USC Trojans' defense responds in 55-17 win over Colorado: 3 takeaways

USC's victory sets the stage for a showdown with UCLA

No. 8 USC did what it was supposed to do on Friday night: the Trojans clobbered a bad Colorado team 55-17.

USC's beleaguered defense turned in its best performance in recent memory, and the offense sprang to life after an ugly first quarter. The Colorado game was supposed to be a blowout, and the Trojans eventually turned it into one.

The gimme games are over now though, and USC’s remaining schedule will show what this team is really made of. Here are the key takeaways from Friday night’s victory:

USC'S OFFENSE QUICKLY TURNED AROUND AN UGLY START

Despite winning by 38 points, the Trojans did trail by a baseball score of 3-2 at the end of a very poor first quarter, during which they managed just eight yards of offense. However, over the next two quarters, USC put up 375 yards of offense and 39 points to lead 41-10 through three frames.

While that pace and the eventual gross numbers are impressive, the start of this game was not. USC’s first three drives went three-and-out, interception, three-and-out. This was against the worst defense in the Pac-12 and one of the worst at this level of college football.

The interception by Caleb Williams was just his second of the season, likely ending his chance of breaking the single-season record for touchdown-to-interception ratio, which he was on pace for at 28-1 prior to this game.

The defense put USC on the board first with a safety, and the offense was able to put together a touchdown drive on its fourth attempt, but had to overcome a 3rd-and-19, a 3rd-and-23, and a 1st-and-25 just to get the ball into the red zone. From there, Williams threw an incompletion into the end zone on 3rd-and-9, but Colorado was flagged for defensive pass interference, and the Trojans were able to punch it in from the two yard line.

A strip sack by Tuli Tuipulotu on the Buffalos’ next possession led to USC starting its fifth drive at the eight yard line and Williams quickly picking up his second rushing touchdown of the evening.

“It took a little bit to get going offensively, but we were able to settle in there and get rolling pretty good. I’m proud of the way that everybody stepped up,” Lincoln Riley said.

Before the end of the first half, USC scored 10 more points in somewhat uninspiring fashion, and a season-ending leg injury for running back Travis Dye put a bit of a damper on the positive energy.

Still USC deserves some credit, as weak an opponent as Colorado is - 55 points is still 55 points. The Trojans bounced back from that slow start brilliantly by completely controlling the rest of the game and finishing with 531 yards.

Williams was able to rest the fourth quarter of the game and finished with 268 passing yards and five total touchdowns.

The quarterback was not concerned with the slow start, probably given the ultimate result of the game. 

“I’m going to relay it back to practice again. Everything always goes back to practice in the sense of there were times during practice this week we weren’t consistent. We weren’t communicating. We weren’t doing small things that help you win games,” Williams said.

“I promise that I will not allow what happened this week in practice to happen again.”

DEFENSE GETS A BOOST AHEAD OF UCLA SHOWDOWN

USC allowed just 100 yards of offense to Colorado in the first half, and 259 on the night. Three points is the fewest the Trojans have allowed in a first half all season. Although Colorado is a team USC was supposed to handle with ease, it’s still a positive sign the team was able to execute and get on track before their biggest test of the season against their cross-town rival next Saturday.

This is a defense that has undeniably struggled in recent weeks, failing to keep opponents under 35 points since its home win against Washington State, a game in which the Trojans turned in a second half shutout.

“I mean we needed this and you know, we needed to see some evidence of our hard work paying off. We need to build off this, it is a great thing that we played well, and we did our jobs out there tonight. But we just need to build off this, and quickly,” safety Bryson Shaw said, looking towards next week’s rivalry matchup.

“It felt great. You know, like I hit on last week. We've been so close,” Shaw added. “It's a great feeling, but we just gotta keep stacking these days and keep building.”

Tuli Tuipulotu probably deserves a full-length feature after another excellent performance Friday night, including two and a half sacks and a forced fumble that led to a USC touchdown. He’s leading the nation in sacks with 11.5 and is almost single-handedly holding this defense together.

Defensive coordinator Alex Grinch had high praise for Tuipulotu.

“Just the ability to do it both from a physical standpoint and a speed standpoint. You know, he's one of those guys that just has that mentality that every single snap he’s gonna get home, and it’s noticeable,” said Grinch.

“He just works his tail off. Hasn’t missed a practice, hasn’t missed a rep, doesn’t want to come out of the game, just goes about his business, and he’s an elite dude, so I’m excited for him and obviously excited for us.”

Riley echoed Grinch’s sentiment toward Tuipulotu. 

“He’s been so important to what we’ve been doing. He affects the passer in a really unique way, and I think he’s really bought into what we’re doing schematically, and I think he’s really improved as a player. His versatility has really shown itself and he’s been consistent for us,” Riley said.

IS USC NOW READY FOR UCLA?

To put it bluntly, there’s no reason USC should be ranked above rival UCLA in the College Football Playoff rankings.

UCLA beat the team USC lost to (Utah), the Bruins only loss was to No. 6 Oregon, and UCLA has beaten multiple ranked teams in the Utes and the (No. 15 at the time) Washington Huskies.

USC is heavily riding that preseason AP ranking and the sheer amount of talent on the roster. Yes, it’s true, things like quarterback and coach matter a lot in this sport. How many teams have a better QB/HC combo than Caleb Williams and Lincoln Riley? Maybe two?

Still, the body of work UCLA has turned in so far should be intimidating for USC, given the Trojans have not played well as of late

But USC remains confident about next week’s critical matchup.

“I mean it is a rivalry game, but we have to treat every game the same. We can’t go harder because it’s UCLA,” Tuipulotu said. “How we treat Colorado is how we should treat UCLA. We just work, practice and prepare; just like every week.”

If he can bring the same performance to the Rose Bowl as he has the last two weeks, that’s a great start for Tuipulotu’s team.

“Each game is its own journey. Now we get the chance to reset. We’ve got a little bit of a long week to adjust and reset and get ready to go play those guys across town,” Riley said.

Can the USC team that played Friday night beat UCLA on its best day? Maybe not. But is USC’s best day better than UCLA’s best day? It might be. One thing that’s certain about college football is that it’s really hard to win on the road, and even though this is a home game for UCLA, it won’t feel that way at the Rose Bowl in a city that reps cardinal and gold through and through.

The Trojans might not have fully revved up on all sides ahead of next week’s game, as it didn’t feel like four quarters of domination, the way a top-ten team should beat maybe the worst team in the Power Five. However, 523 yards across three quarters sounds pretty good, and the Trojans did walk away with two turnovers as well.

“Our guys were awesome. Obviously really proud of the win and to get another one here at home. Some exciting opportunities are coming up that we look forward to,” Riley said.