USC Football Notes: Commitment to the run, short-yardage woes and injuries

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Clay Helton revealed this week that in looking at what USC needed to do differently this fall, at least offensively, he sought comparison to reigning national champion LSU and perennial national power Alabama.

The takeaway was that the Trojans needed a more capable rushing attack to complement their prolific passing offense.

"I put a graph up saying, hey, here’s LSU, who’s an elite passing team, and Alabama, who’s an elite passing team, and USC, who’s an elite passing team. Obviously, LSU won a national championship with I think 168 yards rushing per game. That extra 50 yards they had per-game [more than USC], that helps a quarterback. That helps maybe 5-6 drives and takes some pressure off," Helton said.

Helton and offensive coordinator Graham Harrell have often emphasized over the last month-plus a commitment to being more balanced offensively after ranking 119th nationally last year in rushing at 118.2 yards per game.

Fans will -- and have -- made light of the comparison of the Trojans to those SEC powers, but the general point is fine. LSU and Alabama were the No. 2 and No. 3 passing offenses nationally last season while USC was No. 6 at 335.8 yards per game, but the Tide and Tigers were 56th (168.5) and 60th (166.8) in rushing, well ahead of the Trojans.

The part of Helton's comments that deserves a critical look is the touting of USC's 173 rushing yards Saturday against Arizona -- which was the worst defense in the Pac-12 last year -- as either proof that the goal has been met or a projectable sign of things to come.

The reality is that USC sprung three nice big gains on the ground -- a 49-yard scamper down the sideline by Markese Stepp, a 37-yard run into a wide-open lane up the middle by Stephen Carr and a 19-yard draw up the middle by Carr.

All credit to the play design and blocking on those big gains, but that accounted for 105 of USC's 174 running back rushing yards, meaning the other 27 carries averaged 2.6 yards. Sure, big plays are part of any good rushing performance and can't be discounted, but the point is how often can the Trojans count on a 49-yard run to offset a whole bunch of runs that went nowhere due to the lack of push up front.

Of USC's 30 running back carries Saturday, 14 went for 2 yards or less -- including 7 for 0 or negative yards. Among those was a fourth-and-1 from the Arizona 4 that went for a loss of 2 yards and a third-and-1 from the Wildcats' 10 that went for -3.

The Trojans had just 7 runs of more than 5 yards.

For further perspective, last year, that aforementioned meager USC rushing attack gained 201 yards on the ground against Arizona.

"We really wanted to hit a mark of 165, 170 in each and every game. We think that’s the difference in us winning the championship. To come out of that game with 173 yards rushing, I think that’s critical for our success," Helton said Sunday. "But to be able to rely on that rushing game, I thought was key in the game."

Perhaps it's just a matter of perspective -- those big rushing gains did spur the offense in key moments, but the many, many other running plays that went nowhere complicated things for the Trojans with the Arizona defense trying to take away the downfield passing attack.

"One of the things I think you learn -- and it was the first year in the system for me too as a head coach -- you see how explosive this offense can be. It was a top-20 offense in Year 1. A top-6 passing offense in Year 1 of the system, which blew me away. But as you looked at everything and where you wanted to go, you looked at, OK, what hurt us last year?" Helton said. "What were some of the things that could lead you to a possible loss rather than a victory. .... As we looked at last year and we got into some of those drop-eight situations, we needed to run the ball a little bit better. That was a primary focus. ...

"This is where in Year 2, I think we’re growing. It needed growth, and I think it makes us a more dangerous team. If you look at right now, we’re one of the top-10 offenses in the country. I think we’re No. 9 right now in per-yardage, per-game. That’s an important part."

Again, his point is valid -- it is important for USC to show opponents it can consistently move the ball on the ground as a counter to defenses dropping eight players in coverage to stifle the passing attack. It's most definitely important.

It just remains to be seen if it's something this team can consistently do.

"It's something we believe in and something we believe we have to be able to do at a high level in order to win at the level we want to win at," offensive coordinator Graham Harrell reiterated. "So I think that last week we were pretty efficient and pretty effective in the run game and to be honest with you, that's probably what won us the game, or at least kept us in long enough to be able to find a way to win at the end."

Like Helton said, Saturday at Utah will be a test -- and maybe a more telling gauge of where the Trojans are in that department.