USC at Arizona
As Dylan Hernandez wrote for the Los Angeles Times; “Many of the same infuriating mistakes that nearly cost the No. 20 Trojans their season opener against Arizona State resurfaced on Saturday, requiring quarterback Kedon Slovis to orchestrate another late scoring drive to salvage a win.” There was one thing about the game that was unfortunately similar to last year, USC committed 11 penalties for more than 100 yards with the most frustrating series happening with the game tied 20-20 in the third quarter. Hernandez writes; “they [USC] moved the ball to the Arizona one-yard line, only to be penalized for a false start and delay of game on consecutive plays. The drive ended with a missed field-goal attempt.” That’s the kind of shit that makes you just want to tear your hair out if you’re a fan.
Arizona is arguably/supposedly one of the very worst teams in the PAC-12 South with the other being Colorado-now sitting at 2-0, go figure. And yet there USC was in the 4th Qtr, less than 8 minutes to play, and the Wildcats up 23-20. Six plus minutes later it was Arizona up 30-27 with 1:35 left to play. It took the whole game for USC to finally eek out a victory with a series of five consecutive pass completions by QB Kedon Slovis for 67 yards, three in a row to Amon-Ra St. Brown, and a handoff to RB Vavae Malepeai who ran it into the end zone from 8 yards out to put the Trojans up 34-30 with just 25 seconds left to play. After enabling the Wildcats the entire game, USC somehow found a way to hang onto that lead-well actually in a fitting last tribute to the excellence of the entire game, it ended with an Arizona pass completion, lateral, and fumble to themselves. Mess over.
Helton, forever the optomist, was quoted as saying after the game; “I thought we went from four turnovers to zero-that’s a positive-I think that’s an improvement.” Yeah, but you let the Arizona QB run for 55 yards in the first half aided and abetted by your eleven penalties, up from five last week against a better team. As Adam Grosbard writes in his Orange County Register review of the game, who was as frustrated about the miscues as Hernadez was for the LA Times; “The penalties USC accrued were increasingly inane as the game went on. The Trojans drew two automatic-first down flags on third down during Arizona’s second drive of the game, letting the Wildcats stay on the field for a touchdown.” And as the headline in the Register reads; “USC inspires little confidence in comeback win over Arizona.”
Both QB’s converted on over 65% of their pass attempts with USC’s Slovis connecting for 325 yards and 1 TD to Senior Tight End Erik Krommenhoek while Sophomore Grant Gunnell connected three times in the end zone with three different receivers for 286 yards. In the ground game, the Trojans twin RB combination of Sophomore Markese Stepp and Senior Stephen Carr both rushed 12 times for 82 and 80 yards respectively while Senior Gary Brightwell carried most of the load for the Wildcats rushing 21 times for 112 yards.
The Trojans hit the road to play a frustrated Utah in Salt Lake who have had both of their first two games cancelled due to COVID. The Utes were supposed to compete for the South Division title and will be looking to make a statement against a team that has stumbled into a tie for first place. Arizona heads North to Alaska Airline’s Husky Stadium to play what looked like a very shakey Washington team hoping to find its groove with a new Offensive Coordinator and starting QB.