USC keeps College Football Playoff hopes alive

Los Angeles, CA (News 4 Us Online) – USC had 30 minutes to get its act together and save its College Football Playoff hopes. That’s because the Trojans went into the half of its Big Ten Conference football game down by a double-digit deficit to visiting Iowa. 

The Trojans didn’t just need a miracle, they needed to play almost over their heads to come-from-behind to beat a tough and resilient Hawkeyes team. 

That’s exactly what the Trojans did. USC scored 16 unanswered points in the second half to defeat Iowa 26-21 in a rain-soaked Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum. 

“That’s a culture win, right there,” USC head coach Lincoln Riley said after the game. “If there ever was one, that was a culture win. We didn’t play very good football in the first half. Our team’s resilience and response at halftime was impressive.  We brought the guys up right away when we came in at the half, which we don’t typically do. You could tell from the look in their eye that they knew we didn’t play our best, and they knew we could go out and really make a run at this thing.” 

The Trojans have had their way with opponents they’ve faced for most of the season. They had to deal with a different kind of challenge in the form of Iowa. 

Iowa is not having super stellar year in the win-loss column, but the Hawkeyes, under head coach Kirk Ferentz, has gone head-to-head with some of the bigger named teams and nearly clipped a win out of them. In defeats to Indiana and Oregon, Iowa lost to those big-time football programs by a total of five points. 

Indiana is ranked second in the country. The Ducks are currently rated as the seventh-best team in the nation. Both teams are ahead of the Trojans in the Big Ten standings. Going into their matchup, the Trojans were in the fifth spot in the conference. Iowa was just behind the Trojans at No. 6.

Iowa walked into the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum with a 5-3 record. USC boasted a 7-2 mark. Record really don’t mean much when it comes to conference play. Iowa showed as much in the first half as they dominated the action and the scoreboard. 

“Our guys were focused, prepared coming in here, and certainly we played complete team football in that first half,” Ferentz said in his postgame comments. “Went about as well as we could’ve hoped. We got off to a really good start there. Certainly in the second half just there was a flip on that. It wasn’t a matter of anybody’s effort. USC just did a good job coming back and maximizing their opportunities in that second half.”

Iowa came out strong against the Trojans and didn’t let up until the break at halftime, going up 21-10. It all started on the first series of the game. Iowa sent a statement to USC on the game’s first drive. 

The Trojans  really didn’t show any urgency in responding until they fell behind 14-0 early in the second quarter. By this time, Iowa had established the type of gameplan they were going to bring to the Trojans No, the rain didn’t have anything to do with how the Trojans played in the first half. 

They simply got outplayed. Iowa put up 21 first downs.The Trojans had 10. The Hawkeyes were the more engaged and energetic team. The Trojans played lethargically. The Hawkeyes went straight down the field and scored a touchdown on the game’s first series of the game. 

The Hawkeyes quickly delivered a punch in the mouth to the Trojans. For most of the first half, the Trojans did a sleep walk. But they woke up just in time, beginning with a solid third quarter effort.

The Trojans played with a different energy, with way more urgency than they displayed through the first two quarters. 

“I think people were just more focused,” USC linebacker Eric Gentry said. “I think it’s like a boxing match. Not everybody is gonna know how it’s go ing in the first half. But just understanding and honing in and trusting the coaches. But more importantly, trusting ourselves, I think the aggressiveness went up, and more importantly, everybody just believed in ourselves. I was telling Coach Lincoln we were really just more focused on doing it than saying it.”