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Lincoln Riley addresses USC's recent third down struggles

On3-Social-Profile_GRAYby:On3 Staff Report•10/12/23
Week 7 Picks: USC @ Notre Dame |Andy Staples and T-Bob Hebert

Take a look at USC‘s scoring output the past three weeks and you might not think there’s anything wrong with the offense, but a closer look reveals some troubling third down trends.

The Trojans are just 9-of-28 on third down in the past three games, and coach Lincoln Riley thinks his team is not setting itself up to succeed.

“The biggest issue that we’ve had on it is we’ve been in way, way too many third-and-longs and several extra-longs,” Riley said this week. “That’s been really the biggest problem. You sit there and play a ton of third-and-longs, that’s going to be the case. Shoot, the last several games we’ve hardly ran any third-and-short plays.”

Quarterback Caleb Williams has certainly managed well given the issues. As noted, USC’s scoring output hasn’t been all that hampered.

The Trojans have averaged 44.3 points per game in the last three outings and haven’t scored fewer than 42. But there have been some close calls, like last week’s triple-overtime escape against Arizona.

The goal for USC needs to be avoiding being in such precarious positions.

“Good third-down teams, one, you don’t get into third downs, and, two, you get into the third downs where percentage wise the offense has some type of advantage, and those are your shorts and your more medium normal type downs,” Riley said. “We’ve been in a ton of third-and-longs. Obviously want to be better in those, but you can be the best team in the country if you convert 30% of your third-and-longs. That’s just the name of the game that way. That’s the biggest thing.”

USC isn’t going to get much room for error the next month plus. Starting with this week’s Notre Dame game, USC begins a five-game stretch that also includes Utah, Washington and Oregon.

The Trojans have eyes on a Pac-12 title, and they won’t get there unless the third down issues get cleaned up considerably going forward.

“We’ve had a couple opportunities that we missed, especially early in the game the other day, on some manageable ones that we’ve got to make,” Riley said. “But No. 1 thing is we’ve got to stay out of third-and-longs more than we have the last couple weeks.”