COLUMN: Dismal defensive design by Wilcox

If you believe in small moral victories, I certainly don’t — USC’s loss to Stanford had a few. It is clear Steve Sarkisian’s decision to turn playcalling decisions over to Clay Helton was a shrewd move.

The offense looks more explosive and efficient than when Sark was doubling his duties as head coach and playcaller. Additionally, senior Cody Kessler has progressed as a leader and quarterback. When USC had the ball, which was unfortunately sparingly against Stanford, Kessler looked comfortable, hitting his targets with pinpoint accuracy.

He stepped up in a big game, which is a major improvement over last season. Unfortunately, two USC drives were stalled by key penalties called on veteran leaders, but that is out of Kessler’s control. Overall, Kessler and the skill position players put together a great game.

If there was one complaint on offense, it would be why the Trojans didn’t run more in the second half after gashing the Cardinal in the first.

Rushing the ball only six times over two quarters, especially when your defense is getting pounded, doesn’t really help the team overall. However, I’m sure if the Trojans weren’t stalled on those two drives, the six rushes would be a moot point.

What isn’t moot however, was the absolutely atrocious defensive game plan put together by coordinator Justin Wilcox. Not only did Saturday not qualify as a moral victory, it was an abysmal loss as it signified a woeful inability by the coaching staff to change and adapt in adverse situations.

Saturday’s loss was more of the same for the Sark era, in terms of the Trojan defense getting absolutely roasted time and time again without any discernible adjustments being made.

I’m not sure if it is arrogance, incompetence or blissful ignorance (or some combination of the three), but it seems that the Trojan defensive staff watches a different game than everyone else in the world.

It would be one thing if this was a one-game fluke, but we have an entire season of evidence to prove otherwise. What happened on Saturday shouldn’t be a surprise to any Trojan fan. It was the same story last year against Boston College, Arizona State and UCLA.

In what is a recurring nightmare for any fan, the Trojan defense refused to blitz and instead got picked apart by another opposing offense, turning Kevin Hogan into a dead ringer for Andrew Luck. The same thing happened with Tyler Murphy, Michael Bercovici and Brett Hundley. Wilcox is the fairy godmother of college football.

When they play USC’s defense, serviceable — but not great — quarterbacks magically transform into a mutant combination of Joe Montana, John Elway and Vince Young

No one should be mistaken about this Stanford offensive system.

It is no run and gun high octane aerial attack. The Cardinal scored 37 points against Northwestern and University of Central Florida, scoring a combined four touchdowns in two games. They punched it into the end zone five times against USC’s defense, a group littered with five-star recruits.

Don’t get me wrong — there are some differences with USC this year. For one, USC doesn’t have the excuse of depth anymore. The Trojans had the chance to rotate in plenty of defensive linemen but for the most part chose not to.

When they did, the backups made plays, like Noah Jefferson coming up with a stout stop in the fourth quarter. Depth is no longer a legitimate excuse, neither is inexperience. Young players at Ohio State and Alabama seem to flourish, so the only possible difference there is coaching and player development.

The second difference is this secondary can actually cover receivers man to man.

Sure, they will get burned occasionally, especially with freshmen in the game, but that is to be expected. What is worse than a defensive back being beat one-on-one, is watching the opponent’s offense poke holes in the USC’s porous zone defense, especially when the opposing quarterback has enough time to write the next great American novel in the backfield.

So with more depth, and an improved secondary, why does Wilcox still refuse to bring pressure? The old maxim says, if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.

Well the Trojans defense was more than broken on Saturday night, and Wilcox is paid to fix that, yet he didn’t.

With the exception of bringing in linebacker Porter Gustin to pass rush on the first drive of the second half (which worked), there were no changes. So I’m absolutely befuddled as to what the coaching staff was doing on Saturday.

When USC did blitz, they did so from the outside even though Hogan had a bum ankle and could only run up the middle. The Cardinal aren’t Oregon — they don’t use the width of the field, so it might make sense to crowd the field in between the hashes. Yet, there the Trojans were — throwing predictable and infrequent blitzes out from the wide side of the field.

The sad thing is, Stanford didn’t even pound the Trojans throughout the game. Sure, they wore them out by the fourth quarter, but for the most part the Cardinal moved the ball by air and not on the ground. That is simply put, unacceptable.

This criticism is not to say I am an expert on the intricacies of defense at the collegiate level, but the problem is I honestly don’t think Justin Wilcox is either. If the Trojans gave up 41 points to Stanford, who play the game like it is 1915, how will they fare against truly explosive offenses?

What is going to happen when the Trojans don’t pressure a talented quarterback?

With Hogan looking like Tom Brady out there, I cringe at the thought of Jared Goff or Anu Solomon attacking the Trojans’ defense. USC will have more talent than almost every team they face, but the gap isn’t big enough to neutralize the coaching disadvantage the Trojans seem to have against quality opponents.

The season is still salvageable; after all Ohio State won the national title following an early season upset, but something has to change. Sark has shown the ability to adapt, by handing the reins over to Helton.

Now he must make an adjustment to the defense. Whether that is replacing Wilcox or instructing him to ratchet up the pressure it really doesn’t matter.

Sarkisian is in his second year, and the buck stops with him. Depth is no longer an excuse. Neither is having senior leaders commit unfathomably idiotic penalties.

He may be primarily an offensive coach, but at the end of the day if the guy he hires can’t run a defense, then ultimately Sark is culpable.

Something has to be fixed or it’s going to be another eight or nine win season, and a long, frustrating few years with Sarkisian and Wilcox at the helm.

Jake Davidson is a junior majoring in accounting. His column, “Davidson’s Direction,” runs Mondays.