USC Pulls Off Biggest Win of Riley Era

Los Angeles, CA (News4usonline) – Coming off an ugly loss to Wisconsin, the Trojans faced their toughest regular-season opponent, featuring the country’s most dynamic player. USC responded with their most impressive performance of the year, keeping their College Football Playoff hopes very much alive.

“We had to get past last week, and I thought our team and staff did a great job of responding. We are playing in arguably the best conference in America. You see it every week that every game is a battle. What you did last week doesn’t matter,” said Lincoln Riley.

The Trojans’ defense, which has been shaky this season, gave Jeremiah Smith and the Ohio State Buckeyes a Halloween scare Saturday night, taking down the No. 2-ranked team in the country 30-18.

Smith, the leading candidate for the Heisman Trophy entering the night, was limited to 5 receptions for 35 yards in the first half. The Buckeyes’ all-time leader in catches, yards, and receiving touchdowns found the end zone from 1 yard out late in the game and finished with 83 yards, but it was far too little, too late.

Ohio State’s starting quarterback Julian Sayin suffered an injury to his throwing arm in their last game against Indiana, which forced Luke Fahey into action. In his first start, Fahey was not able to take full advantage of his superstar receivers’ presence on the outside.

“The big thing is the focus this week was us. You can get too caught up in all that sometimes when you don’t know the quarterback, and we stayed focused on what we needed to do better as a team and defensively regardless of who we were playing against and what quarterback we were playing against,” said Riley.

USC opened the game with a 69-yard touchdown on a screen pass to Trent Mosley, and then proceeded to march the ball down the field the rest of the night, finishing with 3 touchdown drives and 3 field goals.

Mosley, a freshman, is starting to establish himself as a big-time playmaker in the offense. In the first half alone, he racked up 5 for 101 through the air while adding a 44-yard punt return.

“When you get opportunities, you’ve got to go take it right away, and he did. He is an electric player, and the guys blocked it up for him, and he was able to set the tone for the entire game,” said Riley.

Up until this point in the Lincoln Riley era, the only path to success against top-ranked programs has been by putting up tons of points. Limiting the damage usually wasn’t an option, but the script finally flipped.

The Buckeyes moved the ball. They had over 200 yards rushing and 260 yards passing, but timely stops and turnovers kept Ohio State out of the end zone until just over 2 minutes remained on the clock. The Buckeyes first 9 possessions resulted in either a punt, field goal, or fumble.

Linebackers Deven Bryant and Desman Stephens, along with safety Kennedy Urlacher, led the Trojans’ defense, as the trio combined for 26 tackles.

USC needs to run the table if they want to make a late-season push as a College Football Playoff contender. You wouldn’t have thought that was still in the cards after falling out of the AP Top-25 last week with their 24-7 loss to the Badgers, but a massive win over Ohio State puts them right back in the conversation.

“Look at all the craziness across the country. The teams that just hang in there, keep getting better, and stay together are gonna be the ones that are there in the end. That is the nature when you play a schedule like ours. There are a lot of challenges but also a lot of phenomenal opportunities,” said Riley.

The Trojans have next week off before matchups against Indiana, Maryland, and UCLA loom over the remaining 3 weeks. Indiana and UCLA have only 1 loss combined this year, making a 3-0 finish a tall task. That said, the win over Ohio State will give the entire team some much-needed confidence down the stretch.

Benjamin Verbrugge

Benjamin Verbrugge is a reporter for News4usonline who studied journalism at CSU Dominguez Hills. “Sports have brought me much joy throughout my life, and I want to give a little back to something that has meant so much to me.” Email Benjamin at benverbrugge8@gmail.com.