According to the mainstream media, the only matchup worth anything between USC and ucla is the Trojan Offense against the bruin Defense, and I would have to agree with them:
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Team | Total Offense Rank | Yds/Game | Yds Allowed by ucla | Difference | |||||||||||||||
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Tennessee | 117 | 268.8 | 366 | 97.20 | |||||||||||||||
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BYU | 18 | 444.1 | 521 | 76.90 | |||||||||||||||
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Arizona | 34 | 402.4 | 333 | -69.40 | |||||||||||||||
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Fresno State | 43 | 383.3 | 443 | 59.70 | |||||||||||||||
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Washington State | 119 | 241.1 | 177 | -64.10 | |||||||||||||||
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Oregon | 8 | 478.2 | 365 | -113.20 | |||||||||||||||
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Stanford | 69 | 351.8 | 301 | -50.80 | |||||||||||||||
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California | 58 | 363.7 | 385 | 21.30 | |||||||||||||||
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Oregon State | 27 | 418.3 | 423 | 4.70 | |||||||||||||||
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Washington | 116 | 268.9 | 135 | -133.90 | |||||||||||||||
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Arizona State | 91 | 322.8 | 122 | -200.80 | |||||||||||||||
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AVERAGE | 64 | 358.49 | 324.64 | -33.85 |
ucla's total defense is ranked 34th in the country in yards per game and 36th in yards per play, and as you can see by the table above their play has imporved from the beginning of the season and they have not allowed an opponent to go over 50 yards above their average. The catch here though is that the bruins have not been especially dominant either as their only real dominating performance against a quality offense came in a nice performance against Oregon, otherwise they have been somewhat average against offenses ranked in the top half of FBS.
At the same time, despite the criticism SC's offense has gotten this season, the team still average 450.8 yards per game and is ranked 16th nationally. USC has also not been held under 300 yards of offense all season and the only two games where they were heald under 350 were against OSU and tOSU. Unless there are some serious mistakes, SC will score some serious points.
I realize it has been said many times already, but the only real way for ucla to win is for USC to make mistakes on offense. Luckily, even with a conservative gameplan SC should still win in a blowout victory, but the problem is that this is a rivalry game and players emotions tend to run high. Hopefully Sanchez and our RBs will stay cool because if they do it should not really matter how well the bruin defense plays as their offense is a complete joke. Take care of the ball, and the rest will take care of itself.