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USC football: Insight into the defensive breakdowns
November 1st, 2009, 8:48 pm · 19 Comments · posted by Michael Lev, staff writer
The day after the worst loss of his college career, USC coach Pete Carroll spent much of his time breaking down his suddenly hemorrhaging defense’s numerous breakdowns.
The Trojans allowed Oregon to score 47 points and roll up 613 yards - the second-highest total in a game against USC in school history.
Carroll cited poor fundamentals against the Ducks’ spread-option running attack. The Trojans’ defense is assignment-based, and if players drift out of their designated gaps, it can create huge holes for ball carriers to run through. Being out of position also leads to missed tackles because defenders are forced to reach with their arms.
“We have to get back to playing real fundamental run play,” Carroll said Sunday. “Being in the spots you’re supposed to be in and being very accountable ¬ that’s not characteristic of our play right now.”
USC’s defensive slump stretches back to the second half of the Oct. 17 Notre Dame game, when the Trojans surrendered 20 points. They have yielded 103 in the past 2½ games after allowing 50 in the first 5½.
What disappoints Carroll the most is how poorly USC has played in the second halves of the past three games.
“We’ve been on our heels,” he said. “We always like to be on the attack.”
The Trojans (6-2) aren’t used to being humiliated on national TV or dropping out of the top 10 in the rankings. But Carroll said they wouldn’t make drastic changes.
“We’re not going to change our philosophy,” he said. “We have to make sure we nail down some stuff that we’re able to count on.”
POLL: WHAT’S THE WORST USC LOSS OF THE PETE CARROLL ERA?
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19 Comments
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“We’re not going to change our philosophy,” he said. “We have to make sure we nail down some stuff that we’re able to count on.”
We know, we know. Your philosophy is the end all be all and the other teams didn’t really close the gap on your program, they simply got lucky that day. Your philosophy is the perfect counter to a team that runs the “spread option read” to perfection. No need to change at all. Just keep telling your boys that they are THE cream of the crop of their recruiting class and all they have to do is show up and their talent will rule the day. Just go on and think up some new practical jokes to pull on your team and invite Will Ferrell over to practice a couple more times so everyone can have a blast like they are at the Improv. There’s no need to practice basic tackling, emphasizing discipline on D, and getting creative with blitz packages and new schemes that other PAC-10 teams haven’t seen. Yup, there’s no need to change or even tweak things a little. The existing schemes with that soft zone is the way to go against the offenses being run by Oregon, Florida, Texas, Boise St, etc..etc..
I’m not going to judge Carrol’s judgement, but he might need to make some drastic changes. Don’t know if you noticed Pete but you’re defensive philosophy hasn’t been very well executed these last three games. A little change couldn’t hurt.
USC right now is like a dominant pitcher who only throws fastballs. Though he throws it well and beats hitters with it, it doesn’t take long for opponents to catch up and pick up on it, especially if they face one another on a regular basis. That’s when a pitcher comes up with changeups and sliders and others. A pitcher refuses to do so and sticks to his bread and butter and believes that all it needs is “nailing it down” some more is operating under sheer ego and arrogance.
“We have to get back to playing real fundamental run play,” Carroll said Sunday. “Being in the spots you’re supposed to be in and being very accountable, that’s not characteristic of our play right now.”
The team hasn’t been playing fundamental defense the weeks leading up to the Oregon game. I guess had they won he would’ve ignored that disturbing trend.
You hit the nail right on the head Archie.
The disturbing lack of fundamentals were already there for everyone to see going into the Oregon game, and it seems like nothing was done about it.
It’s funny that the picture shows an Oregon player holding Jarvis Jones. When it rains, it pours.
i wonder if this was or play by the defense alone or poor play calling by Seto and/or PC. whatever it was, it was ugly and doesn’t seem likely to get any better this season - especially with so many injuries.
The defensive coaches aren’t preparing well and aren’t making the right adjustments at half. I never thought I would see a Trojan team retreating from a ballcarrier instead of flying towards them. Fine Pete stay with your zone d, but please play physical aggresive bump and run coverage. Man up on these recievers and hit them before they are 9 yards down the field. Sad to see the herendious play of our stating defense on kick coverage. Fire the new special teams coach now.
Amen to all of the above comments. We have a new coach dedicated to special teams, and they’ve been the worst I can recall over many years. What a gravy train for that guy. Gallipo isn’t that good, our DBs are playing way too soft, poor tackling etc. etc. we could go on for a while.
Two plays that stuck in my craw were…4Q they are up 21, 3rd down and 15 at our 23. Gee what a surprise Masoli keeps it and runs for 20 yards. 4Q they are up 24, 3rd down and 9 at our 39. Gee what a surprise Masoli keeps it and runs for 27 yards. Did nobody on D think he’d keep the ball, so as to not risk a turnover, etc.? Could we not have had a spy on him on those plays, in those two situations? Apparently not. The D was truly appaling, especially in the second half, giving up five scores on five Oregon drives.
USC lost. Get over it. It happens in sports. Florida went 9-3 a few years ago, and they are just fine. What happens when Oregon loses to another Pac-10 team that USC will beat? Then what? USC should still make major philosophic changes to keep up with the Ducks? When USC loses to the Boise States of the world, then I’ll start crying to make major changes. Last year Chip Kelly was calling the plays and the Ducks and the spread laid an egg against USC. Maybe USC’s philosophy is fine, but the players on defense are young and inexperienced and not as good as last year or the year the before. It happens when 11 players get drafted. USC’s defense is on the ropes right now, but it will get better. USC has the coaching and the talent to win out and get to an at large BCS game. It’s like Carrol and company are idiots despite seven consecutive 11 win seasons and a 6-1 BCS bowl record. I think they deserve a pass. The spread offense has been around for a long time now, it wasn’t invented this year, and USC has put up a pretty good record during that time period. The rest of USC’s schedule is much “easier” now that the majority of their remaining games will be at home. Don’t forget that this year USC is playing a true freshman at QB and that USC beat Cal, Notre Dame, and Ohio State on the road, and last time I looked all of those teams were ranked in the BCS top 25. That’s still pretty good. I still like our chances.
Bring on the Fiesta Bowl.
Shake up the line up. Move Pinkard to FS. Move Mays to SS. (Orignal plan). Try the young Bryant at starting corner. Blitz the hell out of them. play man to man. Lbers STEP up.
Do we forget this defense almost completely re-loaded from last year’s NFL laden group. I agree, we lost, get over it. You can’t always dominate the BCS. The streaks that will be broken this year are there because of a fundamentally sound program run by Pete Carrol. It’s just time to start a new Pac-10 Champ / BCS Game streak next year.
Trojanfan pretty much “slam dunked” the rest of you front runners. I’m flying down from Northern Cal to support the Trojans at ASU. I’m confident they’ll turn it around and end the season 10-2. I wouldn’t be surprised if Cal, the Irish, and Ohio State all finish 10-2 and we beat all of them. Oregon might just be the best team in the country now, but they’ll never get a chance to prove it with the East Coast bias against the Pac 10. The Ducks will destroy any Big 10 team in the Rose Bowl. Please remember we’ve a frosh QB, a very young defense and a team with many injuries. Keep the faith and Fight On.
It’s funny all these trojan apologists who refuse to call things as it is and comes up with excuses. Earlier this season, you were saying “We’re fine on D, we NEVER Lost a step despite losing Rey, Cush, Clay, Holt, etc etc and the D will carry us throughout the year.” Yeah, that D sure looked good against weak Offenses like San Jose St and tOSU. Now that the Defense has been brutally exposed by potent offenses, you people conveniently changed your tune “Well, We lost 8 starters and Holt etc etc.” Take away that 1st qtr, and Washington State, YES, Washington State actually MOVED up and down against our defense. Oh, and that entire secondary led by Mays are a bunch of upper classmen.
Criticizing and calling out your team because of a lack of discipline and flat out quitting is not frontrunning, they just see and call things as it is. Sweeping the reality of the situation under the rug and sugarcoating it is a sign of ignorance and arrogance.
I think it’s Corps fault!
Pete keeps insisting it’s all about execution but that’s were he is dead wrong. Both the Offense and Defense have become predictable. Other teams have broken down and dissected USC’s repertoire and are no longer surprised with what’s coming. USC can execute plays to the tee but it won’t matter if the defense/offense sees it coming, and that is exactly what’s happening. Pete insistence that they are just not executing shows his arrogance. Until Pete realizes that other teams are onto him and his schemes and tendencies, 3-4loss seasons will be the norm.
AT THE END OF THE DAY ITS THE PLAYERS WHO MESSED THIS UP. USC WAS RUNNIN THE SAME SCHEME LAST YEAR WHEN THEY HAD THE BEST DEFENSE EVER IN CB HISTORY, SO PETE KNOWS WAT HES DOIN.
Roy’s right…other teams have caught on to the schemes, and have caught up with the talent level. Oregon just happened to have a load of talent with a clever offensive scheme this year which just so happened to be when SC’s D was weaker than normal. Throw in that the game is at Autzen, and it was a perfect convergence for an Oregon blowout. Nonetheless the larger point that Roy makes about that it’s not about execution as per Pete, but rather it’s about predictability is right. Pete’s an old dog so he’s not going to learn any new tricks, and he’s an arrogant one, so he’s not going to change. Rocky Seto is Pete’s lapdog as per an interview he did with ESPN a while back, so it’s Pete and Pete’s alone, defense.
Roy seems to think that you have to “surprise” the other guys to beat them, when the truth is that (generally) you beat them by executing well what you do best.
Having said that, I’ll agree that the defense hangs back way too much. Remember the days of Troy Polamalu and Co. aggressively messing up opposing offenses? Pretty much the same defensive schemes, but played more aggressively. We need to get back to that mentality from the back 7, and the current group of guys will do well.
It will be fun to see how the rest of the season plays out.