No one is excited with a 3-1 record at USC, especially when their offense, led by Cody Kessler this time, continues to look bad (or worse), wasting away the talents of a talent like wide receiver Marqise Lee.
There isn’t much the Junior can do, even if he did finish with 6 receptions for 72 yards on a 13-for-26 throwing day from Kessler. USC won 17-14 against Utah State thanks to their defense and a winning field goal by Andre Heidari late in the fourth quarter. Otherwise, it was similar to the rest of the season – unimpressive and depressing compared to the usual high expectations people have for this program.
The year after Matt Barkley was bound to be tough, but right now it seems like if the 7-6 finish from last season returns, it might not be such a bad way to end the season. USC are struggling against opponents they’re not even used to seeing in their rear mirror due to their lack of depth and talent on the offensive side of the ball, and the highest quality of opponent they’ve met so far this season was Washington State. The rest of the way? Arizona State, Arizona, Notre Dame, Stanford and UCLA. Not looking like the easiest of roads for a team with too many struggles right now.
Lane Kiffin is trying to look on the bright side, partially by making Utah State look like a lot better team than they actually are. The Aggies aren’t exactly bottom feeders, but they shouldn’t be a team USC struggle so hard to get by.
We knew it was a really good team we were going to play. Anytime you have a great player at quarterback like they do , it’s going to be hard to take him out of the game. Their defense has played really tough and really physical. It was just a lights-out game defensively. It was really cool see the way they finished. So many times Utah State had an opportunity to score, but our defense just kept going out there. Offensively, we can do much better. Obviously we want to score every time we have the ball. We weren’t able to do that. There were different reasons why throughout the game. We will go back to work and try to get better.
Answers? Hard to see them coming, as USC are averaging just 22.3 points per game so far this season, before they’ve met a higher grade of defenses, even if once again, Utah State aren’t exactly an easy outing.
Marqise Lee is trying to show belief in his team and his quarterbacks. Talking about penalties that held his team back instead of an offensive line and a quarterback that aren’t in complete synchronization, and might take too long to get it right. Lee needs the ball in his hands to make something happen, but he’s the obvious choice for every defense to focus on, while even getting the pass to him doesn’t seem to be the easiest of tasks these days, telling of how low the Trojans are as a program right now, probably because of a bad choice in coach selection and dealing with the penalties that keep hitting this program.