Well, watch more football and you will see good players and good plans can have everything go wrong in a day. Only a fool would expect what is seen in practice to be consistently repeated across any opponent. I think George Patton, one of the greatest, said ‘things go wrong because the other side has a plan too’. USC has the talent to disrupt a plan.
A data point of one game is not enough to judge. If what we see continues over a few games, then I will agree. As for Bentley, likely the game plan and certainty practice reps were tailored to Rising. The last minute loss of Covey for the game takes away the best receiver. But at the top of the explanation, I would put an A grade for the plan USC had to run blitz and pressure. That was the right strategy at the right time. Ludwig needs to game plan for that defense even though only a few teams have the talent to make it work so well.
We have a lot of history of bouncing back from a loss looking much better. Let’s hope this situation is another example of that in the Big Book.