USC offense gets a lesson in theory versus reality, but wins at Oregon State

Corvallis, Oregon: The place is home to a sports team whose colors are the colors of Halloween. Oregon State home games — football and basketball — are often spooky, creepy events when the weirdest, strangest things happen.

Such was the case for USC once again in Corvallis on Saturday night.

Find anyone — a USC fan or an Oregon State fan — who thought the first half would feature just 10 points, with Chance Nolan throwing a bad interception for the Beavers and Caleb Williams barely being able to complete a pass.

Players were jumpy and anxious. This is part of college football. Yet, the inability of these offenses to settle down was a big part of the story in the first half.

Then came the second half and a supremely dramatic conclusion.

There’s a lot more to say about this night, below:

GAME PRESSURE

USC faced no real game pressure through three weeks. It led by 27 in the second half at Stanford. It led by 18 early in the fourth quarter against Fresno State. It had not yet faced a fierce road crowd this season. Moreover, only half of Reser Stadium was full, due to renovations taking place on the other half of the stadium. That threw off USC? Yes it did. The Trojans and Caleb Williams simply could not settle down in the first half.

THE EARLY MISTAKE

Travis Dye gained more than 35 yards on USC’s first drive. He and the running backs didn’t get another carry on that drive. The philosophy of “make Oregon State stop the run” needed to be in place on that drive. More broadly, “make Oregon State stop something if it works” needed to be in evidence on that drive, and in general. That’s a mistake by Lincoln Riley.

NOT JUST RILEY

While Lincoln Riley did get too pass-happy at times, Caleb Williams also made poor decisions. He could have run for a first down in the red zone but tried to squeeze in a throw which was incomplete. USC then missed a field goal. Taking what the defense gives you was a central key — and theme — for this game. Williams didn’t enter the field ready to apply that lesson.

TEMPO WAS SECONDARY

The crowd bothered USC and slowed down the rate at which plays came in, but with a tempo-based approach, the speed of play calls would have been much less of an issue.

EMPTY BACKFIELDS

Empty backfields were meant to get Oregon State’s defense to spread out and not load up the tackle box, but true unpredictability as an offense rests on being able to run or pass from the same formations. Empty backfields mean passes, not runs. USC was too transparent, and it enabled Oregon State to focus its defense toward the Trojans’ receivers and take them away. Having a tailback ironically enables the passing game to function better, since linebackers and safeties have to consider the possibility of a handoff and might hesitate just enough at (or after) the snap to break in the wrong direction.

QUICK HITTERS

USC overthought run-or-pass, and didn’t think enough about snapping the ball quickly before Oregon State could either set up or change its defensive alignment.

O-LINE LIMITS

We talked about this a lot in the days leading up to the game: If the offensive line wasn’t doing great, plays needed to be quicker to take pressure off the line, or passes (screens) needed to be thrown in the direction where the blitz was coming from. We didn’t see a whole lot of that.

TRUST TRAVIS

USC trusted Travis Dye on a big fourth down in the red zone and was rewarded. Don’t overcomplicate things.

AT SOME POINT, IT'S NOT ABOUT THE COACHING OR PLAY SELECTION

QUICKER

Quicker passes on USC’s late drive fed Caleb Williams’ rhythm. That’s something to note for the future.

Story originally appeared on Trojans Wire