The USC Trojans travel to East Rutherford, NJ to take on the Syracuse Orange in their Week 2 match-up. USC will try to move to 2-0, while Syracuse will be looking for their first win of the season following a heart-breaking loss to Northwestern a week ago. The Trojans are heavy favorites on Saturday, but they still need to execute to assure victory.
SB Nation's Conquest Chronicles took a look at the keys to the game for USC against Syracuse. One of those keys involves the defensive front-four:
2. Will the Trojans be able to generate enough pressure on Nassib?
USC did record four sacks against Nassib last year, but only forced one turnover. As noted in our Q&A with Sean Keeley of Troy Nunes Is An Absolute Magician, Nassib struggled with decision-making in the pocket last year. In the Orange's seven losses, he totaled eight interceptions. In their wins? Nassib totaled just one. He did throw one pick against Northwestern, but that was out of 65 passing attempts. If USC can get to Nassib as they did last week against Hawai'i's Sean Schroeder, then it will relieve a lot of pressure off the Trojans' secondary.
Check out the whole piece to find the rest of the keys for USC. Heisman-candidate Matt Barkley and the Trojans will face the Orange live on ABC at 12:30 p.m. PT.
Stick with this StoryStream for updates, scores and more from the USC vs. Syracuse game. For all things Trojans, Conquest Chronicles has you covered.