USC’s humbled defense uses bye week to work on tackling
Trojans gave up 562 yards, missed 18 tackles and allowed 148 yards after the catch in their 43-42 loss to Utah
Adam Grosbard (OC Register) — LOS ANGELES — When practice ended Tuesday, USC linebacker Shane Lee was the last man on the field. He methodically would situate a weighted bag upright, get into position, then tackle the dummy. Then he repeated the entire process.
It’s not something you’d expect to see a senior like Lee doing. But after a 43-42 loss to Utah in which he missed five tackles, and USC as a whole missed 18, you get back to the basics.
For defensive coordinator Alex Grinch, that process started immediately after Saturday’s loss. On the bus to the airport, Grinch pulled out his iPad and began watching the post-mortem.
“It stings, it burns,” Grinch said. “You work your tail off, and these guys do, and the coaching staff does. And we understand the expectations at USC and we understand when we don’t get the outcomes that we want, it’s on us.”
Any which way you slice it, the game was a disaster for the USC defense. From 562 yards allowed to three first downs by penalty to a single tackle for loss to 148 yards after the catch, 79 by Utes tight end Dalton Kincaid alone.
There are many factors that led to those numbers, from failures to complete sacks in the backfield to blown coverage. But most of the disappointments come back to missed tackles, which is why veterans like Lee focused on that this week in practice.
“Finishing,” Lee said of the cause. “For different people, it might mean different things, but running your feet, wrapping strong, driving your feet on contact. Fundamentals, just getting back to the basics.”
Prior to Week 7, the USC defense had exceeded expectations and been a major contributor to the Trojans’ 6-0 start. The team led the nation in sacks and turnovers forced after six weeks. Which is perhaps why the losing effort versus Utah shocked the unit to its core.
Grinch and head coach Lincoln Riley emphasized that one bad performance doesn’t erase the effort from the first six games. But with a week off prior to another road game at Arizona, the Trojans have been afforded some time to reflect.
“If we own it, we have a chance to do something about it,” Grinch said. “If we do the excuses or, ‘Well, maybe we were close,’ so you feel better, we don’t feel good right now. We don’t. The double-edged sword of a bye week is we don’t have to feel good yet. We don’t have to flip the script yet.”
In other circumstances, USC might have taken the bye week easy and given its starters a chance to heal and rest. But that idea was dismissed with the need to work on tackling becoming so urgent.
“There’s no balance. We gotta clean it up,” Riley said. “If we’re healthy but not tackling well, it doesn’t matter.”
Which is why Lee, with a soft cast around his left hand, was out late Tuesday getting in some extra practice with a tackling dummy. But the captain cautioned against any overreactions from his teammates.
“I don’t think we need to abandon ship or anything like that,” the Alabama transfer said. “I just think we need to tighten the hatches and bear down and really just dig into the details and focus in.”
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There hasn’t been a lot of improvement in the Trojan run defense from the first game to this last one. that I can tell. It is still the blaring weakness on this team. We have to give LR time to show us he can develop a great defense to match that of his offense. I am in hope we will see LR address the depth situation on the defensive side and that starts with making defensive players a priority in this coming NSD. This current team will go as far in winning as its offense alone will carry it. Against… Read more »
True, our D in general, BOTH pass and run, had its downs, then ups, then downs. USC’s D been good against the “state” schools= Fresno, Oregon and Washington allowing only 45 points AGAINST ALL THREE schools. SC’s D was so-so against the other “state” school [Arizona]. I recognize that “Points allowed” does not necessarily correlate with “run yards allowed”, but “points allowed” does point to some good SC Defense.
The Athletic revisits preseason college football predictions: We were wrong (and sometimes right)! We were wrong! USC will need some time to jell Bruce Feldman, insider: “I thought USC was a 9-3-ish team this season. No doubt, they were going to be dramatically better with Lincoln Riley running the offense. Plus, bringing in Caleb Williams (who knows his system) and Travis Dye were massive upgrades. The late addition of Pitt’s Biletnikoff Award-winning Jordan Addison gave the Trojans a much-needed No. 1 receiver. That was a big boost. Two months into the season, that group has more than lived up to the hype. Williams’ ability to extend plays with his legs and… Read more »
It’s a little weird how this poor tackling thing has kind of set in with this USC team as a problem all of the sudden. After watching the USC/UTAH game again, and all the yards after contact, that’s even more evident. I’m thinking LR believes he can fix that regardless of USC’s talent, especially with this bye week.
I think what they are saying is to execute what they are taught. Linebackers need to pick up receivers coming out, not chasing after them. Edge has to crush his side of the line and penetrate. Defensive backs need to look for the ball, play tighter, and tackle harder. D line needs to hold their ground in the gaps where they line up. Execution.
LR ON PLAYERS CLOSE TO A BREAKTHROUGH Riley — “There are probably 10 guys on the team right now that are really close to making a big impact on Saturdays for us. I would put (DB) Latrell McCutchin in that category. I put (DB) Jacob Covington in that category. I put (LB) Raesjon Davis in that category. I put (DL) Earl Barquet in that category. I put (OL) Mason Murphy in that category. I put (RB) Raleek Brown in that category. I put (WR) CJ Williams in that category. Michael Jackson (WR), I put him in that category. I probably… Read more »
Yes, if you see a problem with Riley and Caleb is that they seem to go to the same guys over and over. Addison, Mario, and Dye. When finally they went to the tight end it worked out. They can’t steamroll over the good teams with their talent. They have to mix it up. On defense the same thing. Why take so long to double Utah TE? Sure you go with what is working. But as Norm Chow used to do it is sometimes wise to set up the other team to expect something and throw something different for a… Read more »
Overall, Grinch has been a good USC DC IMO. But his defense’s performance against UTAH was nothing short of putrid, no matter how you look at it. Of course on the day, USC abused the Utes just as badly. It was a wild, exciting affair in front of the largest Rice-Eccles crowd in history (thank you Trojans), with both teams helpless against each other. USC — 556 total yds and 28 1st downs; UTAH — 562 yds, 31 1st downs. But if you’re a USC fan, you have to wonder why USC never made some obvious adjustments, or why so… Read more »
Our Defense is a work in progress, we knew that after game 1; we know that now. Still, they are damn good and getting better. the 2 “touching-the-QB” penalties hurt SC, no doubt. How many Pac-12 refs does it take to screw in a light bulb? six…and it’s solar paneling.
Student Body Right USC NIL collective shuts down after death of founder LAT (Ryan Kartje) — “Just a few days before he died, Dale Rech answered a call from his hospital bed. “Bill Hadden wanted to discuss Student Body Right, the collective for name, image and likeness that he and Rech launched at USC in August against the university’s wishes. Namely, Hadden worried it was falling apart. “USC and its in-house, NIL operation, BLVD, had made clear on many occasions that it viewed Student Body Right and its plan to pay every Trojans football player ‘the equivalent of a base salary’ as an existential… Read more »
I hope coaches can teach #6 Blackmon from grabbing jerseys. That said, I can feel it in my bones= USC will win out the rest of the season. I’m always right…Just ask my wife😉PS: most impressive University that SC has played this year= Rice University: they are still on the honor system run by Students themselves, so they can take tests home, close their books and take the tests. All tests are unmonitored…impressive indeed. Now are there exceptions, like some of their football players?😯
Something is amiss alright. Grinch saying “you work your tail off and these guys do and so does the coaching staff”? Working your tail off doing what? Missing 18 tackles and losing 148 yards after the opponent catches the ball? Giving up 562 yards this game along with the previous games played so far showing the same story. Well the word is out, you can run on USC. You have to wonder can our defense hold onto a lead or does the offense have to keep scoring till the end of the game to win a game? After all, the… Read more »
I have to agree with you some, the platitudes are different this year but the defense is still not where we would like it to be. At least they aren’t talking about looking at tape and making corrections. Practices are harder and with so many new guys you have to wonder if they have gelled yet.
Steveg, gelling is a good answer for some of the defense’s inabilities. And, you would have to believe the coaching staff knew first hand what they were facing in who stayed on the team and who came into this years’s program during spring & pre-season workout/training. They had to know who they could depend on in making tackles and who were not so dependable. This is why I mentioned earlier about Grinch’s remark everyone is working hard but the results aren’t there in fact may be worsening? The next 3-games the offense will outscore the other teams. But the last… Read more »
This is the perfect time for a bye week. Bye weeks are all about extra work on fundamentals and developing depth. Hopefully we can square away our tackling and coverage techniques for the second half of the season. We are capable of it.
Grinch is too reactive defensively. We are not dictating what offenses need to do to move the ball on us, and there is little to no deception. So when we try to adjust to take something away, the other team just adjusts back and exploits our adjustment. We need to do better tackling, obviously. The kids need a John McKay speech that there is NO rule against tackling. But the scheme needs work too, and we need to get offenses guessing about what the post-snap defense will look like.
Just a thought Rock, but I truly don’t feel that USC has the physical defensive talent across the board to dictate to offenses as you suggest. Too many gaps, especially on the no-depth DL and at LB, and not enough speed. JMHO. Scheme’s great, but it’s no substitute for talent. LR needs more time to recruit and fill holes.
I hear you Allen, and it’s a good point. No question he needs more horses on that side of the ball. But you coach with what you have, and I think we can do more on the psychological side of things to tip the field a little more to our D. Look at UCLA – their talent on D is probably a bit worse than ours, but they are doing a lot more this year to show different pre-snap and post-snap looks and confuse opposing teams. They are not great defensively, but they are serviceable. I know they were at… Read more »
Pac-12 announces change to Pac-12 Baseball Tournament format SAN FRANCISCO – The Pac-12 announced today a change in format for the Pac-12 Baseball Tournament, expanding the field to nine teams and switching to pool play. There will be three teams in each pool, with each team playing two games in pool play. The 2023 tournament is scheduled for May 23-27, 2023 at Scottsdale Stadium which moves to Tuesday through Saturday. “Even with the great success of the inaugural Pac-12 Baseball Tournament, we feel like these adjustments will make the event even better for both our student-athletes and our fans,” said Pac-12 Deputy Commissioner Teresa… Read more »
It’s not something you’d expect to see a senior like Lee doing. But after a 43-42 loss to Utah in which he missed five tackles, and USC as a whole missed 18, you get back to the basics.
Any which way you slice it, the game was a disaster for the USC defense. From 562 yards allowed to three first downs by penalty to a single tackle for loss to 148 yards after the catch, 79 by Utes tight end Dalton Kincaid alone.
There hasn’t been a lot of improvement in the Trojan run defense from the first game to this last one. that I can tell. It is still the blaring weakness on this team. We have to give LR time to show us he can develop a great defense to match that of his offense. I am in hope we will see LR address the depth situation on the defensive side and that starts with making defensive players a priority in this coming NSD. This current team will go as far in winning as its offense alone will carry it. Against… Read more »
True, our D in general, BOTH pass and run, had its downs, then ups, then downs. USC’s D been good against the “state” schools= Fresno, Oregon and Washington allowing only 45 points AGAINST ALL THREE schools. SC’s D was so-so against the other “state” school [Arizona]. I recognize that “Points allowed” does not necessarily correlate with “run yards allowed”, but “points allowed” does point to some good SC Defense.
The Athletic revisits preseason college football predictions: We were wrong (and sometimes right)! We were wrong! USC will need some time to jell Bruce Feldman, insider: “I thought USC was a 9-3-ish team this season. No doubt, they were going to be dramatically better with Lincoln Riley running the offense. Plus, bringing in Caleb Williams (who knows his system) and Travis Dye were massive upgrades. The late addition of Pitt’s Biletnikoff Award-winning Jordan Addison gave the Trojans a much-needed No. 1 receiver. That was a big boost. Two months into the season, that group has more than lived up to the hype. Williams’ ability to extend plays with his legs and… Read more »
It’s a little weird how this poor tackling thing has kind of set in with this USC team as a problem all of the sudden. After watching the USC/UTAH game again, and all the yards after contact, that’s even more evident. I’m thinking LR believes he can fix that regardless of USC’s talent, especially with this bye week.
I think what they are saying is to execute what they are taught. Linebackers need to pick up receivers coming out, not chasing after them. Edge has to crush his side of the line and penetrate. Defensive backs need to look for the ball, play tighter, and tackle harder. D line needs to hold their ground in the gaps where they line up. Execution.
Our defense was not good at all against Utah, but if you take those two terrible RTP calls, Utah has 14 less points.
Do you mean “touching the passer” penalties?
LR ON PLAYERS CLOSE TO A BREAKTHROUGH Riley — “There are probably 10 guys on the team right now that are really close to making a big impact on Saturdays for us. I would put (DB) Latrell McCutchin in that category. I put (DB) Jacob Covington in that category. I put (LB) Raesjon Davis in that category. I put (DL) Earl Barquet in that category. I put (OL) Mason Murphy in that category. I put (RB) Raleek Brown in that category. I put (WR) CJ Williams in that category. Michael Jackson (WR), I put him in that category. I probably… Read more »
Yes, if you see a problem with Riley and Caleb is that they seem to go to the same guys over and over. Addison, Mario, and Dye. When finally they went to the tight end it worked out. They can’t steamroll over the good teams with their talent. They have to mix it up. On defense the same thing. Why take so long to double Utah TE? Sure you go with what is working. But as Norm Chow used to do it is sometimes wise to set up the other team to expect something and throw something different for a… Read more »
Overall, Grinch has been a good USC DC IMO. But his defense’s performance against UTAH was nothing short of putrid, no matter how you look at it. Of course on the day, USC abused the Utes just as badly. It was a wild, exciting affair in front of the largest Rice-Eccles crowd in history (thank you Trojans), with both teams helpless against each other. USC — 556 total yds and 28 1st downs; UTAH — 562 yds, 31 1st downs. But if you’re a USC fan, you have to wonder why USC never made some obvious adjustments, or why so… Read more »
Our Defense is a work in progress, we knew that after game 1; we know that now. Still, they are damn good and getting better. the 2 “touching-the-QB” penalties hurt SC, no doubt. How many Pac-12 refs does it take to screw in a light bulb? six…and it’s solar paneling.
Student Body Right USC NIL collective shuts down after death of founder LAT (Ryan Kartje) — “Just a few days before he died, Dale Rech answered a call from his hospital bed. “Bill Hadden wanted to discuss Student Body Right, the collective for name, image and likeness that he and Rech launched at USC in August against the university’s wishes. Namely, Hadden worried it was falling apart. “USC and its in-house, NIL operation, BLVD, had made clear on many occasions that it viewed Student Body Right and its plan to pay every Trojans football player ‘the equivalent of a base salary’ as an existential… Read more »
I hope coaches can teach #6 Blackmon from grabbing jerseys. That said, I can feel it in my bones= USC will win out the rest of the season. I’m always right…Just ask my wife😉PS: most impressive University that SC has played this year= Rice University: they are still on the honor system run by Students themselves, so they can take tests home, close their books and take the tests. All tests are unmonitored…impressive indeed. Now are there exceptions, like some of their football players?😯
In the end Rice is not a bad football team. Undermanned yes, but doing a great job with what they have to work with.
Something is amiss alright. Grinch saying “you work your tail off and these guys do and so does the coaching staff”? Working your tail off doing what? Missing 18 tackles and losing 148 yards after the opponent catches the ball? Giving up 562 yards this game along with the previous games played so far showing the same story. Well the word is out, you can run on USC. You have to wonder can our defense hold onto a lead or does the offense have to keep scoring till the end of the game to win a game? After all, the… Read more »
I have to agree with you some, the platitudes are different this year but the defense is still not where we would like it to be. At least they aren’t talking about looking at tape and making corrections. Practices are harder and with so many new guys you have to wonder if they have gelled yet.
Steveg, gelling is a good answer for some of the defense’s inabilities. And, you would have to believe the coaching staff knew first hand what they were facing in who stayed on the team and who came into this years’s program during spring & pre-season workout/training. They had to know who they could depend on in making tackles and who were not so dependable. This is why I mentioned earlier about Grinch’s remark everyone is working hard but the results aren’t there in fact may be worsening? The next 3-games the offense will outscore the other teams. But the last… Read more »
This is the perfect time for a bye week. Bye weeks are all about extra work on fundamentals and developing depth. Hopefully we can square away our tackling and coverage techniques for the second half of the season. We are capable of it.
Grinch is too reactive defensively. We are not dictating what offenses need to do to move the ball on us, and there is little to no deception. So when we try to adjust to take something away, the other team just adjusts back and exploits our adjustment. We need to do better tackling, obviously. The kids need a John McKay speech that there is NO rule against tackling. But the scheme needs work too, and we need to get offenses guessing about what the post-snap defense will look like.
Just a thought Rock, but I truly don’t feel that USC has the physical defensive talent across the board to dictate to offenses as you suggest. Too many gaps, especially on the no-depth DL and at LB, and not enough speed. JMHO. Scheme’s great, but it’s no substitute for talent. LR needs more time to recruit and fill holes.
I hear you Allen, and it’s a good point. No question he needs more horses on that side of the ball. But you coach with what you have, and I think we can do more on the psychological side of things to tip the field a little more to our D. Look at UCLA – their talent on D is probably a bit worse than ours, but they are doing a lot more this year to show different pre-snap and post-snap looks and confuse opposing teams. They are not great defensively, but they are serviceable. I know they were at… Read more »
Pac-12 announces change to Pac-12 Baseball Tournament format SAN FRANCISCO – The Pac-12 announced today a change in format for the Pac-12 Baseball Tournament, expanding the field to nine teams and switching to pool play. There will be three teams in each pool, with each team playing two games in pool play. The 2023 tournament is scheduled for May 23-27, 2023 at Scottsdale Stadium which moves to Tuesday through Saturday. “Even with the great success of the inaugural Pac-12 Baseball Tournament, we feel like these adjustments will make the event even better for both our student-athletes and our fans,” said Pac-12 Deputy Commissioner Teresa… Read more »