USC must improve in fourth quarter


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Sometimes the most trite sports clichés are the truest, and in the case of this year’s USC football team, one in particular stands out: You’ve got to play a complete game in order to win. But in the Trojans’ last two games, I’m pretty sure they’ve tried to stray as far away from this adage as humanly possible, delivering two disastrous fourth-quarter performances.

Earlier in the season, USC brought its A-game at Stanford and battled for all 60 minutes. Late in the fourth, the Trojan defense came up huge, as junior defensive end Leonard Williams and senior linebacker J.R. Tavai sacked Cardinal quarterback Kevin Hogan on consecutive plays — the latter of which resulted in Hogan fumbling and the Trojans recovering to set up a USC victory.

Against Arizona State, though, USC entered the fourth quarter up 20-18, and choked in the end. The game was tight all the way through, with neither team holding more than an eight-point lead throughout the first three periods.

Though the Trojans trailed the Sun Devils at different points throughout the second and third quarters, it actually looked like they were beginning to pull away in the fourth. Despite USC’s recent rocky history against Arizona State and the early lead changes, I was fully confident throughout the fourth quarter that USC would win. In fact, when redshirt junior running back Buck Allen tore off a 53-yard touchdown run with three minutes to go in the game, I was so excited (and arrogant) that I ran over and hugged the ASU student standing a few seats away from me. For some reason, he didn’t seem pleased.

With USC up by nine after the extra point, students started pouring out of the stadium, sure of a Trojan victory. But then the train came off the tracks. As we’ve heard over and over again for the past two weeks, USC’s defense made big mistakes in the final minutes of the game, allowing ASU’s Cameron Smith to break away for a 73-yard touchdown reception and Jaelen Strong to haul in a Hail Mary as time expired.

USC displayed a similar lack of discipline in the fourth quarter at Arizona the next week. The Trojans entered the fourth with a 28-13 lead but gave up 13 unanswered points and got extremely lucky at the last second when Wildcat kicker Casey Skowron missed a 36-yard field goal attempt wide right with just 12 seconds to go.

In the last quarter of that game, Kessler completed just one pass for one yard. I understand pounding the rock to run out the clock while holding a 15-point lead, especially considering how in the zone Allen looked, but while Arizona was mounting a comeback, USC would have benefited from extending a couple of drives. While the Trojans put up a total of 68 yards of offense in the fourth, the Wildcats managed 190.

Perhaps more crucial than that disparity was the fact that USC committed five penalties for 34 yards in the fourth quarter. Meanwhile, Arizona committed none. The same goes for the game against Arizona State: USC had two penalties for 15 yards in the fourth, while the Sun Devils, in contrast to their name, played clean.

ESPN’s Ted Miller reported on Thursday that the Trojans have committed 21 penalties that have resulted in a first down for their opponents — more than any other team in the FBS. USC must clean up its sloppy play, from start to finish.

These fourth-quarter woes and penalties make me nervous about this Saturday’s game because I predict USC will build up a pretty big lead early on (which sets the team up to squander it down the stretch).

Colorado quarterback Sefo Liufau ranks fourth in the conference in pass yards, averaging 314.5 per game, and has some pretty dangerous targets to throw to in Nelson Spruce and Shay Fields. But despite that talent, the Buffs are winless in Pac-12 play, and their only two wins of the season came against UMass and Hawai’i.

Perhaps USC has learned from its mistakes in the past two games and has focused on playing a complete game and not losing focus late in the game. Maybe this game the Trojans will dominate throughout the fourth quarter. All I ask is that they don’t let their opponents drive down the field as time runs out. I’ve had enough stress this season.

 

Aubrey Kragen is a senior majoring in communication. She is also the sports editor of the Daily Trojan. Her column, “Release the Kragen,” runs Fridays.