LAS VEGAS — A lot happened during USC’s thrilling, last-second 27-20 win over LSU on Sunday night. Too much to cover in one story so let’s get to some final thoughts on the Trojans’ victory.
1. You can’t overstate how impressive D’Anton Lynn’s debut as USC’s defensive coordinator was.
There will be some challenges ahead but from a skill and talent perspective, the Trojans might not face a better offense than the Tigers, who have a solid quarterback, a strong group of receivers and a really good offensive line.
But USC’s defense held its own in so many ways. It’s difficult to flip the mindset of a defense that has struggled for several years. It doesn’t happen often, especially throughout an offseason when there haven’t been games to build confidence and a proof of concept.
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But Lynn might be on his way to doing it twice in as many years. He did it at UCLA last season and had the Trojans playing with toughness and physicality that hasn’t been seen from that unit in a while.
It was apparent from the first drive of the game and carried over throughout. LSU finished with 117 yards on 26 carries. The 4.5 yards per carry was a good mark for the Tigers, but aside from a little spurt in the third quarter, it never felt like USC couldn’t handle the run.
Lincoln Riley’s USC Trojans opened the season with an impressive win over LSU on Sunday in Las Vegas. (Kirby Lee / USA Today)
The defense wasn’t blown off the ball like it had been so many times in previous years. The defensive players arrived at the point of contact with force.
Lynn dialed up a well-timed pressure on Garrett Nussmeier to force an incompletion on fourth-and-goal on the game’s opening possession. And adjustments were made.
Tigers wide receiver Kyren Lacy caught seven passes for 94 yards and a touchdown in the first half and looked like he was on his way to a monster day. Lacy didn’t catch a pass in the second half. After rushing for 68 yards in the third quarter, LSU rushed for just 3 in the fourth.
The players played with better fundamentals. They were in the right position. There weren’t a ton of assignment busts. And that’s something we haven’t seen a coaching staff be able to get out of this USC defense in a while.
2. Lynn clearly respected the speed of LSU’s wideouts and wanted to limit the explosive plays. USC’s defensive backs gave the Tigers’ wideouts a ton of cushion, especially in the first half, and it led to a lot of Nussmeier completions.
It allowed the Trojans to keep everything in front of them and limit the explosives. It’s a more NFL-style approach, keep everything in front and make the offense drive down the field and see if it can be perfect for eight to 10 plays four or five times per game.
LSU moved the ball, but USC came up with important stops early (the goal-line stop) and late (held the Tigers to a field goal in the final moments when they could’ve taken the lead).
3. Of course, the main component to keeping everything in front of you is having defenders who can come downhill and tackle properly. It’s difficult to discuss USC’s tackling effort on defense without highlighting safety Kamari Ramsey.
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I wrote about changing the mindset of a defense earlier. Bringing in some solid transfers helps expedite the process, and Ramsey coming from UCLA along with Lynn helps in a major way.
Ramsey flew downhill all night and made impressive tackles throughout the game. Tackling one-on-one in space is hard, especially for college defenders. But Ramsey is sound and aggressive without being reckless in pursuit. It was impressive to watch as Ramsey posted a game-high nine tackles.
Kamari Ramsey reads and closes perfectly. Haven’t seen a USC defense tackle like this in a long time pic.twitter.com/CBxQnZv7pF
— Billy M (@BillyM_91) September 2, 2024
Jaylin Smith started at cornerback and impressed with his tackling as well. He has been at USC and has seen or participated in some of the porous tackling during the past few years. But he has matured during the past three years and has taken a step forward in the mental and physical side of the game, and he stood out for his tackling effort and delivered some forceful hits as well.
Mason Cobb struggled in last year’s defense but played much better and much more sound against LSU and came up with key stops as well.
4. I was interested to see what the defensive line rotation was going to be. Here’s what it looked like, per TruMedia, for the Trojans’ defensive ends and defensive linemen.
Anthony Lucas led the way with 46 snaps out of 64 defensive plays. From there: Nate Clifton (36), Jamil Muhammad (32), Gavin Meyer (32), Bear Alexander (28), Braylan Shelby (26), Kobe Pepe (20), Solomon Tuliaupupu (16), Devan Thompkins III (16) and Same Greene (three).
A few things stand out. Alexander, USC’s most talented defensive lineman, did not start. Meyer, a Wyoming transfer, did. The coaching staff has been challenging Alexander for more growth and consistency. He still played a good amount and was in there in key moments but finished with just one tackle. We’ll see what his role is throughout the season, but Meyer and Clifton held up well.
It’s still wild to see Pepe playing major snaps in a really important game based on how little he played in his previous four years with the program. Credit to him for taking the steps he needed.
Thompkins was a high school basketball player who only played football for a couple of years in high school. He was a major project and barely played his first two years, but Riley has been patient with his development, and USC threw him into the fire for some meaningful playing time in this game.
5. Miller Moss spreads the ball around. Moss passed for 378 yards on Sunday and hit 10 receivers. This is after he passed for 372 yards in the Holiday Bowl.
The impressive thing is the Trojans didn’t have a 100-yard receiver in either game. Moss distributes things evenly and rarely forces bad decisions. He constantly hit his check-downs and took what LSU gave him. He adopted the “you can’t go broke making a profit mindset.”
Moss involved the tight ends more than any other USC quarterback since probably Sam Darnold. Lake McRee had a career-high five receptions for 56 yards, and Kade Eldridge caught a pass.
The tight ends caught just 17 passes in Riley’s first season and 29 last season. They should surpass that this year.
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6. During the offseason, I thought USC needed more from the tight ends when it came to run blocking. They contributed to some of the issues in the running game late last season, particularly in the Holiday Bowl.
Plays like this are a good step forward.
USC TE Lake McRee😳 pic.twitter.com/dU4R0xvOzh
— Cole Cubelic (@colecubelic) September 2, 2024
7. USC’s final drive will make people forget about some of the red-zone issues, but the Trojans’ offense left some meat on the bone in the red zone.
USC made five trips to the red zone. It scored TDs on the first and last trips, but it scored just six points in those middle three. There was a variety of errors: sacks, penalties, drops and missed field goals.
So that’s an area that has to be cleaned up.
8. After the game, I came away thinking USC’s offensive line is its most pressing concern. LSU gave the line some problems, and there are probably at least three teams with better defensive fronts remaining on the schedule: Michigan, Penn State and Notre Dame.
Penn State and Notre Dame come to the Coliseum, and this line will have some more games under its belt by then, but those are going to be challenging.
The toughest challenge will be in a few weeks at Michigan, which probably has the best defensive front in the country. Riley will have to scheme creatively and Moss will have to throw quickly like he did on Sunday.
9. The brightest spot for USC coming out of this game was how it handled LSU’s big punch in the third quarter. The defense gave up a touchdown, and the Tigers took their first lead of the game, 17-13. The offense was struggling to get things going.
It was a dangerous moment for the Trojans. In past years, that was the time things might have crumbled.
But the defense stood tall on several occasions and allowed the offense to win the game late. It was the sort of complementary football and resilience the team simply didn’t display last season and an encouraging sign for this season.
(Top photo of Woody Marks (4), Kyron Hudson (10) and Mason Murphy (76): Candice Ward / Getty Images)
