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The USC Trojans may be 5-0 following a 48-41 victory over Colorado Saturday but head coach Lincoln Riley sees plenty of room for improvement.
The Trojans held a 34-14 lead at halftime but allowed the Buffaloes to have a fighting chance at evening up the score, with Colorado coming an onside kick recovery away from a chance to tie the game.
Riley said the second half performance of his team was an issue in all facets of the game and that his team will be prepared to learn from the miscues.
“We didn’t play a very good second half really on any of the three sides,” Riley said, per Paolo Uggetti of ESPN.com. “We’re going to own the win, we’re going to own the mistakes, we’re going to own the good, we’re going to go back to work.”
There were certainly a lot of positives for the Trojans in the victory, especially on offense. The team produced 498 offensive yards and quarterback Caleb Williams had his best performance of the season. He threw for 403 yards and six touchdowns and 30-of-40 passing.
However, the offense failed to pull away from the Buffaloes in the second half, getting outscored 27-14 in the second half and 14-0 in the final quarter. Also, the defense surrendered 564 offensive yards, 32 first downs and nine third down conversions to the Buffaloes.
Colorado quarterback Shedeur Sanders carved up the Trojans for 371 yards and four touchdowns on 30-of-45 passing and USC also had six penalties for 53 yards.
The victory is significant, however USC will need to clean up aspects of its game in order to reach its true potential. This plagued the team in 2022 and made them fall short of the College Football Playoff despite a Heisman-worthy season from Williams.
Riley was quick to separate this year’s team from last season, saying that the team has improved and that they rebound from adversity well.
“When something doesn’t go our way, it doesn’t look like last year. Not to the trained eye, not to a coach,” Riley said, per Uggetti. “Now, we still got plenty to correct. There’s a lot that’s improved and we’ve obviously got to put it all together.”
USC will look to clean things up before its next matchup against Arizona. After that game, the Trojans will take on Notre Dame in a highly-anticipated matchup.
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