Danny Kanell is known for having terrible hot takes and he had one back at the beginning of December that's come back to haunt him. After the regular season finished and everyone was still riding the Sam Darnold hype train, Kanell became the conductor for USC's own hype train.
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USC is better than Ohio State AND Bama at QB, RB, WR
Those are pretty significant positions no??
— Danny Kanell (@dannykanell) December 3, 2017
While he might have a good point about those particular positions for USC, they did not have a defensive line or offensive to speak of against Ohio State and looked horrific in the 24-7 rout. Sam Darnold lost two fumbles, took eight sacks and had an interception during the game so he didn't look all that great either.
You can have great players at those three positions, but if you don't have an offensive line that can protect a quarterback or get a push and create lanes for running backs then those players don't matter a whole lot. It doesn't exactly help Kanell's case that Ohio State quarterback J.T. Barrett also set a Big Ten record for career total offense that was formerly held by Drew Brees.
That loss and horrible play from USC wasn't all on Darnold though as FS1's Joel Klatt pointed out:
Sam Darnold is playing poorly...The protection is horrendous...The WR's are jogging and have no urgency...The offensive game plan is painfully predictable...other than that USC is playing fine
— Joel Klatt (@joelklatt) December 30, 2017
