COLLEGE FOOTBALL DAILY REPORT : USC : Secondary Lapses Costly in Defeat

In addition to dropped passes (six) and a premature departure from its running game Saturday, there were some lapses in USC’s young defensive backfield in Saturday’s 22-7 loss to Oregon.

Trojan defensive coordinator Don Lindsey pointed to two big Oregon plays, a 49-yard touchdown run by Dino Philyaw and a 71-yard Tony Graziani-to-Josh Wilcox pass play.

“On the 71-yard play, the guy catches the ball seven yards beyond the line of scrimmage,” Lindsey said. We didn’t cover him properly at the snap, then two guys missed tackles on the receiver 20 yards downfield. On the 49-yard run for the touchdown, we missed a tackle just past the line of scrimmage. And our pursuit angles were very poor.

“Our secondary players are young, and young kids make mistakes.”

USC started a senior, junior, sophomore and freshman in the secondary.

Lindsey, referring to the poor coverage on the 71-yard pass play, said he’d stress better secondary communication before the snap this week.

“One thing I can’t fault our defense for in the Oregon game is effort,” he said. “They really played hard. We just have to work harder at eliminating mistakes. We knew when the season started this was a young group, but it hasn’t developed as quickly as we’d hoped.”

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Robinson said junior tailback Leonard Green, sidelined since training camp with a hamstring pull, might play Saturday at Oregon State. And freshman guard Phalen Pounds’ arthroscopic knee repair last week will keep him out longer than expected. It was hoped Pounds would miss perhaps two games, but now he is not expected back until late in the season. . . . Oregon State Coach Jerry Pettibone, on USC’s loss to Oregon: “They didn’t play anywhere close to the kind of game they’re capable of playing.”