USC’s long wait to beat Oregon is still alive, and Saturday’s meeting in Los Angeles carries more than just another ranked-game label.
No. 12 USC hosts No.
20 Oregon with both programs under a real microscope. What looked like a top-10 showdown has slipped a bit after Oregon’s unexpected upset, but the pressure only feels sharper now.
Dan Lanning’s Ducks are trying to keep their College Football Playoff hopes from sliding further off course, while Lincoln Riley and the Trojans are chasing their first ranked win of the season and trying to keep their own CFP case on track.
On Tuesday’s CBS Sports Inside College Football, Brian Jones, Rick Neuheisel, Aaron Taylor and Brian Kelly all weighed in on the matchup, and the split wasn’t hard to see. Taylor leaned Oregon’s way, but he framed the game around the weight Lanning is carrying.
“It is really interesting when you look at this team, it’s been such a disappointment. This is an opportunity to get themselves off the up off the mat because if they lose it, they’re two and two in a year where Dan Lanning was expected to turn the corner and get further into the playoffs and potentially win it,” Taylor said.
Taylor also made clear that the stakes don’t stop with Oregon. He said USC’s fan base is ready to demand a breakthrough against a program that has had its number, especially with the Trojans playing as well as they are.
“For USC, this is their opportunity because their fan base is going, ‘man if you can’t beat this Oregon team, when are you ever going to beat them especially as good as we are,’” Taylor continued. “So, I’m interested in, not only who’s going to win this game, but what it’s going to look like for the fan base of the loser moving forward because that is not going to be pretty.”
The two teams arrive with some uneven early-season tape. Oregon was upset on the road by Oklahoma State in Stillwater, while USC had to survive a tight one against Rutgers last week. Taylor said the Trojans’ work on the ground stood out in that game, noting their 184 rushing yards and two touchdowns, split between King Miller and Riley Wormley.
“I don’t know which of these teams to believe in them because both of them have been disappointing thus far. I didn’t expect Rutgers to do that. They ran the ball better on the road last week, USC did, that was a step forward for them and I think that’s the thing I’m most interested in this weekend, can Oregon do the same,” Taylor said.
That ground-game angle matters because USC had a rough time running the ball in last year’s meeting, when Oregon won 42-27 for its fourth straight win in the series. The Trojans finished with just 52 rushing yards in that one.
Neuheisel also backed Oregon, but he pointed to a specific challenge for Riley: patience. If USC can stay committed to the run and avoid turning the game into a possession battle on Oregon’s terms, Neuheisel thinks the Trojans can hang around. He just doesn’t expect that to happen.
“This a marquee matchup. The question to me is does Lincoln Riley have the patience to run the ball and take possessions away from Oregon. . .
If he has the ability and the patience to run it and protect the bal, they can win the game. I don't believe that that's gonna be the case, I'm going to take Oregon," said Neuheisel.
Kelly was the only one to side with USC, and he centered his pick on the quarterbacks. He sees Jayden Maiava’s passing ability as a difference-maker against Dante Moore and Oregon.
“It’s two great quarterbacks, Maiava and (Dante) Moore. . . . My official pick in this game is USC,” Kelly said.
Jones agreed that Maiava will test Oregon’s secondary, especially after what happened to the Ducks against Oklahoma State. Even so, he still landed on Oregon.
“That secondary is going to be challenged, Jayden Maiava, he’s been balling out. We all know what happened to them when they went to Stillwater. It was stale for them, but they need to tackle well, and they need to cover well,” Jones said.
In the end, the panel split 3-1 for Oregon, with Kelly standing alone on USC.
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