The first thing anyone will talk about when it comes to USC football this season is the defense. Countless pundits, writers and strongly opinionated fans are yelling from the hilltops, discrediting the Trojans’ potential College Football Playoff bid all because of that one unit.

Never mind that USC (5-0, 3-0 Pac-12) has indisputably one of the best offensive units. In the entire country, USC is third in total offense (555.0 yards per game), fourth in passing offense (382.4 yards per game), second in team passing efficiency (204.66) and first in points per game (53.6).

But hey, I get it. As the old saying goes, defense wins championships. And when you look at all those statistics, there are Pac-12 teams that sit coolly in front of the Trojans. USC’s offense is good, but so are many other schools’.

But is their defense that bad? I’m more optimistic about it because it certainly has improved from last season. It ranks in the top 50 in the country in terms of points allowed per game (24.2). But of course, when you look at the strength of opponents the Trojans have played so far, it’s not as impressive.

Then you look at how it ranks 98th in the country in total defense (404.4 yards per game) against those mediocre opponents, and you start asking those questions and pointing fingers at the defense. It’s the easy thing to do and most logical.

But consider that USC has had two drives this season over five minutes. Two. A little more than 99.6% of their drives have been five minutes or shorter. Part of that is because of Head Coach Linocoln Riley’s run-and-gun hurry-up style offense that has been so dynamic. But part of that has been Riley’s poor game management.

This was glaringly apparent in the game a week ago against Colorado. USC went into halftime up 34-14, convincingly at that. USC squandered its lead and gave Boulder a last-gasp shot at winning the game, winning by just one score in the end.

The Trojans longest drive of that second half while up multiple scores was 3:36. On its final seven drives of the game, USC ran just eight run plays, two of which were scrambles by junior quarterback Caleb Willaims.

Up multiple scores and still airing the ball out? That’s a recipe for disaster to allow your opponent back into the game. If the defense is unequivocally the weaker unit, you want to keep them off the field as much as possible. The defense isn’t getting any rest and is forced to come back from resting after a mere five minutes and, sometimes, less.

With the ball in their hands, the Trojans should use up as much clock as possible. And I get it; the passing offense is on a record pace. But it’s impossible to ignore the underutilization of redshirt junior running back MarShawn Lloyd.

Lloyd has been a spark plug for USC this season. He’s averaging an absurd 8.33 yards per carry this season, the second-best mark in the entire country. Granted, that’s only on 52 carries. But why not hand Lloyd the rock up multiple scores to give your defense a rest and milk some time off of the clock?

With how good Lloyd is, there’s no reason Williams should have to throw the ball 40 times in a game over at halftime. The fewer opportunities and less time you give the other team against your more vulnerable defense, the better chance you’ll have to come away with a convincing win.

Ultimately, I’m not a seven-year veteran as a head coach in the college football world and not an offensive mastermind like Riley. There’s a reason he has 71 career coaching wins, and I’m writing a column behind the screen of my computer.

But at the end of the day, there’s no reason to be throwing the ball up 14 points with just over 10 minutes left in the fourth quarter. Run. The. Ball. Simple as that.

Stefano Fendrich is a junior writing about his opinions on some of sports’ biggest debates in his column, “The Great Debate,” which runs every other Friday. He is also a sports editor at the Daily Trojan.