Behind The USC Trojan's Scoring Decline - Part I

="font-weight: bold; text-align: center;">13.5 12.9 5 Non TO LF drive (20-1) 10.9 4.5 17.0 7.7 7.1
Total 41.1 38.1 49.1 30.5 32.6

 

As you can see the sub-totals move around a bit and are pretty interesting once you start comparing the sections with each other across time. I will put them into bar chart format for easier viewing and explanation purposes. Let's start with Category 1—direct scoring by either the defense or special teams.



These initial numbers are not large but they are still significant. The 2003 edition of USC football for example was amazing in that the defense and special teams scored almost a dozen times in one season without the offense ever taking the field.

There were two safeties as well as five interceptions returned for TD (Will Poole, Lofa Tatupu, Jason Leach, Ronald Nunn, and Omar Nazel one each). In addition there were four fumbles returned for touchdown (two by Mike Patterson, and one each by Ronald Nunn, and Kenechi Udeze).

That amount alone accounts for 67 points of the USC total scoring offense that season or an impressive 5.1 points per game on average. Each squad afterwards has scored fewer points in this manner and the 2007 edition was the first team of the Pete Carroll era to be shut out on defense or special teams in terms of scoring.

Even in 2006 LB Brian Cushing scored once versus Notre Dame on an on-side kick off return and CB Terrell Thomas scored once versus Stanford on a blocked kick for example.

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