Bruce Feldman explains struggles of USC, Caleb Williams
After suffering back-to-back losses, morale is low for USC. During an appearance on “The Rich Eisen Show,” FOX Sports senior college football columnist Bruce Feldman weighed in on the Trojans’ recent struggles.
“Caleb [Williams] covered up a lot of flaws. Certainly not just on the defense, but on the offensive line,” Feldman said. “Their offensive line is worse this year than it was last year. Going to see them play Notre Dame in South Bend a couple of weeks ago, you could see physically they did not look like what an SC offensive line should look like.
“Caleb is a phenomenal talent, but I think there’s some flaws that eventually got exposed,” Feldman said. “For so long, they could lean on, ‘Hey, we got the best player in college football. He’s gonna cover it up. He’s gonna fix it.’ Against Notre Dame, they had five turnovers. [Williams] threw three picks in the first half. All of a sudden, that facade, if you want to call it that, was kind of punctured or fell apart.”
USC’s offense was a disaster in its 48-20 blowout loss to Notre Dame. Not only did USC commit five turnovers, but its front five allowed six sacks and 11 tackles for loss. USC has allowed 20 sacks this season, ranking 92nd in the country.
Problems on both sides of the ball
In USC’s following loss to Utah, the Trojans’ defense was to blame. In the win, the Utes rattled off 482 yards against USC. Feldman claims Utah’s success was due to a lack of fear.
“They were not intimidated by USC at all because they’d beat them twice last year, and then they ended up coming back to get them,” Feldman said. “[USC] will beat Cal this weekend and they’ll win that game. Then, they have Washington next week. Washington’s loaded and Washington, to me, is a bad matchup for them.
“Not only do they have Michael Penix Jr. and a good system, they have really good receivers,” Feldman said. “To me, [USC’s] biggest issue — micro — is that their defensive backs are not very good. They’re not playing with much confidence. They don’t tackle well. They don’t seem to react.”
It won’t get easier for USC
Washington isn’t USC’s only fearsome foe ahead. The team will also face off against Oregon and UCLA in the back half of the season, each possessing immense passing ability. Feldman has a peculiar prediction behind USC’s struggles in the secondary.
“They just seem like they they’re not playing with a lot of confidence,” Feldman said of USC’s DBs. “I wonder if it’s this, it’s that they go up against Caleb Williams and a lot of firepower every day at practice, and maybe it’s hard to build confidence that way.”
Williams will be blamed for USC’s success and failure. The 2022 Heisman Trophy winner hopes to add another tally in the win column this weekend. On Saturday, USC will square off against California at 4 p.m. ET on the Pac-12 Network.