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Kedon Slovis is far from the number one reason USC lost to Oregon State on Saturday night. The defense did not show up. The offensive line was still lacking in a running game, which puts a quarterback in a very difficult position. USC receivers gave up several passes. Bigger issues exist on this list than Kedon Slovis.
Yet on a night when an injured Jaxson Dart couldn’t play, it was still an important and central question to ask: Could Slovis start a fire under this attack the way Dart managed to do it?
Keep that in mind: Dart threw nearly 400 yards and helped USC score 45 points with the same lack of running play as Slovis. Dart inspired his USC teammates despite limping in pain after wearing a helmet on his knee. It was later revealed that he had suffered a torn meniscus.
In other words: Dart thrived under clearly flawed circumstances, the same flawed situation that Slovis had to face. Dart, however, managed to create fireworks despite all the limitations that surrounded him.
USC’s offense was aggressive, vertical and explosive, even without running play. Yes, it was unbearable, but Dart transcended USC’s offensive flaws.
Kedon Slovis, whose future looked so bright at the end of 2019 and then suffered from health issues in 2020, proclaimed himself supremely fit ahead of this 2021 season. It was supposed to be the best version of Slovis, a player who along with his health restored, would become an elite quarterback and put the Pac-12 at his feet.
It’s true quarterbacks can’t do everything they want with a sub-par offensive line and a lack of both a running game and a reliable No.2 receiver. Yet in games that really matter, like this one for USC, the great players wear their squad. You can’t expect them to do it all season long without a break, but they do step up in the big moments.
Kedon Slovis has not been able to play in a way that inspires a sense of wonder or astonishment, or – in the hearts of opponents – fear.
Slovis was unable to take the medium components of a Graham Harrell medium offense and improve them.
It is not entirely his fault. He hasn’t received any crucial help from his teammates or coaches, but his inability to transcend and soar makes him an ordinary quarterback, a much less formidable player than the student of first year who claimed this team as his own in 2019.
Graham Harrell was able to find solutions with first year Jaxson Dart. He still hasn’t found answers with Slovis. USC trailed 42-17 midway through the second half against Oregon State, just as it trailed 42-13 midway through the second half against Stanford.
Kedon Slovis got to watch a movie and see how Jaxson Dart changed USC’s offense last week. He knew he had to make a statement this weekend against the state of Oregon.
No such statement came. It’s hard to ignore how much this performance lowers Slovis’s ceiling in its overall development.
2022 NFL Draft? At this rate, Slovis may need to stay in school for another year, play at a higher level for another head coach, and consider making his professional debut in 2023.
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