USC football has the same problems year after year …

Ryan Kartje (LA Times)  —  At USC, It feels like 2023 all over again. Here we are, assessing the wreckage of a defense that today feels destined to doom USC’s season in some form or fashion. Except now there is no Alex Grinch to take the brunt of the blame. Now USC has one of the highest-paid coordinators in college football leading a defense with NFL-caliber prospects at every level.

But as its defense took the field for the final drive Saturday, with a one-point lead and 1:55 remaining, it felt inevitable that Illinois would march down the field to win. And sure enough, they made it into field-goal range with nearly half the time still remaining.

It wasn’t supposed to be this way. Not after coordinator D’Anton Lynn oversaw a significant step forward from the defense last season. Not after USC led the nation in sacks through four weeks of this one. It was barely a week ago that Lynn was being mentioned as a potential head coaching candidate. Now suddenly it’s not even clear how he can right the ship with his own defense.

The secondary is a mess right now. Injuries have definitely made matters more difficult in that department, as USC has been without Chasen Johnson and Prophet Brown, both of whom it expected to count on. USC can’t control injuries, but it’s clear that the secondary doesn’t have anywhere close to the depth that coaches thought it did.

“We’re playing pretty shorthanded,” coach Lincoln Riley said. “But nobody cares. There’s no excuses. … We’ve got to play better and coach better there.”

Even before the loss to Illinois, USC’s defense ranked among the worst in college football at allowing big plays through the air. Through five games, USC has now allowed 51 (!!) pass plays of 10 yards or more, good for 127th in the nation. The combined record of the seven teams below them on that list, if you were wondering, is a paltry 12-23.

The whole operation imploded Saturday without star safety Kamari Ramsey, who contracted food poisoning the morning of the game. Without him in the slot, where he’s had to fill in for most of the season, Illinois torched the Trojans defense over the middle of the field. Illini quarterback Luke Altmyer finished 16 of 18 for 248 yards and two touchdowns — all just over the middle!

Lynn knew all game that USC was being dominated in that area, and yet, seemed helpless to do anything about it. By game’s end, it was unheralded true freshman Kendarius Reddick taking most of the reps at nickel.

But the secondary wasn’t the sole reason why Altmyer was able to pick the defense apart. USC’s pass rush, which had 16 sacks through four games, was completely neutralized by an Illinois offensive line that, prior to Saturday, had allowed the most sacks of any team in the Big Ten.

USC’s starting front four finished with two total pressures. Two! Anthony Lucas had seven himself last Saturday!

Without any semblance of a pass rush, USC’s struggling secondary was left completely exposed. So much so that Lynn had to resort to blitzing from the defensive backfield, like he did last season when USC couldn’t create pressure. The defensive backs finished with the same number of pressures — and the game’s only sack.

“The struggles in the pass defense are at all levels,” Riley said. “You gotta affect the quarterback, you’ve gotta be sound in coverage, and you’ve gotta eliminate the run game. It’s still team defense at the end of the day.”

And still, in spite of its lackluster afternoon, USC was just one final-drive pass interference away from potentially escaping Champaign 5-0. One stop was all it would’ve taken for us to be discussing a totally different narrative two days later.

The road, after USC’s bye, only gets bumpier from here. Three of USC’s next six opponents rank among the top 12 highest-scoring offenses in America. Expect that every team from here on out will copy Illinois’ approach for shutting down the Trojans’ front four and attacking their secondary.

It’ll be up to USC’s coaches to find a counter. The school paid whatever it had to to keep Lynn precisely for moments like this. Now it’s time for him to earn that massive paycheck.

ILL players celebrate the winning field goal against USC. (Craig Pessman / AP)

Extra points

Brilliant Makai Lemon catches a TD against ILL. (Craig Pessman/AP)

—I actually didn’t mind the decision to score when they did on USC’s final drive. Fans seemed upset by the fact that USC scored with so much time left in the fourth quarter. But I thought Riley’s explanation afterwards was sufficient. USC was on the 16-yard line when Jayden Maiava threw his touchdown pass to Makai Lemon. Who’s to say, if Riley calls two rush plays in that moment, that USC doesn’t end up with 4th-and-3 or something similar with the game now suddenly on the line? There’s no guarantee there that USC will score a touchdown. Would it have been ideal to run more clock? Sure. But I don’t fault Riley for making the call or Maiava for making the throw he did, when he did. “You’ve gotta live with those,” Riley said after. “I’ve been in that situation as a coach and I’ve seen it played too conservative too, where you say, ‘OK, I’m gonna bleed clock the first couple downs,’ then all of a sudden it’s third down, that place is going crazy, and you’ve only got two shots. At the end of the day, you have to score.

—Two worse mistakes do stick out in my mind. Both came in the second quarter, and both could’ve totally changed the tenor of the game. The first came on one of the coolest playcalls I’ve ever seen from Riley, as Waymond Jordan took the snap, faked a handoff on the read option, then proceeded to pitch to Jayden Maiava, who was lined up as a receiver on the perimeter. Maiava immediately launched a pass to Makai Lemon, who took it 75 yards to paydirt. But the play was called back, on account of center J’Onre Reed floating downfield, blocking no one in particular. He was flagged for illegal man downfield, and USC ended up turning the ball over on downs at midfield. The other huge mistake came just before the half. With 11 seconds remaining, Riley dialed up a pass play that took far too long to develop, leaving the Trojans with only five seconds on the clock. USC should have had two bites at the apple with that much time. But it settled for a field goal instead … and lost by two points.

—Makai Lemon has been the best receiver in college football. Full stop. Illinois knew that Ja’Kobi Lane’s absence meant that Lemon would be even more important to USC’s passing attack, and still, Lemon managed to reel in a career–high 11 receptions. He would’ve been over the 200-yard mark if not for his 75-yard touchdown being called back. It would take eye-popping numbers for Lemon to be considered a Heisman contender, but with the most receiving yards in college football right now, is he really that far off from being in that conversation?

—USC doesn’t have an answer for its penalty woes. After its fourth straight week of eight-plus penalties, Riley was asked once again what he can do about it. He didn’t have much of an answer. “You just keep going,” he said. “There’s no magic thing. You just keep going, keep teaching, keep making examples of the guys that are doing it.” To be fair, I’m not sure what you say at this point. But only three teams in college football have lost more yards due to penalties this season.

—Reinforcements are coming after the bye week. USC should be healthier when it next takes the field against Michigan, two Saturdays from now, even though center Kilian O’Connor will miss at least the next two games. But wideout Ja’Kobi Lane and left tackle Elijah Paige are expected to be back, as is Kamari Ramsey. USC should also finally have standout freshman Alex Graham available to step in at nickel as well. That should help. But will it fix all that ails USC’s defense? Doubtful.

latimes.com

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