LOS ANGELES --- The bye week arrives for the USC Trojans as the program finds itself in its best form of the season.
A week after escaping a home game against Washington with a narrow victory, the Trojans went into one of the loudest buildings in college football, taking the field in front of a record 114,419 fans at Beaver Stadium for Penn State's annual White Out.
They managed to walk out with a 31-23 win, holding the Nittany Lions to just 68 rushing yards on 31 carries. For a defense that spent late August and the month of September longing for consistency, that 2.2-yards-per-carry number has become the clearest evidence yet of a shift.
Asked directly what the defense did best against Penn State's run game, defensive end Kameryn Crawford kept his answer simple.
"Everybody being on the same page and just knowing what to do every play," he said. "Just being ready for whatever comes."
Cornerback Chasen Johnson, who recovered teammate Christian Pierce's forced fumble late in the fourth quarter, credited the work put in during practice that went towards the moment.
"CP's punch-out...I mean, it was textbook," Johnson said. "We work on that in practice, so just seeing it translate into the game was real great."
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Johnson also credited defensive coordinator Gary Patterson's Friday night video tests for speeding up their overall recognition on Saturdays.
"It affected me mentally and physically...just being able to go out there and execute, and mentally translate from the film room to the field, it helped a lot."
Defensive tackle Jahkeem Stewart said the two straight wins have sharpened the group's belief without yet satisfying it.
"We're still not playing to our standard," he said. "I feel as though we have to take a big, big leap. We're slowly doing great things, and we're just trying to be the best defense to our standard."
Center Tobias Raymond, who has helped anchor an offensive line that has navigated injuries this season, noted the unit's emphasis on clean play moving forward. The Trojans committed a season-low three penalties for just 25 yards in last Saturday's victory.
"I think that's something we've tried to take more serious," he said. "If you want to win games, you can't have penalties like that. That's something that's going to kill you. It kills drives. If we want to keep winning games and going the way we're going, that's just something that we have to eliminate completely."
None of it erases the sting of USC's lone loss this season. It's a reminder that still lingers, given Lincoln Riley's record against Oregon with the Trojans. But the two wins since have done more than just keep the squad competitive in the Big Ten race. They've given a defense that spent the first month of the season hunting for its footing something to build upon.
With Wisconsin on deck after the bye, USC's defense heads into its week off not as a group trying to stop the bleeding, but as one that believes it's finally starting to play to the standard it's been chasing all year.