The USC Trojans might have pulled off a 30-9 victory over the California Golden Bears, but Matt Barkley is still not playing the football he believes he's capable of playing. Barkley's numbers aren't bad--he threw for nearly 200 yards and two touchdowns--but his completion rate didn't even hit 55%. This allowed Cal to hang around even when Zach Maynard struggled to make plays.
USC's inability to run the football with any consistency forced Barkley to throw the ball a lot, particularly into bracketed coverage. Barkley could not nail down his receivers, and simply missed Robert Woods, Marqise Lee, Brandon Carswell and all his other targets with surprising regularity. Barkley's deep ball has proven to be inconsistent, which probably means he still has some developing to do before he's ready to be a complete NFL pro-style quarterback.
The 20 points USC got off turnovers proved to be enough to give Barkley the cushion he needed to be comfortable for victory. But he'll need to improve for USC to keep on winning.
For more on the Trojans, head to Conquest Chronicles. For more on the Golden Bears, head to the California Golden Blogs.