USC DE Kameryn Crawford tackles IOWA WR Kaden Wetjen during the first half of the Trojans’ 26-21 win Saturday at the Coliseum. (Eric Thayer / LAT)-
USC rallied from a 21-7 deficit to defeat Iowa 26-21 in steady rain, showcasing the toughness that has eluded Lincoln Riley during his USC tenure.
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The Trojans’ gutsy win keeps them alive in the College Football Playoff race with Oregon and UCLA up next.
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Riley and USC proved they are capable of winning critical games in the Big Ten.
Bill Plaschke (LA Times) — They were battered, they were bruised, they were soaking wet and covered in stereotypes.
They’re not tough enough. They’re not resilient enough.
They’re not Big Ten-enough. Late in the second quarter Saturday afternoon at the Coliseum, a USC football team fighting for a playoff berth was crumbling beneath the weight of its worst national perception.
It was wilting under the weather and the weight of a team from Iowa.
Then, with big swings from a deep strength that few thought a Lincoln Riley team possessed, everything changed.
It’s raining wins, hallelujah.
Trailing 21-7, the Trojans got muddy and chilly and just plain mean, winning the line of scrimmage, winning the battle of skill, and eventually winning the game 26-21.
Yeah, afterward, that was Riley dancing in a downpour.
And, yes, USC is still in the national championship hunt, needing wins in its final two games at Oregon and against UCLA to qualify for the College Football Playoff.
Few will believe they can beat sixth-ranked and one-loss Oregon in Eugene. But then again, few believed they would survive Iowa after the Hawkeyes took that big second-quarter lead.
During the last 10 years, Iowa had an 83-5 record when leading by eight points or more. Translated, this is a program that knows how to protect a lead, and the Trojans were seemingly cooked.
But Makai Lemon made 153 yards worth of spectacular catches, King Miller ran for 83 bruising clock-killing yards, Jahkeem Stewart made a game-changing interception, Jayden Maiava held it together with a touchdown pass and no turnovers, and the game essentially appropriately ended with USC just being stronger.
On a fourth-down pass in the final minute, Kennedy Urlacher shoved Kaden Wetjen out of bounds as he was making a grab deep in Trojan territory.
No catch, game over, and in the end, the Trojans were as hearty as that section of fans that witnessed the game shirtless.
The afternoon started with groundskeepers drying the field with leaf blowers, the first rainy game at the Coliseum in nine years.
USC coach Lincoln Riley celebrates with WR Prince Strachan during the second half of a 26-21 comeback win over IOWA at the Coliseum on Saturday. (Eric Thayer / LAT)
But for USC under Riley, it felt the same, a late-season game requiring the sort of grimy toughness that his Trojans had yet to show.
Blew five fourth-quarter leads last season. Blew four of their last five games two seasons ago. Blew the Pac-12 championship game and a shot at the playoffs three seasons ago.
It looked like they were going to blow it again.
Iowa took the opening kickoff and drove 69 yards in seven plays in a bruising drive punctuated by a fourth-down, two-yard touchdown pass from Mark Gronowski to Dayton Howard in the back of the end zone.
Yes, the FBS’s 133rd ranked passing offense — out of 136 teams — had just scored on a pass play.
And Iowa was just getting started.
After stopping the Trojans’ Miller on a fourth-down run around just inside Iowa territory — a terrible Riley call against the nation’s best fourth-down defense — the Hawkeyes drove 45 yards in nine plays to score on a Gronowski one-yard push to take a 14-0 lead.
The Trojans came back while finally finding their groove, driving 74 yards on 11 plays featuring a leaping catch by Ja’Kobi Lane and ending with a one-yard touchdown run out of the wildcat formation by Bryan Jackson.
So USC had the momentum? Not so fast.
USC DT Jide Abasiri holds up the ball while celebrating with CB Decarlos Nicholson during the second half of the Trojans’ win Saturday over IOWA. (Eric Thayer / LAT)
Iowa took the possession and pounded and pounded and nine plays and 75 yards later scored on a five-yard, trick-play pass from receiver Reece Vander Zee to Gronowski.
That gave Iowa a 21-7 lead that was shortened only by a Ryon Sayeri 40-yard field goal after a dropped pass and penalty stopped the Trojans.
USC took the ball at the start of the third quarter and seemed to be destined for a touchdown after a leaping sideline catch by Lemon. But a holding call against Lane ruined a long run by Miller, two failed pass plays stalled the drive, and the Trojans had to settle for a 29-yard field goal by Sayeri to close the gap to 21-13.
After the Trojans defense stiffened, the offense went back on a roll, using another leaping grab by Lemon — this one for 35 yards — to set up a 12-yard TD pass between three defenders to Lemon. Maiava overthrew Lemon on the two-point conversion attempt, but this time, the Trojans didn’t blow the momentum.
On Iowa’s next possession, with 1:52 left in the period, the powerful freshman Stewart grabbed a deflected pass for an interception to give the Trojans the ball on the Iowa 40-yard line.
From there, Maiava drove them 40 yards in six plays on a possession that was assisted by a pass interference penalty and gave them an eventual 26-21 lead after Jackson’s one-yard touchdown run.
It was a lead they never lost.
It is a season that still matters.
latimes.com
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And one more thing…kinda nice getting that 2nd half kickoff, wasn’t it LR?
My takeaway from the first half being able to see the secondary and running lanes from my perch on high is that Iowa played with excellent disciple. They were covering our receivers very well, and their D line and LBs were playing great gap discipline. Our defense, on the other hand, was lost at times and fell for every hint of trickery, often over pursuing…the same mistakes that have plagues the USC D for years. However, 2nd half was a complete turn-around and rarely made the mistakes of the first half. Really need a complete game next week, but this… Read more »
The OSU/UCLA over/under is 31.5. Will all the points be by OSU? OSU 27-0 at the half.
The Game In a Nutshell Ryan Kartje (LAT) — The dark clouds had parted. The rain, after soaking L.A. for more than a day, had slowed. By that point, at the start of a stellar, second-half turnaround Saturday, all hope of a College Football Playoff bid for USC had nearly washed away in a first-half downpour. But that’s precisely when USC found its silver lining, with Makai Lemon scorching his way across the end zone, calling for the ball. All season, Lemon had made the big plays whenever the Trojans’ offense needed him. But no performance from its top wideout was bigger than Saturday,… Read more »