USC Football: Expert Cautions That Trojans' Explosive Offense Is Slipping

Sacks are hurting one of the nation's top offenses

Although the USC Trojans are undefeated through the first six weeks of the season, there is still a lot of concern about how good the team is.

USC survived an upset scare last week when they narrowly escaped Arizona by a score of 43-41 in double overtime.

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The week before, the Trojans could not cover the spread after Colorado attempted a comeback but ultimately fell 48-41. 

While USC beat ASU 42-28, the Trojans did not look as good as they could have in their first Pac-12 matchup of the season. 

Now, USC is heading to South Bend to play a top-25 matchup against rival Notre Dame. 

Heading into the game, some people are concerned about USC's ability to let teams have a chance to win late into games.

The LA Times' Thuc Nhi Nguyen believes the offense must be blamed if the Trojans don't perform well on Saturday. 

"USC is nine for 28 (32.1%) on third down in the last three games and converting on 42.9% for the season after ranking second nationally last year at 53.6%... The Trojans are two for 12 on third-down tries of nine or more yards during the last three games. Caleb Williams stressed the importance of avoiding first- and second-down sacks to keep the offense on track." 

(Via LA Times)

If the Trojans can avoid mistakes on early downs, Nguyen believes that USC will succeed in their game against Notre Dame.