What was supposed to officially herald USC's return to the elite echelons of college football turned into a nightmare for Lincoln Riley in loss to Utah.
This was going to be USC’s biggest win since Pete Carroll roamed the sidelines. This was going to be the Trojans’ first road victory over a ranked team in six years. This was going to be USC’s first triumph at Rice-Eccles Stadium since 2012.
The season-high 12 penalties were partly to blame too. Riley’s Trojans, despite their early indications to the contrary Saturday, simply weren’t ready to win a game of this magnitude on the road. Trailing 21-7 in the second quarter, Utah brought family members of Jordan and Lowe onto the field for a loving moment of applause, and the Utes promptly pulled to within 28-21 by halftime and tied the score at 28 on the opening drive of the second half. The message? They were not going to let their brothers down.
All of these factors led me to think the Trojans were going to have to play the game of their lives to remain unbeaten. The answers were resounding. Riley had clearly been holding some of his best material for this moment. The Trojans ran the ball with ease, but they didn’t really need to with the way Williams was spreading it from boundary to boundary, feeding his fellow transfer stars Jordan Addison and Mario Williams.
But, as the Trojans defense has all season, it forced a huge turnover at a moment when it had to have one. With Utah threatening to tie the score at 35 in the third quarter, sinewy linebacker Eric Gentry put his helmet on the ball in running back Micah Bernard’s hands and popped it out. Nose tackle Stanley Ta’ufo’ou pounced on it — as if there were any doubt this opportunistic USC team was going to come up with the ball.
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