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)
USC vast receiver Kyle Ford loses the ball as Rutgers’ Flip Dixon, left, makes the deal with in the course of the first quarter on Friday night time on the Coliseum. USC’s Raesjon Davis, not pictured, recovered the fumble. (Picture by David Crane, Los Angeles Each day Information/SCNG)
USC working again Woody Marks, heart, scores a landing in the course of the first half of their sport towards Rutgers on Friday night time on the Coliseum. (AP Picture/Kyusung Gong)
USC’s John Humphrey (19) breaks up a move ultimately zone meant for Rutgers’ Deondre Johnson (81) in the course of the first quarter on Friday night time on the Coliseum. (Picture by David Crane, Los Angeles Each day Information/SCNG)
USC head coach Lincoln Riley seems on in the course of the first half of their sport towards Rutgers on Friday night time on the Coliseum. (Picture by David Crane, Los Angeles Each day Information/SCNG)
USC working again Woody Marks,, proper, is pushed out of bounds by Rutgers’ Tyreem Powell in the course of the first quarter on Friday night time on the Coliseum. (Picture by David Crane, Los Angeles Each day Information/SCNG)
USC working again Woody Marks, left, and vast receiver Duce Robinson rejoice a landing 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)
USC quarterback Miller Moss celebrates a landing in the course of the first half of their sport towards Rutgers on Friday night time on the Coliseum. (AP Picture/Kyusung Gong)
Rutgers quarterback Athan Kaliakmanis dives for additional yardage as USC linebacker Mason Cobb defends in the course of the first quarter on Friday night time on the Coliseum. (Picture by David Crane, Los Angeles Each day Information/SCNG)
USC quarterback Miller Moss throws a move towards the tip zone in the course of the first half of their sport towards Rutgers on Friday night time on the Coliseum. (Picture by David Crane, Los Angeles Each day Information/SCNG)
USC working again Woody Marks comes up simply wanting a landing on this dive 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)
USC working again Woody Marks (4) scores as offensive lineman Jonah Monheim (79) opens a gap in the course of the first quarter on Friday night time on the Coliseum. (Picture by David Crane, Los Angeles Each day Information/SCNG)
USC quarterback Miller Moss, proper, celebrates a landing by working again Woody Marks (4) in the course of the first half of their sport towards Rutgers on Friday night time on the Coliseum. (AP Picture/Kyusung Gong)
Rutgers working again Kyle Monangai, left, runs with the ball previous USC cornerback John Humphrey in the course of the first half on Friday night time on the Coliseum. (AP Picture/Kyusung Gong)
USC head coach Lincoln Riley gestures from the sideline in the course of the first half of their sport towards Rutgers on Friday night time on the Coliseum. (AP Picture/Kyusung Gong)
USC quarterback Miller Moss throws a move in the course of the first half of their sport towards Rutgers on Friday night time on the Coliseum. (AP Picture/Kyusung Gong)
USC vast receiver Kyle Ford (81) celebrates his landing in the course of the first half of their sport towards Rutgers on Friday night time on the Coliseum. (AP Picture/Kyusung Gong)
Rutgers quarterback Athan Kaliakmanis throws a move in the course of the first half of their sport towards USC on Friday night time on the Coliseum. (AP Picture/Kyusung Gong)
USC cornerback DeCarlos Nicholson, left, breaks up a move meant for Rutgers vast receiver KJ Duff in the course of the first half on Friday night time on the Coliseum. (AP Picture/Kyusung Gong)
Rutgers gamers rejoice a landing by working again Antwan Raymond (21) in the course of the first half of their sport towards USC on Friday night time on the Coliseum. (AP Picture/Kyusung Gong)
USC working again Woody Marks carries the ball on his method to a landing in the course of the first half of their sport towards Rutgers on Friday night time on the Coliseum. (Picture by David Crane, Los Angeles Each day Information/SCNG)
USC head coach Lincoln Riley seems on 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)
USC vast receiver Kyle Ford leaps over Rutgers defensive again Flip Dixon in the course of the first half on Friday night time on the Coliseum. (AP Picture/Kyusung Gong)
USC working again Woody Marks seems for a path previous Rutgers’ Kaj Sanders in the course of the first half on Friday night time on the Coliseum. (Picture by David Crane, Los Angeles Each day Information/SCNG)
USC’s DeCarlos Nicholson, proper, breaks up a move meant for Rutgers’ KJ Duff in the course of the first half on Friday night time on the Coliseum. (Picture by David Crane, Los Angeles Each day Information/SCNG)
USC defensive again John Humphrey, proper, breaks up a move meant for Rutgers’ Dymere Miller (0) in the course of the second half on Friday night time on the Coliseum. (Picture by David Crane, Los Angeles Each day Information/SCNG)
USC quarterback Miller Moss (7) talks with working again Woody Marks in the course of the second half of their sport towards Rutgers on Friday night time on the Coliseum. (Picture by David Crane, Los Angeles Each day Information/SCNG)
USC defensive finish Sam Greene (44) sacks Rutgers quarterback Athan Kaliakmanis, left, in the course of the second half on Friday night time on the Coliseum. (AP Picture/Kyusung Gong)
USC vast receiver Ja’Kobi Lane (8) can’t attain a move ultimately zone as Rutgers’ Shaquan Loyal, proper, defends in the course of the second half on Friday night time on the Coliseum. (Picture by David Crane, Los Angeles Each day Information/SCNG)
Rutgers working again Jordan Smikle (80) celebrates his landing with vast receiver KJ Duff (8) in the course of the second half of their sport towards USC on Friday night time on the Coliseum. (AP Picture/Kyusung Gong)
USC quarterback Miller Moss, proper, runs with the ball to attain a landing previous Rutgers defensive lineman Kyonte Hamilton in the course of the second half on Friday night time on the Coliseum. (AP Picture/Kyusung Gong)
USC defensive finish Sam Greene (44) tackles Rutgers working again Bryan Jackson (21) in the course of the second half on Friday night time on the Coliseum. (AP Picture/Kyusung Gong)
USC vast receiver Makai Lemon runs with the ball for a landing in the course of the second half of their sport towards Rutgers on Friday night time on the Coliseum. (AP Picture/Kyusung Gong)
USC cornerback Prophet Brown, backside, tackles Rutgers tight finish Mike Higgins in the course of the second half on Friday night time on the Coliseum. (AP Picture/Kyusung Gong)
USC gamers take the sphere earlier than their sport towards Rutgers on Friday night time on the Coliseum. (Picture by David Crane, Los Angeles Each day Information/SCNG)
USC’s mascot, Traveler, takes the sphere earlier than the beginning of the crew’s sport towards Rutgers on Friday night time on the Coliseum. (Picture by David Crane, Los Angeles Each day Information/SCNG)
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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)
Develop
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.
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