USC offensive efficiency is off the charts through three games in 2023

#USC’s offense passes the eye test, but the numbers reinforce what the eyes are seeing. Let’s go inside the numbers.

You can see with your own eyes how great the USC offense is through three games in 2023. You can see Caleb Williams play the quarterback position as well as any college quarterback ever has. You can see how Lincoln Riley puts players in position to succeed, and also how he puts defenders in impossible positions. They either have to crash down on a running back and allow a tight end or wide receiver to leak into the short flat with no one around them, or they have to stay with the tight end and allow the handoff to the running back for a solid gain of seven or eight yards.

You can see USC’s depth at wide receiver. It’s less about one man going off in a game, more about various competent receivers spreading the field and making it hard for the secondary to account for every patch of real estate.

You can see that the starting offensive line is very strong, and that the depth at running back gives the Trojans plenty of options when they attack opposing defenses.

One tweet takes all of these “eye test” observations puts some statistical meat on the bone. Let’s look at USC’s offensive efficiency by the numbers: