LOS ANGELES (AP) -Although Pete Carroll isn’t exactly naming names, the Southern California coach left little doubt which part of his team is making things difficult this season.
After the seventh-ranked Trojans beat Washington State 27-6 Saturday night, Carroll effusively praised his defense, which took a shutout into the final minute and racked up eight sacks. Carroll even said the defense had “an easy game,” handling everything Washington State could throw at it.
The USC offense is where nearly every fault with these Trojans (3-1, 1-1 Pac-10) currently exists, and Carroll isn’t afraid to say it – albeit a little indirectly.
“It’s great to win, it’s fun to win, but we’ve got a lot of work to do,” Carroll said. “Gosh, it’s just not at all the satisfying kind of win we would have liked to have had. … Defense played really well. There’s a lot of room for improvement. Most of the problems were self-inflicted.”
d Washington State didn’t score until a last-minute drive against the Trojans’ second-stringers. Michael Morgan, Chris Galippo, Jordan Campbell and others are proving to be outstanding replacements for an entire linebacking corps lost to the NFL, with Morgan getting 2 1/2 sacks against the Cougars.
USC moved up five spots in Sunday’s poll heading into the weekend showdown at California, which plummeted 18 spots after getting blown out at Oregon.
“We’re pretty happy with the team putting a game on the defense,” Morgan said. “We’ve got a lot of young players on both sides, but our defense feels like we should be able to keep us in position to win every game all by ourselves if we have to.”
The offense wasn’t nearly as impressive, even with the return of freshman quarterback Matt Barkley from a bruised right shoulder. Barkley’s arm still hurts, but he pushed through the pain to pass for 247 yards and two long first-quarter touchdowns.
“I felt a little limited in my arm strength, but I tried to gun it in when I needed to,” Barkley said. “We knew we could stretch them vertically. They played a lot of press (coverage) on film. They backed off a little bit, started playing more Cover-2, but we hit a couple of balls up the middle.”
led on two fourth-down plays inside the Washington State 2, and missed another field goal.
USC managed just 403 yards – nearly half of those in the first quarter – against a defense that had given up more than 570 per game this season. The Trojans also had another robust evening of penalties, committing 13 for 115 yards – including 75 yards in the first quarter.
USC’s offensive performance would have looked much better if the Trojans had converted those two fourth-down snaps at the goal line. Tight end Rhett Ellison dropped a pass that hit him between the numbers on one of the attempts, while C.J. Gable was stuffed on a sweep on the other try.
“You can’t throw it better than that,” Carroll said of Ellison’s flub. “I don’t regret that at all, but we need to get it in the end zone.”
At least the Trojans got some balance back in their offense after the passing game’s struggles reduced USC to one-dimension football in its loss at Washington. Quarterbacks coach Jeremy Bates expanded his playbook against Washington State, and Barkley responded well to the extra responsibility and longer throws.
Barkley’s best moments occurred back-to-back in the first quarter when he threw an exceptional 29-yard TD pass to Brice Butler, followed by a long pass down the middle to Damian Williams for a 57-yard score.
r 100 yards, but also fumbled. “It was just straight on the money. That’s a great throw by Matt, and you can see what kind of quarterback he’s going to be.”
The Trojans lost backup defensive lineman Hebron Fangupo to a broken left ankle in the second quarter when he was removed from the field on a cart. Campbell, who led the Trojans with eight tackles, sprained his left ankle, and backup cornerback Marshall Jones sprained his neck.
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