2007 Game 4:  USC vs. University of Washington - Offense Notes Date - September 29, 2007 Location - Washington Result - USC 27 - Washington 24 This game was not exactly the confidence inspiring road victory that I was hoping for. It seems that every year during the Pete Carroll era the first away game in the Pac-10 is a struggle of sorts. For that matter Pac-10 away games in general have been a challenge for USC when compared to out of conference games. This game certainly fit that pattern once again. However on a wild weekend where previously undefeated Top 10 teams such as Texas, Oklahoma, Florida, West Virginia, and Rutgers all lost "a win is a win" and sometimes you just take it and move on. In his comments after the game head coach Pete Carroll called the performance "horrid" in some respects and the term is fairly apt in terms of execution by the Trojans. Overall 16 penalties for 160 yards were committed, 3 key players injured, 3 turnovers lost, one punt blocked, and other small miscues happened as well. Throw in the weather, loud fans, a couple of interceptions by the quarterback and most teams would probably lose in the face of such events. If this happens once or twice in a given year it is normal and to some extent must be expected. Even the undefeated NC season of 2004 had the following close games in hindsight: USC 24 - Va Tech 13 (Away) USC 31 - Stanford 28 (Away) USC 23 - Cal 17 (Home) USC 28 - Oregon State 20 (Away) USC 29 - UCLA 24 (Away) So in hindsight to not expect at least one or two more close games in Pac-10 play this year is probably foolish. With the next couple of games in the familiar confines of the Coliseum I think we'll see a return to better execution and more decisive results. Neither Stanford or Arizona should present much of a challenge but in football you never know. The challenges of playing at Oregon, at Cal, and at Arizona State will be exciting opportunities for the team going forward to say the least. How USC Scored Drive Starting Point Points Comment Long field scoring drives 24 3 Long Field TD Drives (68, 88, 60 Yards) 1 Long FG Drive (52 Yards) Short field scoring drives 3  1 Short Field FG Drive (27 Yards) Direct scores by the defense or special teams 0 No direct scores. One special teams play by T. Thomas created the short field drive Totals 27 3TD's & 2 FG's in total. True to form the USC offense put up its normal 24 points per game when forced to march the length of the field. There were virtually no short field scoring opportunities for the Trojans in the game. Field position was adverse much of the game and only the one interception by Thomas Williams was generated. The one strip fumble of the ball on a punt return caused by Terrell Thomas also created a fumble late in the game for the only short field drive opportunity and the eventual winning margin of victory. Year to date the offense is still averaging at just under 27 long field points per game which is second best for the Pete Carroll era. This game was a good example of how failing to convert a scoring opportunity (missed FG), not forcing many turnovers, and penalties can result in bad field position and a general lack of scoring in the end. Here are some other key stats worth noting that I compiled after the game. Key Stats Check Category USC Comment Red Zone Efficiency 80% USC was 4 for 5 in the redzone this game but had to settle for a field goal on one drive. There was also a missed FG attempt as well. First Down (+4) Efficiency 45.2% After two performances in the high 60% range and one in the 50's this game dropped to the more normal level of 45.2%. Turnovers Lost/Gained -1 USC threw two interceptions on offense for the second week in a row and lost a fumble. UW has one interception and one lost fumble. USC now ranks 93rd in the nation in this category. Big Plays (+10 on runs) 7 7 Runs of 10 yards (or greater) for 135 yards. Big Plays (+15 on pass) 7 The Trojans also completed pass plays of greater than 15 yards for 152 yards of offense. However two of these were check down plays to Desmond Reed and were short passes and big YAC examples. Overall Scoring Drive Conversion 35.7% USC scored on 5 of 14 drives for 35.7%. There was also a one play kneel down drive to end the game which I will not include in the statistics Average Drive Length 32.9 yards The overall average drive length was 32.9 yards which is about average for the past several years. Scoring Drive Length 59.0 yards The overall scoring drive length was 59.0 yards or a few yards longer than recent years. 3rd Down Conversion 43.8% USC was just 7 of 16 third down conversions in the game due mainly to penalties and long down situations. YTD the Trojans are still over 50% and in the top 10 teams in the country. 4th Down Conversion 0/0 There were no fourth down plays in the game for USC. Sacks Generated 1 Sacks Pressure was intermittent in the game but USC was able to hold UW to a low pass completion percentage. Lawrence Jackson had the only sack for the Trojans. Tackles For Loss 6 TFL's  There were  6 TFL's by the defense in total. USC Overall Offensive Stats Plays Number Yards Per Play Average Run Plays 39 224 5.7 Pass Plays 37 236 6.4 Total Plays 76 460 6.1 Passing Game This was a somewhat mixed game for the USC passing attack. John David Booty had a career interception rate of 2.06% in the 2006 season. In back to back games he has now thrown 2 interceptions per game to move this number up to the 2.3% range. In terms of recent USC quarterbacks this puts him in the middle of Matt Leinart and Carson Palmer. Matt Leinart threw 23 Int's in 1285 attempts in 2003 to 2005 for a 1.8% rate. Carson Palmer threw 40 picks on 1255 attempts over the 2000-2002 period for a 3.2% rate. One of JDB's passes seemed forced into coverage and another was a somewhat poorly placed (but catchable) ball that bounced off the shoulder pad of Stanley Havili. Unfortunately the interceptions set up very direct short field scoring opportunities for Washington. JDB Interceptions The first interception drew some questions on the broadcast. Here we can see that there is a safety in the middle of the field. I think there was a corner also to the left making this a form of Cover 3 but I can't tell. Either way it is an example of MOFC (Middle of Field Closed) type of read for the QB. Even though you generally don't throw to the middle versus MOFC secondary coverage it can be done by putting multiple receivers in the area and throwing to one of the two if the safety commits one way or the other. Here is the big question. Who was JDB throwing to? On TV I assumed it was the deep receiver and a forced throw into tight coverage. In Monday Morning QB Pete Carroll says the throw was intended for the TE underneath - Fred Davis...that would make more sense if the ball was thrown a split second later after Fred cleared the middle by a step or two more... Regardless of the intent the ball was intercepted by the deep middle defender and it put an end to the first Trojan drive.  Mistakes happen and are part of the game. Here is the second interception on a shorter throw. The play could have gone to either the receiver in the middle or the fullback to the right. The space had been cleared by the TE going deeper. Unfortunately the pass looked a bit too hard and thrown to the back shoulder of Stanley Havili. The ball was catchable but instead bounced off his shoulder. The ball deflected to a defender who gathered it in stride and took it in for a touchdown. Despite the two interceptions (and almost a third one), and a couple of dropped passes there were some bright spots in the passing game I thought when I re-watched the game. There were seven passed completed that netted greater than 15 yards per play and generated152 passing yards. Two of those throws were check down plays to RB Desmond Reed that were in reality big YAC plays. Still they generated good yardage. Finally it seemed that a team played some of the game in coverage schemes that allowed USC to take some better shots down field. A couple big passes were overthrown but a couple throws were completed deep as well. In general I tend to see teams like USC have about 60% of their throws in the shorter range, 25% in the medium range, and 15% in the deep range. I have not yet done a passing grid for the game but I will try to get to that later. YTD USC is still fairly low in terms of both Yards Per Attempt (YPA) and Yards Per Completion (YPC) in the passing department. The last two weeks have seen some improvement in that area and I expect it to improve the next couple of weeks as well. Here were the better medium and deeper throws in the game. Fred Davis 22 Yard Reception Here was a middle pass thrown against what I suspect was UW's Cover 2 defense. At a miminum we can see that it is a MOFO (Middle Of Field Open) situation for the quarterback. Here the middle is still open for the quarterback and there is very good protection and time to throw. The ball was thrown to TE Fred Davis on a nice TE seam route.  Good example of beating a Cover 2 type scheme in the middle of the field.  The play went for 22 yards with YAC. Patrick Turner Reception 23 Yard Reception Here was a pass play out of the I Formation with twin receivers split left. The Washington secondary was playing a loose coverage with one safety deep in support. This is a good example of how WR's work in tandem. The outside receiver runs a hitch or stop route at 7 yards to hold his defender. This creates room for Patrick Turner to run behind him. PT made a nice wide open catch for a 23 yard gain. I could not tell if DB #23 had PT in man or he was handing him off to a deep safety for help in coverage. Either way it was a nice throw and catch for a good gain. Patrick Turner 23 Yard TD Reception Here USC lines up in a 2 TE I Formation with the FB aligned to the right. WR Patrick Davis draws single coverage to the top of the screen. Booty drops back and has plenty of time to throw again on this play. Booty fires a very tightly thrown pass to the middle of the field for a TD to Patrick Turner. From behind we can see a few more things on the replay. For starters it is clearly a MOFO situation. UW had 10 defenders near the line of scrimmage practically daring USC to throw the ball. This leaves the middle open. The TE from the right flashes open as well as the WR from the left. Booty leads Patrick Turner perfectly on this play and the Trojans gain a nice touchdown. Fred Davis 16 Yard Reception Here was another nice throw to the tight end Fred Davis. Both the WR to the left and the TE ran some sort of double out route to the wide side of the field. There was a nice window for the throw to the TE. Fred Davis makes a nice catch in some traffic with a couple of defenders around him. The throw was for perhaps 12 yards but Fred spins and gains a few more hard earned yards after catch. Fred Davis 32 Yard Catch Here is Ace back alignment with two WR's to the left and and Fred Davis at TE to the left with Stanley Havili in a winged position to the narrow side of the field. Once again Booty gets nice protection. I could not see the secondary on the play but it seemed like 2 safeties deep and man underneath coverage. Downfield Fred Davis runs to the middle of the seam and finds open space and JDB leads him nicely on the throw. Davis gathers the catch in stride and is brought down for a nice 32 yard gain down to the 2 yard line setting up a short TD run for Chauncey Washington. USC Passing Grid Compared to previous games USC did relatively throw the ball somewhat more down field. The majority of the throws in a couple of the previous games were short and to the right. Here the intermediate middle and deeper middle were targeted for attack it appears. A lot of this of course just has to do with what the coaches saw on tape and what type of defense Washington played in response to certain formations. I expect as Pac-10 play continues USC will see more opportunities to throw the ball down field. Running Game The running game was overall quite positive again for the fourth week in a row. With injuries to Kris O'Dowd and Chilo Rachal the depth is suddenly a concern and we won't know for a couple of weeks when they might return and what impact this will have on the running game. The rush game has been evenly spread in terms of right, left, and medium so far this year. However in this game the majority of the yards came to the left side or middle of the offensive line. That may just be due to the game plan this week, the strenght / weakness match up of USC versus Washington or some other factor. We'll see going forward if the loss of Chilo Rachal affects the percentage of runs to the right versus left side of the field. Here are the two big runs in the game by tailbacks Stafon Johnson and Chauncey Washington. Stafon Johnson  45 Yard Run USC line up in its I formation with twin receivers left. Note that USC threw for a nice gain out of this formation as well. This play is a run designed to go to the left side of the formation. Initially it looked like the play might go nowhere or even be stopped for no gain. However S. Johnson finds a little wiggle room and made a defender miss. This opened up some nice room down the side line. 45 yards later he was finally pushed out of bounds after a good run. Chauncey Washington 53 Yard Run The second big run came out of a 3WR set with the TE and 1 WR to the right and 2 WR's to the left. It looks like a zone run to the left side of the field. On these plays the RB always looks for a crease or cutback lane. Here Chauncey finds one to the right side of the line. With a nice burst he gets past the defensive line and linebackers. Chauncey rambles for 53 yards down the right side of the field and is finally pushed out near the goal line for a nice run. Offensive by Downs & Run versus Pass Downs Runs Passes Total 1st 21 13 34 2nd 14 12 26 3rd 4 12 16 4th 0 0 1 39 37 76 As you can see from this breakdown it was a fairly balanced game for USC. There were more run plays on first down since USC was backed up inside their 20 yard line to start so many of the drives in the game. There was also a higher percentage of third down passing due to all the penalties that put USC in 3rd down and long passing situations. This all contributed to the lower 3rd down conversion rate for the game. Down 1st Runs 2nd Runs 3rd Runs 4th Runs 1st Passes 2nd Passes 3rd Passes 4th Passes Attempts 21 14 4 0 13 12 12 0 Yards 97 103 24 0 71 69 96 0 Average 4.6 7.4 6.0 0.0 5.5 5.8 8.0 0.0 As you can see by this further breakdown the Trojan offense again had good success in general on most situations. The passing yard averages are a little low still but I suspect they will trend upwards in the next couple of weeks. USC Offense by Situation Down Situation Run Pass 1st Long 20 12 Medium 1 0 Short 0 1 2nd Long 7 8 Medium 4 4 Short 3 0 3rd Long 2 4 Medium 1 6 Short 1 2 4th Long 0 0 Medium 0 0 Short 0 0 Total 39 37 This table breaks down the offense by situation and how USC attacked Washington in general by down and distance. The only glaring point of interest is that USC is tending to throw the ball on third and medium categories. We'll see if this continues or is just a temporary fluctuation and part of the weekly game planning process. Other Notes & Reflections On Offense: Any win versus a conference opponent is a good one in hindsight especially when so many teams around the country in the Top 10 were losing this past weekend. I expect USC to bounce back and play a couple of strong games at home over the next couple of weeks. There were a lot of negatives in this game such as the 16 penalties, 2 interceptions (almost a third), two batted down passes, and several key injuries. There were lots of penalties and mistakes that I did not highlight in the game summary. If any trends continue in terms of penalties or interceptions, etc. I will go back and revisit them as needed. For now we'll just watch the next game and see how the team responds at home after a closer than expected road victory.