USC Football: Ducks Frustrated By Penalties Despite Beating Trojans

Despite the win, the Ducks were still not pleased by the penalties

Your USC Trojans suffered their fourth loss in five games, this time to the Oregon Ducks in Eugene. The final tally: 36-27. 

Different week, same story: the USC Trojans were outmatched by a much better football team and could not get timely stops. For those who expected a different defense after the firing of Alex Grinch, you didn't get it a week later. 

The Ducks moved the ball all over the Trojans, allowing a typical 552 total yards of offense while forcing zero turnovers. The Trojans did their best to hang on while the Ducks had issues coming penalties. After the game, Oregon head coach Dan Lanning was not pleased with his team's lack of discipline despite getting the win, per Rob Moseley of GoDucks.com: 

Lanning on the penalties: “We’ve got to address it for us to be the team that we want to be. We have to become more disciplined. I’m not sure that I agree with every single one of them. But that being said, it's something that we can certainly fix.” #GoDucks

— Rob Moseley (@DuckFootball) November 12, 2023

Oregon committed 13 penalties for 120 yards, the club's second-most of the 2023 season. Unfortunately, for the Trojans, those penalties did not affect the game, as the Ducks seemed to be too much for USC.

Even with the Trojans only committing six penalties for 45 yards, they couldn't do anything on their side. All went right for USC in the department, but they still could not capitalize. At the end of the day, the Trojans lost to the better team. 

The Ducks were called three times for false starts, twice for holding, an ineligible man down the field, and unsportsmanlike conduct on the offensive side. On the defensive side, they were called twice for offsides, twice for pass interference, holding, offsetting, and a face mask. 

Despite all that, the Ducks were able to prevail at home. It's a shame that USC could not take advantage of these outcomes, but that's who they are at this point: a team not as great as we all thought with a QB they wasted two years on. That's the sad truth, but they have one more opportunity to get better against their biggest rival, the UCLA Bruins. 

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