What USC did wrong against Alabama.

After some time to cool down and rewatch the game, this is just a brief summary (I know that it doesn't look brief) of all the things USC did wrong in the first 23 minutes of the game when they were actually ahead, 3-0. After the first 23 minutes, it was just all downhill with a complete mental breakdown of nearly the entire team from the coaches to the players, unable to Fight On through the adversity.

Offensive Line

• At the start of the game, the offensive linemen were so eager to push the defensive line, they were caught off-balance and the defensive linemen simply did a grab-and-pull as they ran past the linemen who fell down to the turf.
• When the QB was sacked, it was because the linemen lost track of who they were supposed to be blocking. Case in point: The tackle blocking the same inside guy as the guard, giving the defensive end / jack a clear path to the quarterback.
• Sometimes when they'd go into pass protection, they'd use their helmets to crash down on the d-line. Again, this meant that they were caught off-balance and so the defensive tackles would simply push the linemen down to the ground and jump over them.
• At USC, chip blocking means no blocking.
• Slow to block. I swear, they were running at 3/4 speed, because the linebackers and defensive linemen were beating the pulling tackles and guards to their spot.
• Lack of discipline of the tackles to keep those hands off the ground meant that the defense could read the play all day long.

Quarterback

• There was limited trust between the quarterback and receiver, where the quarterback sometimes waited for the receiver to get to his spot before throwing, rather than delivering the ball to the spot. To be fair, a few times the receiver stopped on a route.
• No hard count, even after it was obvious that the defensive line was quicker off the ball than the offensive line.
• Wanting to throw deep, and thus waiting too long, ensures a sack.

Tight Ends

• When you see an Alabama player just blow right past the tight ends, you might as well not have a tight end in there; might as well put in two slot receivers and do a shallow crossing pattern with a pick.
• In a sweep, you're not supposed to run back towards your own goal line while blocking; you're supposed to run down to the next block.
• Since they don't know how to block, it also makes sense that they don't know how to get out of press coverage.

Wide Receivers

• Stopping on routes is a bad idea when the defense is playing close to the line.
• Not following through on blocks leads to the cornerback hitting the running back for a loss.
• Apparently, they don't know how to beat press coverage -- something Alabama used frequently to stymie the timing of the receivers.

Running Backs

• When blocking on a sweep, you're supposed to be ahead of the runner looking for a body to block, not slowing down.
• Don't stutter step in the back field against a fast defense; you don't have time to wait to hit the line before the linebackers have crashed down and the linemen have gotten off their blocks.

Coaching

• I guess no one has taught the players how to beat press coverage because few of them were open.
• So, maybe you didn't teach them to beat the bump and run, but then not to use four wideouts to vertically stretch the bracketing by the cover-two safeties?
• An entire summer of game planning in the back of their heads with two weeks of direct game planning, and they still couldn't figure out how to attack a defense whose weakness was the secondary? Heck, I watched their spring game multiple times and could tell you their strengths and weaknesses. 
• Speaking of a team that was unprepared, the big warning sign was using up all of your time outs before the end of the 1st quarter! Wow, how do you end up doing that?
• But then, to have them commit multiple personal fouls including the stomp seen by every sports fanatic? Discipline starts from the top.

Defensive Backs

• You can't stop on a play just because you pushed the receiver out of bounds. That tiny pause was enough to give the receiver a 5-yard gap and a free pass to catch a ball that was actually short.
• Communication breakdown results in two players from the same side blitzing, leaving the wide receiver wide open. Same problem as last year.

Defensive Ends

• Trust your teammates. You're supposed to hold your side of the edge; you're not supposed to beat the guy on the far side of the line to his spot. Against an option team, you're going to cost the team a lot of points by getting caught out of position.

So yeah, lots to fix.

There was one very bright spot, however: Adoree Jackson. Playing cornerback, he shut down Alabama's #1 receiver, Calvin Ridley, who had just two catches for 9 yards. ESPN's PAC-12 crew ignored this when handing out helmet stickers for week 1, but I'm sure NFL scouts took notice. First round pick, guaranteed.