2007 Game 13:  USC Versus Illinois - Rose Bowl Defense Notes Date - January 1, 2008 Location - Rose Bowl Result - USC 49 - Illinois 17 I honestly did not expect USC to win this game as easily as the team did. I figured that a victory with a score around 31-17 was a far more likely outcome. However when the USC defense generates big plays as it did in this game then wins like this are always possible. Give credit to the Illini for not giving up and making a run at USC to start the second half of the game. Also give them credit as well as for make some big plays on offense. Below I'll summarize what I believe will be the final year end stats for this team, put up some pictures from the Rose Bowl game, and add a couple of video clips as well. (Note: The following data is from my notes and the NCAA's CFB web site for Division I football statistics. The NCAA final stats will not go up for a few days but this is roughly where they will finish out. I'll update it once the final bowl game is played next week and and NCAA team statistical rankings are finalized.) Category 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 YTD NCAA Rank* Rush Yards Per Game 83.2 60.2 79.4 130.5 91.1 84.2 TBD Rush Yards Per Carry 2.8 1.8 2.6 3.8 3.0 2.3 TBD Pass Yards Per Game 201.8 276.2 199.9 230.4 204.7 189.0 TBD Pass Yards Per Completion 11.6 11.5 10.6 11.1 11.1 10.3 TBD Pass Completion % Allowed 49.8% 55.0% 53.8% 59.7% 54.6% 52.9% TBD Total Yardage Defense 284.9 336.4 279.3 360.9 295.8 273.2 TBD Scoring Defense 18.5 18.4 13.0 22.8 15.2 16.0 TBD Sacks 43 55 50 32 35 45 TBD Tackles For Loss 96 126 120 73 87 100 TBD Fumbles Recovered 19 20 16 16 11 16 TBD Interceptions 17 22 22 22 11 12 TBD 3rd Down Defense % 27.6% 38.8% 28.0% 36.5% 38.7% 30.1% TBD *Final NCAA Rankings will not be out for a few more days until bowl season is over. I will update later as time allows. I personally don't think this was the best USC defense of the Pete Carroll era but it certainly was a very good one when you look at the final statistics in most areas. New Pete Carroll era lows were set in terms of total yards allowed, passing yards allowed, and pass yards per completion. Other areas such as rush defense were quite strong as well. The Trojan rush defense gave up 144 yards to Illinois in the Rose Bowl game with half of that amount coming on one big play that I'll highlight down below. For part of the season this unit approached the all time low of the Pete Carroll era of 60 rush yards allowed per game but eventually it wound up a shade behind the 2002 squad as 4th best in terms of total rush yards surrendered. In terms of yards per carry however it will finish second it appears. For the NCAA this year the unit will be in the top five. Pass yardage defense finished up the year at 189.0 yards per game and this amazingly sets a new low for the Pete Carroll era besting the 2004 squad by ten yards. The pass defense was only torched twice for over 300 yards this year versus Nebraska and Illinois and zero times in Pac-10 play oddly enough. For the NCAA this unit will be in the top seven. Total yardage defense finished at 273.2 yards per game despite giving up 445 yards to Illinois and is a new benchmark for the Pete Carroll era. For the NCAA this unit should finish second in the country behind Ohio State. After a fairly slow start USC picked up the pace in both Sacks and Tackles for Losses. The unit did not keep up with either the 2003 or 2004 squads in these metrics but it did match up and surpass the 2002 team in both areas. For most of the year the glaring chink in the Trojan armor was the inability to produce turnovers and especially interceptions. In the Rose Bowl Game USC was able to produce two fumbles and two interceptions that made a big difference in the game. The final number of fumbles tied for the second lowest output of the Pete Carroll era and the interceptions just nosed out last season for the second lowest level as well. How Illinois Scored Here is a quick breakdown of how Illinois scored in terms of field position. Category Points Comment Long field scoring drives 17 Two long field (>50 yard scoring drives) and one field goal. Short field scoring drives 0 N/A Direct scores by the defense or special teams 0 N/A Totals 17 USC Base Defense Pictures & Rush Defense Much of this game centered on how well USC could stop the Illinois rush attack. When Illinois was held to 140 yards or less it lost games. USC managed to hold Illinois to 144 yards in the contest but the total figure is mis-leading. Illinois busted a couple of big runs in the game as their talented back Mendenhall had 4 runs that gained 79, 29, 18, and 16 yards. Those four carries accounted for 142 of the 144 total rush yards in the game. The other 33 carries gained a net two yards after factoring in the yards lost on TFL's, Sacks, and run plays that went for no yardage. This aspect of the game was a major success for USC despite giving up the four big runs. Here are the main formations and what I observed. Here is an early 1st and 10 play against Illinois with 4 WR's (2x2) in the game and one back. Kyle Moore lined up upright and this alignment is essentially the elephant alignment that USC used last season with a slight twist I'll explain later. SLB Cushing is at the top of the image to the QB's right or defense's left side of the field. With 2 backs in for Illinois the base look was similar with the exception of a safety dropping down closer to the line of scrimmage for run support. This time Everson Griffen was the upright end at the bottom of the screen on this play. Cushing is at the top again to the QB's right. On a lot of downs that were 2nd and 3rd and long situations USC went into is nickel package with 4 down lineman 2 LB's, and 5 DB's. Here is one example versus the Illinois spread 4 WR (2x2) package. If you look close from behind this is how USC was often aligning up front. Sedrick Ellis was playing two gap ball directly over the center. One DT Moala is in a 3 technique spot on the left guard and one DE Jackson is in a 3 technique spot as well on the right guard. Moore and Cushing formed rush ends. This last alignment in the 4th picture was a big reason why I suspect Illinois could not get its rush attack going most of the game (big play exceptions will be noted below). Sedrick Ellis handled both A gaps to the left and right of center, Moala took one B gap and Jackson took the other. The center could not help out on double team blocks and USC played 4 Gaps (B,A,A,B) with three players.  This middle of the USC line with a zero technique NT and two 3 technique players is sometimes called TNT for short (tackle, nose, tackle) by some coaches. It is the way the Chicago Bears lined up the middle (but not the outer parts) of their old 46 defense of the mid 1980's Illinois was not effective running against this front from what I observed at least. Here is an example of the Illinois middle rushing attack being shut down early in the game by the interior of USC's defensive line. The ball carrier was tackled by Sedrick Ellis and Lawrence Jackson on the play and gained no yards. With the inside gaps effectively covered Illinois also tried to run the ball outside as well. The result was not much better on most plays. USC seemed unconcerned with the Illinois passing attack and often sent either a corner, a safety, or a linebacker as an aggressive force player to the play side on runs. Here is one such early example in the first quarter with Carry Harris.   Illinois aligns with two backs and three wide receivers and the QB in shotgun. The run is a type of lead play where the second back follows the lead of the first and tries to either get outside or cut up field if a gap appears. In the second picture you can see that #7 CB Cary Harris is reading run and / or letting the wide receiver go the whole way. Behind Harris (out of sight) a safety rotates to pick up the receiver in case of a pass play. Illinois did not pick up on this for the first half it appeared though and this left Cary Harris as well as Terrell Thomas to aggressively shut down outside run plays. This one was stopped nicely by Harris for a loss of several yards on the play.  Here is a short video clip of several different run plays that were stopped by USC as a sample (click here). Rush Defense Histogram Illinois Big Run Plays Illinois did stick with their rush attack and had success in particular on four big plays by Mendenhall that each went for more that 10 yards. Those four carries generated 142 yards of offense. I'm sure the rest of the Big 10 will be happy if he declares for the NFL draft. A couple of blown assignments by USC and good plays by Illinois resulted in the big gains. Here is a video clip of the bigger Illinois runs. On the big 79 yard TD run there was either a mix up in responsibility by Moore and WLB Rivers or Rivers simply over ran the play into the back field.  Click here for short video clip of big Illinois Run Plays.  Rush Yards Allowed YTD Here is the final chart for rushing yards allowed for the USC defense this season. Four teams ran for over 100 yards this year and a couple others came close. Three of those four (Washington, Oregon, and Illinois) executed spread option rush attacks. The Cal game was a more traditional run game but played in the rain with poor footing. Other teams were shut down more effectively for the most part during the season. USC Pass Defense The USC pass defense played well most of the game but gave up its second highest yardage level this season. Illinois completed 22 of 36 passes for 301 yards but with two key interceptions. Despite giving up this level of yardage the unit did finish with the best performance of the Pete Carroll era in terms of passing yards surrendered and yards per completion allowed. In Pac-10 play only ASU and Arizona passed for more than 200 yards although Cal missed by just one yard. Passing YPA / YPC Allowed Passing Yardage Histogram Much like in the rushing game USC gave up a lot of the passing yards on a few big plays. Here is the plot of the Illinois passing yards. Seven plays resulted in gains of 15 yards or more including the big 56 yard TD slant route pass play to Arrelious Benn near the end of the game. For those that want to review the breakdowns by USC / good plays by Illinois here are several of the bigger passing plays in the game for Illinois. Click here for the link to the file. Fortunately USC was able to generate five sacks and create two interceptions in the passing game for some disruption. Here are a couple of pictures and another video clip at the end. In the video clip of the big pass plays is also the near TD for Illinois that turned into a fumble recovery in the end zone. Brian Cushing recovered the fumble but ball was stripped by Kaluka Maiava in for Keith Rivers. Here is the hit by Maiava that caused the fumble. Cushing had a hand in one other turnover as well. The first interception in the game for USC by Rey Maualuga was on the deflected ball by Brian Cushing. Where were these all season long? The second interception was made by Cary Harris on what appeared to be some sort of breakdown in read between the Illinois QB and the WR. Here is a short video of both interceptions if you want to review. USC Pass Rush USC was able to generate a healthy pass rush for most of the game. On a couple of blitz plays the Illinois QB Juice Williams found the open spot in the resulting zone and find the open man. On a fair number of plays however the pressure either resulted in a sack, an incompletion, or a dump off to a very short receiver for little gain. For the game USC had 5 sacks with three coming from MLB Rey Maualuga. Rey Maualuga Sack Example I suspect USC probably found a weakness or two in the Illinois pass blocking scheme in film study. Here the interior offensive linemen are occupied with Sedrick Ellis and Fili Moala due to the alignment. This leaves a wide open gap for Rey Maualuga to run through and pick up one of his three sacks on the day. Click here for a short video of four of the USC sacks in the game. Here is where USC finished up the season in terms of sacks and tackles for losses on a game by game trend. The 15 TFL's in the Rose Bowl were the season high for USC by a total of three over the Oregon State game. Defensive Turnovers and 3rd Down Conversion Defense USC did well in the turnover department this game matching the season high of four in the game. That number tied the quantity produced in the UCLA game. It is hard to imagine now even in hindsight that USC's defense averaged close to 4-5 sacks per game and 3-4 turnovers per game for both the entire 2003 and 2004 seasons. When that sort of production occurs on defense points nearly always follow on offense. Here are the points per game allowed by USC this season compared to the turnovers generated on defense. Let's hope the up tick in turnovers continues in 2008. Other Notes and Reflections The big keys to the game for USC were the effective shut down of the Illinois rush attack (except for the four big plays) and the four turnovers in the game. Lots of yardage was indeed surrendered especially in the passing game but it only resulted in 17 points allowed or just under the season average. This wraps it up for USC on defense. The 49-17 victory over Illinois was a nice way to end the season and send many of the seniors out on a high note. Next season will be another year full of interesting potential, competition, and player development. Seniors Sedrick Ellis, Keith Rivers, Lawrence Jackson, and Terrell Thomas will be sorely missed. Back ups Averill Spicer, Kaluka Maiava, Everson Griffen, and perhaps the return of injured Josh Pinkard or an emerging Shareece Wright will have to pick up the slack. Juniors such as Brian Cushing, Rey Maualuga, and Kevin Ellison could also of course declare for the NFL draft. That news will be something to await upon in the upcoming weeks. I'll have some offense notes up in a couple more days. In the following weeks I'll probably put together some type of final summary of main stats and comparative figures for 2002 to 2007. Then I am taking a break.