Jahkeem Stewart turned one chaotic night into USC’s escape hatch.
The 295-pound defensive tackle, nicknamed Thanos, scooped up a fumble and lumbered 48 yards for the go-ahead touchdown late in the third quarter, and No. 18 Southern California finished off a 25-21 comeback over Washington on Saturday night in Los Angeles. The Trojans erased a double-digit second-half deficit and closed with the final 15 points to get past the Huskies for the first time since 2016.
USC’s rally had plenty of moving parts. Jayden Maiava threw for 245 yards and connected with Tanook Hines on a second-half touchdown, while the defense, much sharper than it had been a week earlier against Oregon, kept Washington out of the end zone the rest of the way. Even with nine penalties for 94 yards - including one illegal formation call that wiped out a long touchdown pass - the Trojans found a way.
The ending belonged to the defense, but the middle of the game looked like it might belong to Washington. The Huskies led 21-10 after Decker DeGraaf’s 42-yard catch and run, a score that came after USC failed to get him out of bounds.
Before that, Washington had also taken the lead just before halftime on Kade Eldridge’s touchdown dive. Receiver Dezmen Roebuck added another wrinkle by throwing a touchdown pass to Baron Naone for Washington’s first points.
Then USC started clawing back.
Hines pulled down a 10-yard touchdown pass away from a Washington defender later in the third quarter, and not long after that Stewart made the biggest play of the night. The fumble return came after Williams lost the ball in a collapsing pocket, and Stewart said, “I made the quarterback step up, and thanks to Luke (Wafle) for getting the sack, and I picked the ball up and ran 22 miles per hour,”
Elijah Newby was officially credited with the sack, not freshman sensation Wafle, but the play still flipped the game. Stewart left his postgame news conference talking about his appetite and his plan to eat “so much gumbo.”
Washington quarterback Demond Williams Jr. finished with a season-low 198 passing yards, but he nearly pulled off a rescue job in the final minutes. The Huskies drove from their 5 to the USC 12, converting two fourth downs and a third-and-11 along the way. After Kameryn Crawford sacked Williams on third down, Williams threw into double coverage in the end zone and the pass fell incomplete with 39 seconds left.
“Third down, trying to get (away) on the scramble, and just double-clutched it,” Williams said. “And when I pulled back to throw again, got hit in my arm, and I just can’t do that. I've got to always put our team in a better position to win.”
For USC, the victory offered some relief around Lincoln Riley after last week’s home loss to Oregon. The student section was still loud about it in the second half, chanting, “Fire Lincoln!
Fire Lincoln!” while the Trojans trailed 21-10, but the defense never gave Washington another point.
“I felt like for a long period of the game, we were really outplaying them," Riley said. "But when you make some of those mistakes and you just let them keep hanging around ... with penalty after penalty, we've clearly got to do a way better job on that.
A lot to clean up, (but) a lot to be excited about. We had to dig deep for this one.
There's no question, especially with as sloppy as we played, especially offensively.”
USC linebacker Desman Stephens missed the game while serving a suspension after his ejection last week for a late hit on Oregon quarterback Dante Moore.
Washington has now dropped two straight by a combined seven points, and coach Jedd Fisch said the offense is struggling to keep drives alive.
“Right now it’s certainly challenging to get the sticks moving," Fisch said. "It’s like you just feel that you have a third down that you’re looking to convert and something happens, whatever that something is.
When you get stopped, there’s no tempo involved. There’s no ability to get that energy that we like to play with when we can convert, and then get on the ball and make some plays.”
Washington will host Iowa on Friday night. USC heads to Penn State on Saturday, Oct. 10.
In Other News...
USC Fans Have Plenty To Debate After That Gritty Washington Win
The heat was no joke, and neither was USCs defense in a 25-21 win over Washington that gave the Trojans plenty to feel good about and even more to debate. Against the kind of grind-it-out test that can expose a team in September, USCs pass rush came through with four sacks, multiple tackles for loss and a sack-fumble recovery that turned into a touchdown, the sort of sequence that can swing a close game and change the feel of a night.
For a team ranked No. 18, the result mattered just as much as the details, and there were enough of both to keep fans talking well after the final whistle. The game offered a useful look at individual performances and how USCs defensive plan held up in tough conditions, but it also left room for questions about which players are emerging, which adjustments are working and how sustainable this kind of gritty win might be as the schedule moves on. [Read more 🡒]
Jayden Maiava's Rough Start Put USC's Offense Under A Harsh Spotlight
Jayden Maiavas afternoon against Washington put USCs offense under a harsh spotlight, as the Trojans spent much of the first half searching for any kind of rhythm. The quarterbacks decision-making and mechanics were both under scrutiny, and a series of poor throws, long holds in the pocket and drive-killing penalties left the offense looking flat when it needed to be sharp.
Maiava finished the half 12 of 19 for 143 yards, but the numbers only told part of the story as USC went to the locker room trailing 14-10. The Trojans still had time to settle in, but the opening half raised real questions about whether the offense could clean itself up quickly enough to change the tone of the game. [Read more 🡒]
USC Defense Escaped Washington After One Brutal Breakdown
USCs defense came out of Washington with a win, but not without a few uneasy moments that will linger in the film room. In a 25-21 victory over the Huskies, the Trojans had the kind of mixed outing that can leave a staff thankful for the result and still frustrated by the details, from a costly missed-tackle sequence that opened the door for a long touchdown to the kind of timely response that kept the game from slipping away.
Jahkeem Stewarts fumble return for a score gave USC a huge lift, and Kameryn Crawford made key defensive plays late to help secure the finish. Even so, Washington had chances behind Demond Williams Jr. and Chris Lawson, and the combination of injuries and breakdowns made this one feel closer than the Trojans would have preferred, with one brutal lapse standing out in a game they still managed to escape. [Read more 🡒]