USC opened Big Ten play with a win, but the Trojans had to sweat for every bit of it in Piscataway.
No. 12 USC beat Rutgers 42-35 on Saturday to move to 4-0 overall and 1-0 in the Big Ten, yet the performance did little to quiet the questions about how this team travels. The Trojans were favored and never trailed, but Rutgers kept punching back and made a game that should have been comfortable feel far tighter than it needed to be.
That’s been the theme away from Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum. USC has been strong at home over the last two seasons, going 11-2 there, but the road has told a different story at 3-7. This one fit that pattern, even in victory.
“We had contributions from all three sides that certainly contributed to the win, and we’ll build on those,” Head Coach Lincoln Riley said in a postgame news conference. “[We] gave up too many big plays defensively. Not pleased at all with how we played there.”
The Trojans’ defense had a rough afternoon overall. Rutgers piled up 460 yards and scored five touchdowns, with senior quarterback Dylan Lonergan throwing for 252 yards and three scores. Junior running back Antwan Raymond also found plenty of room, finishing with 122 rushing yards.
And yet USC’s defense produced two game-shaping plays that helped tilt the outcome. Early on, senior safety Christian Pierce snared a one-handed interception on Rutgers’ first possession, giving the offense a short field. USC cashed it in two plays later and quickly stretched the lead to 10.
The bigger swing came after halftime, when Rutgers again pushed into USC territory and looked ready to make it a one-possession game. Instead, redshirt senior safety Prophet Brown read Lonergan’s throw in the end zone, stepped in front of it and raced 99 yards the other way for a pick-six.
“I’ve definitely seen [that] route that teams like a lot in the red zone,” Brown said in a postgame news conference. “As soon as he broke, I knew to break on it because the quarterback’s going there.”
That touchdown turned out to be the difference. Rutgers answered with touchdowns on its next two drives, but USC’s lead held.
The Trojans also made life harder on themselves with penalties, an issue that has now carried over for two straight weeks. USC was flagged eight times for 71 yards against Rutgers after drawing eight penalties for 78 yards in Week 2.
“We still have to clean up penalties,” Riley said. “Those little things that you can’t do against good teams, you can’t do on the road, and we certainly helped them a little bit there.”
One of the biggest momentum swings came late in the second quarter, when Rutgers rolled the dice on a fake punt on 4th-and-21. USC was fooled completely, and senior defensive back Jesse Ofurie was left wide open for a 40-yard catch-and-run. Rutgers scored 92 seconds later.
“When you got somebody backed up at the end of the half, and you give up a 50-yard play on a fake punt, especially on the road, it just flips momentum; it kind of breathes life into them,” Riley said.
USC still had enough offense to outscore the damage. With freshman wide receiver Trent Mosley out because of a knee injury, the Trojans leaned on other playmakers, and several delivered.
Freshman wide receiver Kayden Dixon-Wyatt kept his role growing with five catches for 77 yards. Sophomore wide receiver Corey Simms came through with one of the game’s best throws-and-catches, high-pointing a Jayden Maiava pass and out-jumping a defender for a 52-yard touchdown in the second quarter.
Maiava finished with 277 passing yards, two touchdowns and no interceptions.
The ground game did its part too. Redshirt sophomore running back King Miller topped 100 rushing yards and scored a touchdown while averaging nearly 6.5 yards per carry.
Redshirt freshman running back Riley Wormley added a breakout performance of his own, rushing for 52 yards and two touchdowns on just three carries. His 2-yard touchdown catch in the fourth quarter gave USC the cushion it needed to close it out.
Now the Trojans head into the hardest stretch of their conference schedule, with four of their next six games coming against teams currently ranked.
The next one is a big one: No. 20 Oregon comes to the Coliseum on Saturday at 4:30 p.m. USC has won 10 straight at home, and this matchup returns to familiar ground after a shaky road win that exposed plenty, even as it kept the Trojans unbeaten.
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