USC vs. Boston College Report Card: Grading the Trojans’ Receivers

The USC Trojans fell to the Boston College Eagles Saturday night, 37-31, but the passing game was one of the few bright spots for a Trojan team which struggled to find a rhythm offensively.

USC did a much better job getting a variety of receivers involved in the passing game against Boston College than they did the week before versus Stanford.

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By the end of the first quarter both tight ends had a reception, as did

and

, who reeled in the first touchdown of his Trojan career. For comparison, against Stanford just four receivers caught a pass through the entire game.

It was especially heartening to finally see Randall Telfer involved in the air attack as he had gone without a target in USC’s first two games.

Telfer’s understudy, Bryce Dixon, continued to demonstrate his talent as a threat in the passing game against the Eagles, but he also showed freshman inconsistency. His inability to haul in a pass in the endzone left USC without some valuable points in the first quarter.

Unfortunately for the Trojans, they also missed out on potentially game-winning points by waiting until midway through the fourth quarter to focus completely on the passing game.

That’s when they really came alive, as the final two drives produced touchdowns from Nelson Agholor and Darreus Rogers.

In those two drives, JuJu Smith picked up four of his six receptions, while Agholor also reeled in four of his team-high nine catches.

It could be said that those impressive drives were aided by Boston College dropping off in coverage as they protected their lead, but the Trojans still had 15 passing first downs in the game, half of them coming before those drives.

Though the offensive line deserves the bulk of the blame for Cody Kessler‘s five sacks on third downs, the receivers could have done a better job creating an opening for the quarterback to find them on those plays.

They also collectively struggled in blocking for the outside screens which were so effective against Stanford, yet were largely shut down by BC.

All in all, the receivers helped provide a spark for the otherwise dull offense on an evening when little went right for the Trojans.

Grade: B-

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