USC vs. Washington State: Game Grades, Analysis for the Trojans and Cougars

The USC Trojans got back to their winning ways on Saturday in Pullman, Washington, against the Washington State Cougars, winning a Pac-12 road affair by the score of 44-17.

The injury of Connor Halliday took all the wind out of the Washington State sails on Saturday, but the offense admirably bounced back in his absence and still found some success. However, there was no stopping USC as it had plenty of good things going in its lopsided win.

Take a look below at game grades for both teams.

Positional Unit	1st-Half Grade	Final Grade
Pass Offense	B+	B+
Run Offense	C+	B
Pass Defense	B+	B
Run Defense	A-	A-
Special Teams	A-	A-
Coaching	B+	B+

Pass offense: Cody Kessler was magnificent in the passing game, going 21-of-32 with 400 yards and five touchdowns. Averaging 12.5 yards per attempt was a huge step up as well, and Nelson Agholor had the best game of his career on the outside. The junior wideout finished with eight grabs for 220 yards and a receiving score among his two touchdowns.

Run offense: USC’s inability to establish the run played a part in the Trojans’ early shortcomings, but things somewhat turned around. They finished with 127 yards on 32 attempts, but the Trojans would have liked to set more of a tone there after getting the early 14-0 lead. Still, Javorius “Buck” Allen finished with more than 100 yards for the sixth straight game. 

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Pass defense: The Trojans secondary started Saturday’s game outside of the top 75 in passing yards allowed per game and faced a tough test in Washington State’s Air Raid attack. USC made some big plays early including an interception from Hayes Pullard, but freshman Luke Falk’s success allowed the Cougars to finish with more first downs than USC. 

Run defense: USC’s run defense on Saturday inevitably boiled down to a pass rush, with Washington State almost never running the ball. But with Halliday going down early, the Cougars took it to the ground, and the Trojans had no trouble keeping them below two yards per carry as a unit.

Special teams: Agholor’s punt-return touchdown early in the game set the tone, and without it, the Trojans would have been in much more of a fight early on. Agholor made his mark all over the game but especially in the return game. 

Coaching: The lack of a pass rush was somewhat confusing, but it also allowed for USC to keep the Air Raid in front of it and stay in control. That’s exactly what the Trojans did, and the coaches also did a solid job of getting the ball in Agholor’s hands as much as possible.

Positional Unit	1st-Half Grade	Final Grade
Pass Offense	C+	B-
Run Offense	D+	D+
Pass Defense	C+	C
Run Defense	B+	B-
Special Teams	D+	D+
Coaching	B-	B-

Pass offense: Halliday’s injury could have been a deathblow to Washington State’s offensive game plan, but Falk stepped in admirably. He went for 370 yards through the air, and his only interception was an end-of-half heave. Early struggles set the tone for a low-scoring game for the Cougars, but other than that there were positives to be found through the air.

Run offense: The Cougars ran it 24 times to their 66 pass attempts, which is actually staggering for a team that almost exclusively passes it. To say it didn’t work would be an understatement. Washington State averaged 1.3 yards per carry as a team, rushing for just 34 yards. 

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Pass defense: The Washington State secondary made some plays early in the game but was no match for Agholor and JuJu Smith. The former constantly got to the outside for big yardage, while the latter caught three touchdowns. A whopping 400 yards through the air for USC isn’t a good look for Washington State. 

Run defense: The running lanes were nowhere to be found for USC early on, but with Kessler’s emergence through the air came gaping holes for the Trojans backs. Late in the game, Allen reached the 100-yard plateau and turned a decent game for the Cougars’ defensive front into a poor one.

Special teams: The only positive special teams contributions from Washington State were seven punts from Jordan Dascalo, three of which went inside the 20. But when seven punts are your best special teams plays, is it even a positive at all?

Coaching: Mike Leach tried to lean a bit more on the run game when Halliday went down, but it just didn’t work. He simply had to stick to the aerial assault with the freshman Falk in, and the coach avoided an even uglier finish by keeping Falk slinging as he started to find a lot of success late.