USC Trojans: Defense Makes Or Breaks 2015

Now that’s championship style defense that the USC Trojans displayed at Arizona State and I’m fired up.

This defense was flying all over the field, creating turnovers, and also scoring on turnovers.

They looked like a very different defense.

And don’t forget, this is the same Arizona State team that put up 30+ on USC on the road a season ago and just beat UCLA on the road.

I’ve seen vast improvement in this defense and it looks promising going forward.

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Therefore, this week against the Washington Huskies, USC needs to continue to improve defensively and in the run game.

However, the next four weeks will be tough for USC — so, I suggest they handle business against Washington.

Offensively, once again Kessler played great and continues to add fuel to his Heisman fire.

He threw for 375 yards and five touchdown passes.

Furthermore, a marvelous game for the USC offense in their 42-14 rout of the Arizona State Sun Devils a week ago.

I must admit the game wasn’t perfect, though.

USC still turned the ball over and also gave up over 180 rushing yards.

Even though their defense bent a few times, they never broke.

For example, deep in USC territory the Sun Devils were down 21-0 and were at the one-yard line with time running down in the second quarter.

If Arizona State scores at that point, the halftime score could be 21-7 giving them some momentum going into the locker room.

Once again, the defense stepped up and forced a huge fumble and returned it 99 yards right before halftime to lead 28-0.

That put the nail in the coffin right there and ended Arizona State’s only chance at coming back in that game.

With that being said, I just want to see improvement on the defensive side of the ball every week.

I’m not too worried about the offense.

Sark has them running like a well-oiled machine every Saturday.

USC needs to continue to create those game changing turnovers.

Let’s be honest — they were one game-changing turnover away from being undefeated and still in the top 10 right now.

Turnovers are a huge part of the game whether you’re forcing them or self-inflicting them.

Strong defense is what made the Pete Carroll era so dominate.

Yes, Reggie Bush was amazing and Matt Leinert was a great quarterback but don’t forget that USC team would destroy multiple opponents in their BCS bowl games.

And when I say destroy — I mean it.

For example, the vacated national championship win (rolls eyes at NCAA) against big and mighty Oklahoma was like the one of my favorite childhood movies “The Little Giants”.

One team dominated the whole game from start to finish.

That high-powered Sooner team scored an abysmal 19 points.

Lets not forget the rose bowl game in 2008 against the great Penn State.

At one point, the Trojans lead 31-7 in a flat out rout of the Nittany Lions.

Bottom Line: Defense is the do-or-die of USC.

The point I am trying to make is simple — defense wins championships.

And if USC’s defense continues to play well like they did against Arizona State than I don’t see any team stopping this highly efficient offense and opportunistic defense.

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