Trojan Update: Another Unsatisfying Victory

In the Trojan’s 2nd game of the season, USC came away with a 17-14 victory against the Virginia Cavaliers. The game was more of a defensive game as both offenses struggled to put up points on the board. After the game, coach Kiffin was displeased for the second straight game with the way his team played.

The offense: The running game was terrible and was not able to gain any momentum. Some credit should be given to the hard nosed style defense that Virginia played, but the combo of Baxter/Tyler/Bradford were below average and were not able to put together a solid running game. Barkley played well but his receiving corps also were not able to get many chances. Ronald Johnson, USCS’s best receiver, was not able to replicate his performance against Hwaii last week. He had many opportunities for big yards but he dropped a lot of the passes that came his way.

The defense: The defense played pretty decent forcing an early interception when Virginia was in the USC red zone. They played hard nosed defense and it was obvious that the concentration was on defense in practice this past week. After giving up 36 points last week against Hawaii and having many missed tackles, the defense played much better this week.

Achilles Heel: PENALTIES! The Trojans had 11 penalties and over 100 yards lost in yesterdays game. The offensive line gave up a huge play that would have been a touchdown. It seemed like no one was really in sync and they were not disciplined. Coach Kiffin was irate when he was asked after the game about all the penalties.

Overall, the bottom line is that Trojans continued their winning ways on opening night at the coliseum. The game was ugly, but in the end, the Trojans pulled through with a gritty defensive effort in a ugly and dull game. They are 2-0 and are looking forward to a good overall game against Minnesota next week.

Go Trojans!