/ STAFF WRITER
LOS ANGELES – It looked good and seemed highly effective, but don’t necessarily expect USC’s aggressive defense to make a repeat appearance Saturday night against Stanford.
Stanford isn’t UCLA, against whom the Trojans almost exclusively lined up in man-to-man defense last Saturday. It worked, as the Bruins scored only 21 points and had three turnovers in the USC victory.
It’s quite possible, though, that USC will return to a more reactive zone defense against Stanford in the Pac-12 Conference title game. Why? Because Stanford has a run-pass threat in quarterback Kevin Hogan and a tailback, Christian McCaffrey, who is a threat to get the ball anywhere, in any situation.