The stock explanation for Saturday at the Coliseum is, “We didn’t execute,” which is right up there with “Mistakes were made.”
It also is pretty self-explanatory. When asked for the cause of the house burning down, the fire chief doesn’t say, “The house burned down.” We can all see that.
Those in charge of the answers at USC didn’t have many, even on Wednesday, halfway between Stanford and this upcoming trip to Arizona State.
The answer nobody wants to face is the one that goes beyond strategy. Maybe the Trojans, on the side of the ball that matters most, just aren’t good enough.