constrained by physical limitations, but his combination of particular traits and mental acuity make him fully qualified to execute this offense at a high level when he’s dialed in. The fact that he wasn’t in the zone as such arguably cost the Trojans the two prior games, but his showing against Rutgers demonstrated once again what he can be when he’s on his game.

This upcoming test against Washington in Seattle -- against a Huskies team that ranks 1st nationally in pass defense at 123.1 yards per game -- will do a lot to indicate whether Moss has indeed recaptured his form, or if last week was just another blip on an up-and-down year.