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USC football makes a statement in routing Rutgers – Daily News

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2 weeks ago

October 27, 2024

USC football makes a statement in routing Rutgers – Daily News

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USC vast receiver Makai Lemon returns a kickoff 80 yards in the course of the first quarter of their sport towards Rutgers on Friday night time on the Coliseum. (Picture by David Crane, Los Angeles Each day Information/SCNG)

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LOS ANGELES — Lengthy after the shockwaves settled within the Coliseum from Freddie Freeman’s walk-off grand slam 6 miles up the freeway in Chavez Ravine, lengthy after a primary half with zero mercy spared to Rutgers, USC discovered itself again dangling in the identical place it all the time had.

The group on the Coliseum, pocketed because it was with the truth of a jam-packed night time in Los Angeles sports activities, was used to this script. Maybe that’s why it by no means fairly felt joyous, in that first half, whilst USC took a two-score lead. The cardinal-and-gold loyalists have been used to being sucked in, and spat proper again out in incomprehensible endings – at Michigan, in Minnesota, towards Penn State, at Maryland.

It performed out, once more Friday night time, as Rutgers quarterback Athan Kaliakmanis launched a 45-yard bomb after which hit on a 25-yard landing move to shave what had been an 18-point USC result in eight with 8:11 left within the third quarter. Momentum crashed, once more. Basis crumbled, once more.

After which within the span of 1 play, the Trojans (4-4 general, 2-4 Large Ten) and Coach Lincoln Riley turned proper again round and set their season straight, bludgeoning Rutgers and emphatically closing out a 42-20 win.

“Yeah, we actually wanted that unhealthy,” working again Woody Marks stated afterward, “simply to come back out and play dominant all 4 quarters.”

These Trojans had returned dwelling wounded, each bodily and in ego, after a handful of debilitating cross-country journeys. Riley, accepting blame with nowhere else to place it, wanted a shining second as a play-caller. Quarterback Miller Moss, calling Monday for critics to “hold that very same vitality,” wanted a mistake-free night time. And this system, most of all, wanted to complete a soccer sport, bungling away 4 shut video games.

“We’ve had some alternatives to separate in some video games, and we haven’t,” Riley stated Monday.

They discovered these alternatives, usually Friday, within the positive fingers of sophomore receiver Makai Lemon.

For weeks, since getting back from an damage suffered on a particular groups play towards Michigan, Lemon had been slowly creeping his method up in USC’s gamut of wideouts. The sophomore caught six passes towards Penn State. Then eight towards Maryland. In opposition to Rutgers, he was tabbed – with fellow sophomore Zachariah Department seeming embroiled in his personal head on returns – with kickoff duties, and promptly responded within the first quarter with an explosive 80-yard return that arrange a Marks landing.

And Lemon stamped his breakout on Friday, careening over the center on the identical crossing sample that had baffled Rutgers (4-4, 1-4) all night time.

Precisely zero seconds of game-clock after Kaliakmanis’ landing toss received Rutgers inside 28-20, Lemon caught a drag from Moss, shed a tackler, and zipped. Vanished away, into skinny air on thick turf, skidding 70 yards earlier than he was lastly knocked out of bounds. Moss tied a bow on the drive, strolling into the tip zone on a 7-yard keeper a couple of performs later.

With momentum swung, Lemon put the sport out of attain on a subsequent drive, snaring one other move over the center from Moss and turning it right into a 40-yard landing.

“There actually hasn’t been panic with this group in any of those video games, and there wasn’t tonight,” Riley stated. “And I assumed it was simply – we had an ideal mindset, and we did an ideal job closing it out.”

The Trojans bludgeoned Rutgers from the primary kick Friday night time, turning swaths of open turf into one other victory for the West Coast on a momentous sports activities night time for Los Angeles. Regular-as-ever Marks offered the primary punch, scoring three first-half touchdowns. Moss threw a relentless flurry of jabs from kickoff to buzzer, ending 20-of-28 for 308 yards. Lemon was the knockout, ending with 256 all-purpose yards (134 receiving on 4 catches with the TD) in a real breakout.

The toughest these Trojans needed to pressure on Friday night time, in the end, got here by the hands of defensive coordinator D’Anton Lynn, put in an unenviable place with a rash of accidents that depleted his unit, particularly within the secondary. Security Kamari Ramsey, cornerbacks Jaylin Smith and Jacobe Covington, and nickel again Grasping Vance Jr. all have been scratched Friday, leaving USC down 4 erstwhile starters – and shortly 5, as defensive deal with Nate Clifton exited within the first quarter on an already-thin defensive position.

Within the second quarter, after Ford’s get-off-me landing prolonged USC’s result in 21-3, Lynn threw a heavy dosage of sentimental protection on the Scarlet Knights. Kaliakmanis entered Friday’s matchup commandeering one of many poorer passing assaults within the FBS, hauling in a 53% completion charge. However chunk-yardage cushions gave him sudden consolation, and he marched Rutgers down the sphere on a pair of 22- and 15-yard completions earlier than the Scarlet Knights’ Antwan Raymond punched it in from 3 yards to chop USC’s result in two scores.

Once more, USC got here out of the second-half gates flat. Kaliakmanis, after lacking a few deep photographs within the first half, hit on a 45-yard bomb to Dymere Miller after which a 25-yard landing strike to Christian Dremel. All of the sudden, after a nifty two-point conversion (a move to the quarterback from Chris Lengthy on a trick play), Rutgers had reduce USC’s result in a rating, and one other sport appeared prepared to slide.

After which Riley schemed, Lemon struck, and in the end USC closed out a victory.

“We’re a no-excuses program,” Riley stated afterward, talking in response to USC’s rash of accidents. “We’ve received a no-excuses mentality proper now.

“Like, no matter’s stacked up towards us, we actually don’t give a rattling. Like, we’re simply going to maintain going.”

NOTABLE

The Trojans recorded a season-high 4 sacks. … Kaliakmanis ended up with 313 yards passing, and Kyle Monangai had 86 yards on 18 carries. … Rutgers has misplaced 4 straight and its protection has fallen aside over the previous three video games, giving up 119 factors to Wisconsin, UCLA and USC. The Trojans gashed the Scarlet Knights for 8.7 yards per play.

Initially Printed: October 26, 2024 at 12:01 a.m.