To be honest, this is a great Week 2 scenario for the USC Trojans: None of their offensive linemen (the most important non-Caleb Williams members of the roster) got hurt. The team scored a road win in conference play against a coach, David Shaw, who ran his mouth about this game, albeit indirectly.
The offense is generally functioning the way it is supposed to. The defense is a mess but continues to make enough plays to smooth the path for the Trojans during games.
One underrated “good” thing about this Stanford win isn’t a good thing on the surface: The Trojans were really sloppy — coaching and playing — in the fourth quarter. In addition to the defense’s errors in the first half, that disorganized, careless fourth quarter gives the coaching staff a lot to think about heading into Week 3, which is a good thing. We don’t want coaches or players to think all of this stuff is easy, or that anyone has everything figured out. No. We want the errors to coexist with wins, so that everyone remains sharp, focused, and urgent in the pursuit of improvement and development.
Good early-season wins have those ingredients. With that, let’s turn to the report card for USC against Stanford: