Seeing that I wasn't there to see it for myself this will be a bit of a rehash from the local papers...
Outside of O'Dowd's injury it looks to have been an average night over all for the offense. I am not really concerned with the defense with the performance they put on last night. Barkley is showing us that no matter how good we think he is he still is not ready to take the helm so it is imperative that Aaron Corp gets healthy.
Barkley's performance...
Here is some of Gary Klein wrote in today's LAT...
On a night when quarterback Matt Barkley struggled to find his rhythm in his biggest showcase to date, USC's offense might have suffered a more long-range setback.
[...]
Barkley remains the front-runner to start the opener unless Aaron Corp returns from a leg injury in time to retake the No. 1 spot on the depth chart.
Corp, who has been out for seven days, threw passes to Carroll before the game but is still unable to run. He was scheduled to have X-rays on the cracked bone in his leg on Monday but will instead have them today.
Barkley, who had looked good in the Trojans' first scrimmage last week, once again took all of the first-team snaps, but he said he was "maybe a little too amped" at the outset.
Barkley's first pass downfield was "the worst throw he's thrown since he's been here. He just chucked it," Carroll said. Under pressure behind the line of scrimmage, he drifted to his right and threw into double coverage, barely avoiding an interception.
Here is Wolf's take...
Quarterback Matt Barkley showed he's not quite ready to be a superstar Monday night as he struggled against a heavy pass rush in USC's scrimmage at the Coliseum.
The freshman completed only five of 18 passes for 109 yards in against the Trojans' first-team defense. He missed his first six passes (with one dropped) but did not throw any interceptions and threw a 34-yard pass to wide receiver Ronald Johnson.
"The defense got after us, no doubt," Barkley said. "I had to throw a lot of balls away. Maybe (playing in the Coliseum was more difficult) and if it was, it's a good thing I got that out of the way."
"He's disappointed," USC coach Pete Carroll said of Barkley. "He knows he didn't do well."
It looks like Barkley is learning to throw it away if there is nothing there.
Barkley absolutely has to lose that superman mentality. This defense knows how to cover receivers and so do other teams that he will face. He can't just chuck and duck and hope for the best. He needs to learn from these performances in order to progress. I have no doubt that he will, but if we are to believe that right now he is starting material as a freshman then he has show some better judgment.
Here is another take from the OCR...
Despite getting good protection, quarterback Matt Barkley struggled to complete passes against the first-team defense. Barkley finished 5 of 18 for 109 yards. Carroll considered it a good test for the freshman from Mater Dei, who’s in line to start the season opener if Aaron Corp doesn’t return in time.
"I liked the way he hung in there," Carroll said of Barkley, who improved after a shaky start. "This defense is capable of covering people like that.
"We felt like he needed to be in a difficult situation to bring him along."
Carroll called Barkley’s first attempt of the night "his worst throw since he’s been here." While rolling out to the right, Barkley tried to force the ball downfield to Damian Williams. Williams had two defenders on him, and Barkley was fortunate safety Taylor Mays didn’t intercept the pass.
"It’s great to go up against a great defense," Barkley said. "It was a little tough at first. But things started to open up after that."
Barkley will figure it out...
Surprisingly, Mitch Mustain actually had a pretty good night last night.
Mustain completed 10 of 15 passes for 114 yards in the first half against USC's second-team defense.
Yeah, I know its against the reserves but those guys are pretty good too...
Flournoy makes a huge impression...
This kid is the real deal!
The star of the scrimmage was freshman wide receiver De'von Flournoy from Birmingham High in Lake Balboa, who caught a pass from quarterback Mitch Mustain, broke two tackles and eluded four other defenders for a 53-yard touchdown.
It was another example of Flournoy's explosiveness after he caught a long touchdown pass during Sunday's practice and caught three passes for 55 yards in the Trojans' first scrimmage Friday. He also caught a 36-yard pa ss from reserve quarterback Garrett Green in the second half and finished with 105 yards receiving.
Flournoy, who might be USC's fastest receiver, seems destined to play this season based on his big-play ability.
I get a different feel about the receivers than I did last season. We know that Williams and Johnson are #1 & #2 but Ausberry is coming on strong and now Flournoy is making a name for himself. I get the feeling that the competiton for playing time is going to really heat up. I didn't get that feeling last year. Patrick Turner was a given and Mark Sanchez got into a groove with Damian WIlliams. We saw a lot of RoJo but I know we wanted to see a lot more. This reminds me a lot of how the running back situation has been the past few years...
The OCR has last nights stats.