PISCATAWAY, NJ — For months now, the narrative around USC’s defense was that things were different, that Gary Patterson still possessed the schematic sorcery needed to complete the missing piece and get the Trojans to the College Football Playoff.
Unfortunately for their fans, what Patterson’s side of the ball unveiled Saturday looked a lot like what preceded it.
There were undeniable shades of Alex Grinch and D’Anton Lynn in the mess of a defense that took the field against Rutgers.
The Trojans gave up 460 yards — just 1 fewer than Lincoln Riley’s offense managed. They allowed the Scarlet Knights to convert 6 of 11 third downs and 3 of 4 first downs. And perhaps most troublesome, they gave up 5.3 yards per carry.
The Trojans could exhale and the school band that was exiled to one corner of the upper deck inside a half-filled SHI Stadium could blare “Conquest” after No. 12 USC held on for a 42-35 victory.
But what sort of fate might this defense meet a week from now against Oregon and quarterback Dante Moore, who rolled up 84 points against Portland State?
As he tends to do, Riley acknowledged the mistakes while leaning heavily into the positives.
“Gave up too many big plays defensively,” he said. “You know, not pleased at all with how we played there.”
Then again …
“The picks were huge,” Riley said, referring to interceptions by Christian Pierce and Prophet Brown. “I mean, it’s hard to underscore how big those turnovers were. Really, you know, with the fourth-down stop, I mean, we caused three turnovers, you know, so that is obviously significant.”
Cue the eye roll from skeptics.
Rutgers’ offense isn’t exactly a juggernaut, with quarterback Dylan Lonergan now having tallied four interceptions in only two games for a team averaging 21 points before Saturday. The Scarlet Knights have an NFL-ready receiver in KJ Duff, whose one-handed heroics kept them within shock-the-world distance against the Trojans (4-0 overall, 1-0 Big Ten).
Brown helped avert the upset when he stepped in front of a pass that he intercepted and returned for a 99-yard touchdown early in the third quarter to put USC up by two scores. The veteran safety said he knew the play that was coming based on the wide receiver’s moves.
“As soon as he broke,” Brown said, “I just knew the quarterback’s going there.”
But a Trojans secondary that lost cornerback Jontez Williams and safety Alex Graham to injuries kept getting beaten. When Lonergan completed a 28-yard touchdown pass with nearly 4 ½ minutes left, the Scarlet Knights (0-3, 0-1) were within a touchdown before the Trojans ran out the clock.
“I look at more just some of the individual breakdowns,” Riley said. “We obviously had to play with a lot of different guys in the secondary. We had some guys go down throughout the game that weren’t available. And I thought we were just kind of untimely as a defense, really.”
If the Trojans are going to get their long-awaited breakthrough on defense, they need to live up to the slogan on those USC billboards around LA.
The time is now.
