Trojans’ Coaches Can’t Defend Weak Performance by Offense

Yes, he has heard it all--the boos and jeers in the Coliseum, the insults hurled at his USC offense.

It’s Mike Riley’s offense. He’s the offensive coordinator, the same guy who drew up the scheme that scored 41 points in the Rose Bowl last Jan. 1.

And he’s the same guy who was in charge Saturday, when USC registered what is among the worst offensive performances in the 104 years USC has played football.

In a 21-10 loss to Washington, the Trojans’ run game finished in reverse. The minus-14 yards rushing were the lowest ever, and the 124 yards of offense were the smallest output in 24 years.

All the Trojans’ offensive demons seemed to be present Saturday.

More dropped passes. More atrocious pass blocking.

“I thought we’d be better,” Riley said of the Trojans (5-4). “I thought that despite our offensive inexperience, we’d have developed beyond where we are. I wasn’t terribly excited about how our first offense scrimmaged our first defense last August, but I also knew we had a good defense.

“I wish I could pinpoint what’s gone wrong, but it’s obviously a combination of a lot of things--the drops, the blocking, the inexperience. . . .”

Both Riley and Coach John Robinson seemed mystified Tuesday by the inordinate number of balls their receivers are dropping.

Riley: “These are kids who I admire for their hard work in practice, for how hard they’retrying. Chris Miller [senior wide receiver] may be the hardest-working player I’ve ever coached. It’s certainly not a question of effort.

“Now we have a self-imposed pressure factor. And we’re examining how we coach these kids. Are we over-coaching them? Are we coaching them too little? These are weekly issues for us.”

Robinson: “We said before the season that we had an inexperienced offense, but that it would mature. Well, it hasn’t. Am I shocked? Any time we lose it’s a shock . . . but I’m shocked by our inability to make the passing game plays, the fact we’re just not catching the ball.”

Robinson, at his Tuesday media lunch, called Saturday “a miserable experience,” said he was “embarrassed,” then switched sports to describe the offense:

“We’re like a golfer who suddenly loses his game, where not one of his clubs works for him.”

Pass blocking was a prominent topic Tuesday. Linemen and backs muffed blocks against Washington’s blitzing, eight-man rush, particularly in the second half.

Robinson: “The part that’s most disheartening is that it’s a pass-block system we’ve used in an attempt to simplify it.”

And the same for run-blocking.

“Red Grange would not have run well Saturday against Washington,” he said.

Riley pointed to the unavailability of the team’s best blocker (senior tight end John Allred has a sprained ankle) as a factor in recent blocking lapses.

“The backs and linemen had [blocking] assignments on the blitzes, and the result was really disappointing. As we got overwhelmed in the second half, the assignments went out the window.”

And yes, he said, the young Trojans panicked.

“Yeah, some panic set in. When you lose your confidence and your most reliable plays aren’t working and your opponent is playing very aggressively and having success . . . you first get tentative, then things fall apart.”

Through it all, Riley said, quarterback Brad Otton has been a class act.

“We’ve seen other quarterbacks lash out, in similar situations,” he said.

“He’s handled this with the dignity we’ve come to expect of him. I’m personally disappointed we haven’t been able to help him.”

On the idea of playing second-year freshman quarterbacks John Fox or Quincy Woods, Robinson indicated that might happen--but not this week, as the team prepares to visit Stanford on Saturday.

“I think we’ll try to get one of them in,” he said.

“At practice you have 50 to 60 snaps. . . . If we were to play another quarterback, we’d have to give him a half or a third of the snaps, and right now that’s difficult.”

Otton, the senior starter, is bruised from the six sacks he absorbed Saturday, and perhaps still from the 13 total against California and Arizona.

“The Washington game, it set me back,” Riley said. “But seeing how it happened renews my hope for better days. One of the important parts of coaching is the ability to take something that you had from the ashes and build it back up again.”