Pretty much everyone watching knew going in that USC was going to win this one but also figured that since their defense is suspect that Colorado would score more points and not look as outclassed as they did against Oregon. But I don’t think anyone ever thought that if it wasn’t for a blocked punt and a Shedeur Sanders interception—both deep in Colorado territory that led to TD’s—that the Buffaloes could have won this. I guess this is a bit of arm chair quarterbacking and retroactively looking at the score and thinking what might have happened. Of course one has to consider that if those things hadn’t happened and Colorado wasn’t down 34-14 going into the half that whatever Coach Prime had to say at the break that lit a fire under his team’s ass wouldn’t have been said and that USC would have still ended up with a win—probably. But then there was the absence of Colorado’s best secondary duo of Cornerback Shilo Sanders and 5-star Safety Travis Hunter. As great as USC’s Caleb Williams is would he have been able to throw for 403 yards and 6 TD’s with those guys in the game—probably not. But for sure, because of what happened after the break that game turned out to be way more interesting than folks ever imagined it could be. For Trojan fans the important thing is they won and are still undefeated. The scary thing is that they gave up 564 yards, 318 after the half, and in order to get into that national playoff they still have to play and win against five teams, four in the Top 20, that stand a better chance of knocking them off going in than Colorado did in Notre Dame, Utah, Washington, Oregon and UCLA with the games against the Ducks and the Fighting Irish on the road—yikes!
As far as this one goes, USC QB Caleb Williams was on fire and is ahead of his Heisman winning pace from last year connecting on 75% of his throws for 403 yards, 6 TD’s, and 1 pick all the while looking like the second coming of Patrick Mahomes. That wealth got spread out to ten different receivers, six of whom collected three or more of those passes with Senior WR’s Tahj Washington and Brenden Rice [son of the great Jerry Rice] picking up close to half the yards and three of the scores. The Trojans were held to 95 rushing yards on 25 attempts with Junior RB Marshawn Lloyd picking up almost all of those as well as the Trojan single TD on the ground.
For the Buffaloes Junior QB Shedeur Sanders, who was under heavy pressure all game long from the Trojan pass defense, was still able to connect for over 65% of his passes for 371 yards, 4 TD’s, and 1 interception in addition to rushing 14 times for 50 yards and another score. In a much more balanced attack than they were able to wage against Oregon last week Colorado also rushed 45 times for 193 yards with Sophomore RB Anthony Hankerson, Sanders, and Freshman RB Dylan Edwards handling 42 of those carries with Hankerson picking up the other rushing TD.
USC got the ball to start the game and scored on a six play 75 yard drive ending with a 27 yard run to the house by Junior RB Marshawn Lloyd. Colorado was held to a three-and-out on their first possession of the game, missed a field goal on their second, and threw an interception on their third—two of which led to TD’s and a 21-0 Trojan lead by the start of the 2nd Qtr. The Buffaloes finally got their offense unspooled enough in the 2nd Qtr to put up 14 points on the board. But USC wasn’t going to wait around for them to catch up putting 14 more points of their own on the board to go in at the break up 34-14. The third quarter would play out pretty much like the second with both teams scoring a couple of TD’s but a Buffalo missed extra point gave us a 48-27 score after three.
But the 4th Qtr would be different with the season’s first interception of Caleb Williams setting the table for the Buffaloes to try another miraculous comeback. With just over three minutes gone into the period Shedeur Sanders connected with Freshman WR Omarian Miller for a 9 yard TD pass to make it 48-34. Two possessions later, after a missed field goal by the Trojans, Shedeur would connect with Junior WR Jimmy Horn Jr. for a 16 yard TD pass to get within one score at 48-41 with just under two minutes left. But unlike the end of the Colorado State game where the Buffaloes had the ball with two minutes left, this time they would need a successful on-side kick to gain that possession—something that didn’t happen. Gaining possession of the on-side kick and with less than two minutes left, USC’s Caleb Williams took three knees and ran the clock out to preserve a victory that I’m sure was closer than anyone in that Trojan locker room anticipated. This next Saturday USC will be home to take on Arizona while Colorado will be on the road to take on Arizona State in Tempe.