USC routs Missouri State

Los Angeles, CA (News4usonline) – Missouri State was outnumbered and outplayed by USC in their nonconference football game at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum. As it turns out, the Bears had no business being on the same field as the Trojans. 

This wasn’t a college football game. It was an onslaught. 

The game was a mismatch from the start. Unfortunately, for the Bears, the lopsidedness of the contest would have to play all the way out until the conclusion of the fourth quarter. However,  the first two quarters of action was all that was necessary to see that. 

USC led 42-10 at the half. The final score saw the Trojans prevail by the score of 73-13.

“Great start,” USC head coach Lincoln Riley said after the game. “Obviously, I’m really proud of the team. We set some goals for this game, in terms of how we wanted to play complementary football in our first chance to play together as a team against someone else. And, we wanted to be able to affect their quarterback. We wanted to be efficient offensively and then make some impactful special teams plays. And we did that.”

Does the win by the Trojans issue a real gauge of how good the Trojans are this season or something more of a mirage, an abbreviation against a much weaker opponent?  

The truth to that question may not be fully answered until USC engages in Big Ten Conference play against four straight  formidable opponents in Purdue, Michigan State, and Illinois before playing Michigan. USC then get Notre Dame in South Bend. 

Those games will determine the USC greatness meter a whole more than the Trojans playing against Missouri State. For now, though, at hand is a victorious USC team, something that should be celebrated.  

With 12 minutes remaining in the second quarter, the Trojans had already built a 28-3 lead over the Bears and were clearly on their way to a blowout victory. USC’s momentum was generated by both the explosive play of its offense and the play-making of its defense. 

“We did a pretty good job from an O-Line standpoint, I thought the perimeter blocking by the wideouts was re- ally good,” Riley said. “You saw several big blocks on those that sprung it, and then the ball carriers did a great job as well.Anytime you have those explosive plays, that means people at all levels of the offense are executing and that’s what you saw.”

It’s not a fair equation to judge a team by their performance for one half. But through two quarters of play, the gauge of how well a team can perform should be adequate enough to formulate a thought or two about what someone should expect moving forward. 

The first game of the 2025 season for the Trojans fit under this category. It’s a new season, a new year for Riley and his Trojans. Last season, a disappointment by any stretch of the imagination, is now a distant memory for the Trojans. 

In their first season playing in the Big Ten Conference, the Trojans finished 10th, not exactly what Riley and his crew had in mind when they parted ways with the old Pac-12 Conference. With last season behind them, Riley and the Trojans poured in on the Bears with a runaway first half that the Bears could not stop. 

The game started well enough for Missouri State as they were able to take their first series of the game all the way down the field to get a long field goal. That was nice. There was just one problem. USC had to get their turn with the ball.  

The Trojans responded with two touchdowns in the period to jump all over the Conference USA team. 

They didn’t let up after that. Riding the wave of their two scores in the first quarter, the Trojans expanded their lead with a long touchdown pass-and-catch from Jayden Maiava to tight end Lake McRee. Bishop Fitzgerald kept the scoring parade going with his 39-yard interception return for a score. 

“First off, it was a great team win,” Maiava said. “Coach Riley and the staff do such a great job preparing us to go out there and all we gotta do is trust in it. All we talked about was staying disciplined and executing at an elite level.”

Two plays. That is all it took to completely change the trajectory of the ballgame. A 14-3 deficit is doable to overcome. A 28-3 lead is something that is totally different. Before the half was over, USC had put up 42 points on the scoreboard. 

Waymond Jordan has the distinction of being the first player on USC’s team to score a touchdown this season when he marched through the defensive line of Missouri State for a 5-yard touchdown scamper.