After back-to-back losses, I imagine Rutgers is perfectly happy not having to play another team from Southern California or the PAC-12 again this season. As Greg Patuto wrote for SB Nation regarding the prior week’s loss to the Bruins; “The wheels on the bus are no longer going round and round for Rutgers Football. Instead, they have fallen off during a season where the Scarlet Knights were supposed to take the next step. Remember the preseason hype of Rutgers taking on a schedule that did not include Ohio State, Michigan, or Penn State? That’s gone away completely as the Scarlet Knights have proven that they can lose to anyone in the nation. Add UCLA to that list. This was a team that came into the weekend averaging 14.5 points and 272 total yards per game. The Bruins put on a clinic on Saturday afternoon at SHI Stadium, totaling 484 yards during a 35-32 victory over Rutgers in Piscataway.”
One week and 443 total yards later and leading the clinic was USC’s QB Miller Moss who connected on over 70% of his passes for 308 yards, 2 TD’s—one to Sophomore WR Makai Lemon and one to Senior WR Kyle Ford–and no interceptions in addition to picking up one of USC’s four rushing TD’s. Moss connected multiple times to five different receivers with Lemon getting the lion’s share of the yards, 134 on just 4 receptions. On the ground it was Trojan Senior RB Woody Marks who the Scarlet Knights just couldn’t keep out of the end zone, rushing 15 times for 94 of USC’s 134 total yards and three of the four TD’s.
USC scored a TD every time they touched the ball in the first half, 14 points in the 1st Qtr and another 14 in the 2nd Qtr to be up 28-12 with Rutgers scoring a field goal on their first possession and one more in the second quarter with time expiring before the break. Down 21-3 with more than ten minutes left in the 2nd Qtr the Scarlet Knights would score their only TD of the first half at the end of an 11 play 75 yard drive and 3 yard TD run by Freshman RB Antwan Raymond to make it 21-9 after missing a 2-point conversion attempt. USC would add their fourth TD of the half and Woody Marks’ third rushing TD of the day before the break to go in 28-12 after Rutgers was able to kick that second field goal.
After being pretty much crucified by the sports media for giving up leads in the second half and losing games they could have won the Trojans got the message and were determined to not take their foot off the gas after the break–scoring another 14 points in the 3rd Qtr with their first TD coming after Rutgers put one of their own up as well as a two-point conversion to close up that halftime deficit to 28-20. But by the end of the quarter it would be 42-20 with one of the TD’s the result of a 7 yard Miller Moss run into the end zone and the other a 40 yard TD pass from Moss to Lemon.
Afterwards I think the USC Junior QB perfectly expressed what I’m sure the whole team and coaching staff was feeling when he said; “I don’t know if it’s relief [or] just [as] much [an] affirmation of who we are, what we believe in. I give a ton of credit to the guys in that locker room, the staff, really the whole program on how they seem to come together and fight through adversity. And, yeah, it’s great to close one out, and hopefully we get on a run here in the back half of the season.” Speaking of credit, some of that certainly goes to a much more intense effort by the defense who recorded four sacks, seven tackles for loss, and nine passes disruptions. USC, now 4-4 overall and 2-4 in conference hit the road to take on the Husky’s this coming Saturday, November 2nd.