Tag: USC Arizona Football

Arizona’s offense, especially its receivers, helped USC prepare for UCLA in a few weeks

#USC’s next big spotlight game will be against UCLA on Nov. 19. Arizona made the Trojans sweat. The Wildcats also might have prepared USC for the Bruins.

We know that the next two weeks for USC football should be manageable even with the tidal wave of injuries which has swamped the Trojans. Cal and Colorado are arguably the two worst teams in the Pac-12. (Colorado is easily the worst team in the conference; Cal being No. 11 is debatable, but the Golden Bears lost to Colorado and look very limited right now.) USC can rest a lot of players if it is unsure they are healthy.

It’s all about getting healthy for UCLA on Nov. 19 in the biggest USC-UCLA game since 2005.

The value of the Arizona game was more than just getting a win. The Wildcats might have prepared USC for the Bruins:

Two nights after Utah scored a ‘culture win,’ USC does the same against Arizona

Thursday, #Utah won without its starting QB, 3 running backs, and 2 tight ends. Saturday, #USC won with hardly any healthy LBs, neither of its top WRs, and 2 O-linemen. #Culture

This is what a winning culture looks like.

This is what it looks like when a team endures tons of key injuries, is stretched very thin on its roster, has to overcome a lot of negative in-game events, and must simply persevere.

We saw this resilience on Thursday from the reigning Pac-12 champions, the Utah Utes. They were missing quarterback Cam Rising, three running backs — including Tavion Thomas and Micah Bernard — and watched Dalton Kincaid get hurt (on top of already missing Brant Kuithe).

They had to win on the road at Washington State in spite of all those injuries, and they did.

Two days later, USC did the same thing against Arizona. Let’s underscore all the adverse developments the Trojans had to overcome:

USC defense, missing Eric Gentry and several other players, hangs on and survives vs Arizona

This was pure survival for #USC. No one was expecting a good performance once it became known that Eric Gentry and Ralen Goforth were both ruled out vs Arizona.

Survival.

That’s what this game against Arizona was for USC’s defense.

It’s weird: The Trojans had a week off. Presumably, this gave them a chance to get healthy. Yet, while it was already known that Eric Gentry — injured against Utah — might not play against Arizona, fellow linebacker Ralen Goforth was also ruled out for this game in Tucson.

Shane Lee is still not 100-percent healthy.

Korey Foreman was out and therefore not able to give USC an extra body on its front seven. This is in addition to Romello Height being out for the season.

USC wasn’t going to play a great defensive game. It just had to be good enough.

It was.

Let’s look at how the evening unfolded in Tucson: