Lack of Execution Leads to a Stanford Upset

USC ends up on the wrong side of another close game with Stanford

The statistic has been repeated time and time over the past week:

The last five games between USC and Stanford had been decided by eight points or less.

This one was supposed to be different. After USC blew out Arkansas St and Idaho, and Stanford fell to Northwestern, this one was expected to end up with a third straight victory over the Cardinal.

It was different alright, just not in the way many expected. After allowing 474 yards of offense to the a team that put up 240 alongside only six points against Northwestern, No. 6 USC fell to unranked Stanford by a shootout score of 41–31.

The stat now becomes that the rivalry has been decided by 10 points or less in the past six games, but the lesson, as always, remains: Expect the unexpected.

“Stanford came ready to play, like we knew they would,” said Coach Steve Sarkisian afterward. “We did some good things tonight but we didn’t do them consistently enough.”

Last year’s defensive deadlock that culminated in a 13–10 victory for the Trojans seemed like it was ages ago, as two completely different teams showed up to the Coliseum on Saturday.

USC began the game fast and scored in less than 3 minutes to go up 7–0. Stanford answered on its second drive by tying up the game via a methodical drive of their own.

That would prove to be the theme throughout the game; a back-and-forth duel where defenses would be inexistent, and third downs would be of the utmost importance.

“They made some really tough plays at critical moments that we didn’t,” admitted Sarkisian. “We kept their offense on the field and our offense off of it.”

Football is undoubtedly one of the most collective sports there is. A roster relies on nearly every one of its members to produce and perform. Even when narrowed down to different sides of the ball, the units are forced to trust and rely on both every starter and backup.

On Saturday, it felt as if the defense was one guy pulling one way while the rest refused to budge. Linebacker Su’a Cravens had 13 total tackles, a sack and another tackle for loss, yet his apparent omnipresence and dominance would not be enough redeem the defense’s inability to halt what was thought to be an anemic Stanford offense.

“We didn’t execute, and we couldn’t get off the field,” said Cravens afterward. “They kept converting third downs. They were able to make some long drives. It’s hard to stop them.”

The captain had been sent out to the press room to speak for the defense’s failures, but it was him who made plays that subsided the ease by which Stanford was able to run — and pass — all over the Trojan defense.

During practice this week, Sarkisian emphasized not allowing neither QB Kevin Hogan, nor RB Christian McCaffrey to get into a rhythm.

“We need to get him and keep him as uncomfortable as we can,” Sarkisian had emphasized on Kevin Hogan’s ability to get into a rhythm when playing well.

The fifth-year senior had 279 yards, two TD — his first ever against USC — and total control of his offense. Afterward, he was seen walking out of the locker room in a boot and crutches.

“We need to know where No. 5 is at all times,” Sark had then said about McCaffrey, who ended up with 115 yards on 26 carries and 37 receiving yards on three catches.

“We lost containment too many times,” Sarkisian now pointed out, postgame. “We lost the edge more than we should have against a team that runs to the edge.”

McCaffrey didn’t end up in the end zone, and the Trojans knew where he was at all times. The only problem was that where he was was 10, 15, 20 yards downfield, speeding away from linemen, efficiently evading linebackers and getting to that coveted edge Sark had harped on.

“Things that we talked about were going to be important in this game, were,” Sark pointed out. “They won those.”

The first half incited criticism for lack of a pass rush, as defensive coordinator Justin Wilcox’s conservative scheme was under scrutiny once again. In the second half, the pressure from USC’s defense rose, but so did Stanford’s ability to dink and dunk all the way to slower, surgical drives that included third-down conversions and kept the Trojan offense off the field.

“I mean, if you really look at the stats and everything that’s what you see, and that’s what sticks out the most. I mean, that’s obvious,” JuJu Smith-Schuster said of the defense’s inability to stop Stanford on third downs. “Having our offense off the field slowed us down, threw us off our game.”

Smith-Schuster was candidly critical of the defense, saying they had talked about the importance of getting Stanford off the field throughout the week, knowing full well that the Cardinal thrived when getting into their rhythm. The wideout, who had a minor ankle injury, spoke in the collective by saying: “We didn’t execute,” but made it clear that the team’s deficiencies that caused the loss lay on the defensive side of the ball.

“I felt like we lost technique a little bit, and they exploited us,” admitted safety Chris Hawkins, but later said he felt the defense was “ready to play.”

Stanford had fewer points in the second half (17), but that’s when the Trojan offense stagnated, unable to get into a rhythm of their own, and only being able to muster up one touchdown drive and a field goal.

“Ir hurt the rhythm a little bit … we had to capitalize when we do get possession,” pointed out Cody Kessler, who had an efficient, but insufficient stat line of 25 completions, 279 yards and 3 TDs. As the leader, however, the quarterback shifted the blame a bit to the offensive side: “Some drives we had momentum, but penalties killed us.”

The Trojans were penalized eight times for 87 yards, but that fell to the second tier of things that caused the upset. Aside from the lackluster performance by the defense, Sarkisian also thought the team’s mindset was not in the right place.

“He touched on it … that we kind of bought into the hype,” said RB Justin Davis of the post-game locker room talk. “And that’s the last thing we were supposed to do.”

“He said we got distracted,” Hawkins said of Sarkisian’s post-game message, but the defensive back also he did not agree with the sentiment.

Distractions, deficiencies and a failure to execute. The correlation to some of last year’s losses are uncanny.

Late in the fourth quarter, as USC tried frantically to tie the game down 31–41, Kessler kept running around in the pocket, finding only receivers in the middle of the field for short gains that were irrelevant.

It was all too little, too late. Stanford’s defensive game plan of keeping everything in front of them had worked. USC’s game plan to score and push the tempo had backfired, or rather, never truly manifested itself.

Afterward, players were already looking ahead to the matchup against Arizona State next week, talking about watching film and only giving this loss 24 hours to marinate before forgetting it.

“Football is a humbling sport,” Sarkisian said of the result. “Emotions can go from high to low very quickly.”

The Trojans can begin to forget this loss immediately if they choose to, but given the expectations coming into this game and the lack of all-around execution, they won’t be able to simply erase this result from their now-mediocre resumé.

You can reach Sports Editor Paolo Uggetti here, or follow him on Twitter@PaoloUggetti