Offense Still Seems a Little Uncoordinated

We interrupt your toast and coffee to report this significant twist involving key off-season moves made by our local rivals:

USC hired coordinator Norm Chow to transform a sputtering Trojan offense while UCLA collared Phil Snow to put his finger in the dam break that was the Bruin defense.

Chow’s hiring was rightly hailed as USC Coach Pete Carroll’s first master stroke.

Snow’s hiring was largely ... ignored.

Reality check: USC fell to 1-3 after Saturday’s 21-16 defeat to Stanford at the Coliseum and the Trojan offense is chugging along with all due speed of molasses.

UCLA ran its record to 4-0 with another stellar defensive performance in the Bruins’ 38-7 victory at Oregon State.

“Major disappointment,” Chow said after USC’s loss.

Technically, the USC offense did produce a touchdown against Stanford, Sultan McCullough racing around left end on an eight-yard run in the third quarter, but that score was set up by a 47-yard punt return to the Stanford eight.

USC’s other touchdown came on an blocked field goal returned for a score.

Let’s be clear: Stanford’s defense is not the Steel Curtain. The Cardinal gave up 22 points in its opening win against Boston College and 28 more in last week’s victory against Arizona State.

One would think USC could poke and prod through cracks and creases, but it didn’t happen. In fact, after putting up 21 points in the season opener against San Jose State, it hasn’t happened much at all.

USC entered Saturday’s game ranked last in the conference in scoring offense and rushing offense, two titles the Trojans will certainly retain this week after their offense generated 10 points and 28 net yards rushing.

Shocking?

“Yeah, yeah, “ Chow said. “It’s shocking to me we can’t do some of the things we’d like to do.”

So what’s wrong?

The knee-jerk reaction would be to blame Chow, but the guy’s got a bullet-proof portfolio. He came to USC with unprecedented history, having spent 27 years as passing-guru architect of all those point-a-minute Brigham Young offenses.

Last year, when it became clear Chow would not become the successor to LaVell Edwards at BYU, he left to become offensive coordinator at North Carolina State. There, he tutored a freshman quarterback, Philip Rivers, who threw for 3,000 yards and 25 touchdowns.

So the problem at USC is?

Lack of quality players.

Chow will never say it, could never it--probably should never say it.

He says he and his staff are “here to work as hard as we can work.”

Chow still believes this USC offense can be dynamic.

“That’s why we coach,” he said. “We’ll be working in the office tomorrow trying to get better.”

Fact is, Chow got short-sheeted on talent. The situation probably looked better than it turned out to be. Conversely, UCLA’s Snow inherited a defense with a bad rap that was, in fact, on the cusp of something special.

Through four games, it seems obvious USC does not have the offensive line to compete at a high level, one that can establish enough of a running game to allow the passing game to click.

Chow could never say it, but he must have been silently salivating at the beef cakes Stanford had assembled on the offensive front, an impressive wall of flesh that pushed and pressed the action and enabled the Cardinal offense to work in concert.

Stanford finished with 203 yards rushing and 194 passing yards. Even though the Cardinal offense did not score a second-half point, it was able to chew up enough yards and time to seal the victory.

Stanford consumed a whopping nine minutes and 32 seconds on a drive that started in the third quarter and drifted well into the fourth. It deflated the Trojans, even without producing a point.

The Cardinal then clinched the game by running out the last 4:13 of the game.

Funny, or maybe not, but wasn’t that just the sort of power football and time management made famous by USC in the 1960s and ‘70s?

And what of Chow’s work with Carson Palmer?

This was supposed to be the perfect marriage of coach and quarterback, and you’d still be hard-pressed to find a better coordinator than Chow to make this Carson show work.

Chow, after all, tutored the likes of Steve Young, Jim McMahon and Marc Wilson at BYU. In Provo, he even took an ordinary player, Steve Sarkisian, and turned him into a passing machine.

Sarkisian finished his BYU career with 7,755 yards and 55 touchdowns.

Now a USC offensive assistant, Sarkisian might still be the most efficient quarterback on campus.

In Palmer, Chow inherited a talented but inconsistent player, a quarterback thought only to need a little spit and polish.

But the transformation has not gone as planned.

Even Chow admits, “we should be up to snuff by now.”

Palmer contributed to Saturday’s defeat with two interceptions and no touchdown passes.

“We always talk about giving ourselves a chance to be successful,” Chow said. “But with the penalties and dumb things that are happening, we’re not giving ourselves a chance.”

Chow can not be totally absolved. Facing fourth and six at the Stanford 29 in the first quarter, USC opted to give the ball to McCullough, who was dropped for a two-yard loss.

Then, late in the first quarter, a razzle-dazzle play involving McCullough went bust.

“It was a trick play we worked on,” Chow said. “We didn’t plan on him throwing to a guy in a white jersey.”

Did someone slip Chow last year’s playbook?

Chow insists he sees the light.

“We’re good too,” he said. “We just have to start believing.”

But what of the growing doubters in the congregation?

With Saturday’s defeat, USC is now 32-32 since beating Northwestern in the 1996 Rose Bowl. The Trojans have dismissed two coaches since, and now need a major rally to salvage this season.

There is plenty of blame to go around, although Chow said replacing Palmer is “not even a consideration.”

But don’t blame Chow. Not yet.

This is a personnel problem, not a person problem.