Fast, Furious USC Defense Has Few Soft Spots

Nebraska might have to be "mistake-free" to move the ball against the Trojans

Two downs to get two yards.

That's all that separated Nebraska from essentially running out the clock against Wake Forest.

And after junior running back Marlon Lucky had gained 5, 8, 3, 9 and 6 yards on his previous five carries, that looked like a safe bet.

You know the rest. Two stretch plays, one to each side of the offensive line, for zero yards. Wake still lost 20-17, but it had terrific field position for a game-tying field goal because of the Cornhuskers' inability to gain the length of a regular office desk.

"We had a missed assignment on the edge. Both times. That simple," NU Offensive Coordinator Shawn Watson said. "It's something that we thought was there. And it was there. It was the very same play Marlon scored on. We just had a human error."

Nebraska is unlikely to get away with that kind of poor execution Saturday night against Southern California.

"You just have to be mistake-free," NU quarterback Sam Keller said. "You have to take what they give you. You have to be very smart. But you also have to be aggressive. You have to take shots at them, because they are that good."

So what's the winning gameplan?

Now there's a question. One that NU Head Coach Bill Callahan never answered in Nebraska's 28-10 loss to USC last year.

NU repeatedly pounded the Trojans' front seven with power running plays, except the Trojans didn't much budge. The Huskers' short-side toss play with Kenny Wilson worked exactly once. Callahan's deft screen plays - which have been mostly absent from the offense so far in 2007 - had limited success. Only when then-quarterback Zac Taylor took some shots downfield, hitting Terrence Nunn and Matt Herian in the soft seams of USC's zone defense, did Nebraska consistently gain yards.

By then it was the fourth quarter, and too late for a comeback.

While the Huskers weren't talking about specifics Tuesday, a couple did mention a game film they had been watching to try to find USC's defensive weaknesses: Oregon State's 33-31 upset of the Trojans last year.

"(Oregon State) had some success through the air," Keller said.

The Beavers gained 351 total yards, and 262 yards passing. They also returned punt for a touchdown and forced four USC turnovers. But even in that game, USC's defensive prowess was on display: Three times Oregon State started with the ball inside USC's 40-yard line - twice at the 25 - and gained just 38 yards on those three drives. OSU settled for three field goals.

A more apt comparison might be Notre Dame, a West Coast Offense that, in two consecutive games with slightly better offensive talent than Nebraska's current group, gained 417 and 404 total yards against USC. Although Southern California handily beat ND last year 44-24, quarterback Brady Quinn still threw for 274 yards and had four drives stall in USC territory on top of the 24 points.

Then again...

"Stats are losers," ND Coach Charlie Weis said that night. "The bottom line is we moved the ball but didn't put it in the end zone."

In ND's loss last year, and Oregon State's win, success on third down was a common thread. Both teams converted around 40 percent of their third down tries.

Against Wake Forest, NU was miserable on third down, converting only 3 of 15 tries. On one, Keller fumbled. On a couple others, receivers dropped easy first down passes. And on a few more, Nebraska's offensive line just didn't get the push.

The good news, Callahan said, was that the Huskers gaining yards on first and second downs, enough to keep a good portion of the playbook open for third down. The bad news is that NU woefully underperformed in an yardage most good teams can handle 50 percent of the time.

"Usually, we're pretty consistent and effective in that range, in the 3rd-and-short and 3rd-and-medium," Callahan said. "That's where you want to be as a team. But we weren't as effective. We were a little out of kilter there. Had we converted half of those, which is our goal, then you're looking at your production overall increasing."

While Nebraska got into some "favorable" third-down situations - and converted them - against USC last year, it also had some long ones, including a 3rd-and-31. Reading the play-by-play sheet, what stands out isn't merely the lack of yards, but the clock NU chewed up to amass that small amount. For the game, the Huskers only had 10 drives, five of which penetrated some part of Trojan territory.

What Nebraska didn't produce, and NU players and coaches are unable to find much of on tape, are big plays. USC Head Coach Pete Carroll prefers to play a cover 2 scheme that guards against the "deep middle" that so many college teams like to exploit.

The corners play aggressive and tight, and are usually good tacklers, the safeties are generally big hitters and the linebackers are fast and versatile. If they need to cover, they can. If they need to blitz they can. It's defense that, if properly manned with speed players - and USC fits that bill - can cover almost all quadrants of the field, even places where quarterbacks typically have their "check downs" to running backs and wide receivers.

Where a Cover 2 is susceptible is right in front of a center's facemask.

Carroll will gamble, Watson said, bringing "heavy" fronts and blitz packages but, generally, the defense relies on one less man "in the box" to stop the running game. Whereas Wake Forest typically had eight players - one of whom was a safety - in the box for run support, USC's base defense will have seven. The best way to beat a Cover 2 is to run against it. If a team can't, it makes passing the ball much harder.

"It's a simple game of math," Watson said. "It's one of those deals where you have to run the football, whatever that looks like, in order to eat up clock and eat up chain. Everything's centered around that run game."

In other words, precisely the plan Callahan tried - and failed - to execute last year.

Said Keller: “I expect (USC) to have a lot of answers. Coach Carroll is a very, very smart defensive coach as all of you know. He is going to have his bread and butter and probably going to have some new stuff.

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