Lincoln Riley and his USC football staff failed to clean up mistakes

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USC did not play a terrible football game at Michigan. The Trojans outscored Michigan 24-6 after trailing 14-0. They were in position to win the game with four minutes left in regulation. They did a number of things well. Yet, the bottom line about this game — and any other game with a similar up-and-down trajectory — is that there were way too many periods of inconsistency and sloppiness for USC to take full control. This game went down to the wire, much as the LSU game did. USC could have done a lot of things to ensure the game wasn’t decided on one drive, one fourth-down play, one moment in which Michigan executed better than USC. The Trojans cannot continue to be a team which makes loads of errors and thereby allows a game to come down to the final minutes. LSU and Michigan both came down to the last minute. The Trojans survived one of these close shaves, but not two. This team has to be able to put its foot down and execute with much more precision on both sides of the ball, but especially offense. USC has not been that good on offense, which is a central reason why Lincoln Riley — the overseer of offense — has to do a far, far better job than what we have seen in three games.

Let’s dive into Lincoln Riley’s central failures and the failures of the coaching staff through Week 4:

OFFENSIVE LINE

Tim Prangley, Trojans Wire

Elijah Paige got bullied in this game. The offensive line as a whole played one really good quarter — the third — and was poor in the other three quarters. Halftime changes on the line did well in that third quarter, but Michigan’s defensive front regained control in the fourth. USC’s final touchdown was created by the defense, not the offense. USC’s offense has scored under 28 points against both LSU and Michigan. The offensive line getting pushed back in pass protection and not being…

Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/lincoln-riley-usc-football-staff-161127853.html

Author : Trojans Wire

Publish date : 2024-09-22 16:11:27

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