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USC Suffers Breakdown In Beantown

Darian Nourian |
September 15, 2014 | 7:04 p.m. PDT

Staff Reporter
Red bandanas stormed the field on Saturday night when unranked Boston College upset No. 9 USC in a dominant fashion. 

After Eagles players honored late BC lacrosse player Welles Crowther during the game by showcasing red bandana patterns on their helmets, cleats and gloves, their home fans commemorated the teams' historic win by mimicking what the Eagles were able to do all night long; running all over the field on USC's watch. 

Almost no one saw that one coming, right? The numbers going into the game spoke for themselves. 

The Trojans entered the non-conference matchup as the No. 9 ranked team in the land and 17-point favorites over an Eagles team that gave up over 300 rushing yards the week before in a 30-20 loss to Pitt.

In contrast, USC was coming off a huge Pac-12 conference win on the road against Stanford in a game that saw the Trojans rush for over 150 yards. 

Surely, this wasn't a "trap game." USC was just going to run right over the Eagles and rest assured, head coach Steve Sarkisian wasn't going to let his troops have a letdown coming off an emotional high.  

Not to forget, Boston College hadn’t beaten an opponent ranked in the top-10 since 2002, when it knocked off No.4 Notre Dame. 

This 12-year drought did not undermine the Eagles though. 

Rather than backing down, an inspired BC team wore down what was thought to be a stout USC defense, on the inside, on the wings, in the trenches and just about everywhere they were able to run on a chilly and rainy night in Chestnut Hill. 

SEE MORE: USC Trampled By Boston College In Miserable Loss

I’ve never seen a stat sheet full of numbers speak more loudly. The Eagles put up  whopping 452 yards on the ground to go along with five touchdowns. Just by himself, quarterback Tyler Murphy went off for 191 yards on just 13 carries.

Sarkisian said after the game that the defense was exposed, though I feel like that’s an understatement. 

Actually, it would be more appropriate to say it was taken advantage of, like when kids see a bowl full of candy left on the doorstep for Halloween. If no one’s there to stop them, they’re just going to take more and more, and keep coming back. 

As a whole, defensive coordinator Justin Wilcox’s defense allowed just over 500 total yards, which just isn’t going to get it done. 

What scares me the most was that the Trojan’s inability to stop Murphy was another instance of the team’s inability to stop a mobile quarterback and more specifically, the read option. 

Hopefully, Wilcox can find out a way to solve USC’s woes when it comes to stopping the read option because they are going to see a fair share of it as they continue into the bulk of Pac-12 play. 

There’s no shortage at all of Pac-12 offenses that like to incorporate the read option into their offenses including, but not limited to, Brett Hundley at UCLA, Travis Wilson at Utah and Taylor Kelly at Arizona State. 

USC's defense hasn't looked this porous since the Trojans lost to Oregon in 2012. (Scott Enyeart/Neon Tommy)
USC's defense hasn't looked this porous since the Trojans lost to Oregon in 2012. (Scott Enyeart/Neon Tommy)

Fortunately, the team will not have to play Oregon this season, which associates perfection with the read option and Heisman hopeful Marcus Mariota. 

In fact, before Saturday night’s "Boston Massacre" the last time I had saw a USC defense get picked apart this badly came in 2012 against a Kenjon Barner-led Ducks team that exploded for 426 rushing yards. 

In all fairness, that undefeated Oregon team had the best offense in the country at the time and ended up racking 730 total yards and 62 points -- the most-ever allowed by the Trojans. 

But let’s not worry about the Ducks quite yet because don't forget about USC’s dismal performance on offense either.

Cue the “Sarkisian’s play-calling sucks just like Lane Kiffin’s” rants, but I’m not about that since it seems like no USC fan is ever happy with the play-calling. 

But under Sark’s new up-tempo system, USC struggled to find a balanced attack on offense and put up only 20 yards on the ground.

I’m not going to defend Sark in this case though, because he definitely should have had more trust in veteran quarterback Cody Kessler to put the ball in the air more. 

The Trojan's passing game picked the BC secondary apart, and produced scoring drives when they did. Unfortunately, he abandoned that strategy for the majority of the game, which is a coaching mistake he will undoubtedly learn from.

The team’s 37-31 loss on a muggy night in Chestnut Hill reminded all USC coaches, players and fans that no game is just a formality, especially one being played in adverse conditions 3,000 miles away from home.

And all of this is why we play the games, folks. 

Instead of writing about how the team is undefeated, reemerging as national title contenders and how athletic director Pat Haden has a severely biased opinion when it comes to selecting the first-ever four-team playoff, I’m here talking about what went wrong in what was supposed to be a gimme. 

After dropping eight spots to No.17 in the AP poll, I think it’s plausible to say that that pretty much all hopes of making the four-team playoff have now disintegrated and the question to ask would be what now? 

The answer here is not overlook any game on the schedule and the overused cliche “taking it one game at a time” should be placed somewhere on each of the USC players’ lockers. 

Reach Sports Columnist Darian Nourian via e-mail here and on Twitter here.  



 

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