USC football makes a statement in routing Rutgers

LOS ANGELES — Long after the shockwaves settled in the Coliseum from Freddie Freeman’s walk-off grand slam 6 miles up the freeway in Chavez Ravine, long after a first half with zero mercy spared to Rutgers, USC found itself back dangling in the same position it always had.

The crowd at the Coliseum, pocketed as it was with the reality of a jam-packed night in Los Angeles sports, was used to this script. Perhaps that’s why it never quite felt joyous, in that first half, even as USC took a two-score lead. The cardinal-and-gold loyalists were used to being sucked in, and spat right back out in incomprehensible endings – at Michigan, in Minnesota, against Penn State, at Maryland.

It played out, again Friday night, as Rutgers quarterback Athan Kaliakmanis launched a 45-yard bomb and then hit on a 25-yard touchdown pass to shave what had been an 18-point USC lead to eight with 8:11 left in the third quarter. Momentum crashed, again. Foundation crumbled, again.

And then in the span of one play, the Trojans (4-4 overall, 2-4 Big Ten) and Coach Lincoln Riley turned right back around and set their season straight, bludgeoning Rutgers and emphatically closing out a 42-20 win.

“Yeah, we really needed that bad,” running back Woody Marks said afterward, “just to come out and play dominant all four quarters.”

These Trojans had returned home wounded, both physically and in ego, after a handful of debilitating cross-country trips. Riley, accepting blame with nowhere else to put it, needed a shining moment as a play-caller. Quarterback Miller Moss, calling Monday for critics to “keep that same energy,” needed a mistake-free night. And the program, most of all, needed to finish a football game, bungling away four close games.

“We’ve had some opportunities to separate in some games, and we haven’t,” Riley said Monday.

They found those opportunities, often Friday, in the sure hands of sophomore receiver Makai Lemon.

For weeks, since returning from an injury suffered on a special teams play against Michigan, Lemon had been slowly creeping his way up in USC’s gamut of wideouts. The sophomore caught six passes against Penn State. Then eight against Maryland. Against Rutgers, he was tabbed – with fellow sophomore Zachariah Branch seeming embroiled in his own head on returns – with kickoff duties, and promptly responded in the first quarter with an explosive 80-yard return that set up a Marks touchdown.

And Lemon stamped his breakout on Friday, careening over the middle on the same crossing pattern that had baffled Rutgers (4-4, 1-4) all night.

Exactly zero seconds of game-clock after Kaliakmanis’ touchdown toss got Rutgers within 28-20, Lemon caught a drag from Moss, shed a tackler, and zipped. Vanished away, into thin air on thick turf, skidding 70 yards before he was finally knocked out of bounds. Moss tied a bow on the drive, strolling into the end zone on a 7-yard keeper a few plays later.

With momentum swung, Lemon put the game out of reach on a subsequent drive, snaring another pass over the middle from Moss and turning it into a 40-yard touchdown.

“There really hasn’t been panic with this group in any of these games, and there wasn’t tonight,” Riley said. “And I thought it was just – we had a great mindset, and we did a great job closing it out.”

The Trojans bludgeoned Rutgers from the first kick Friday night, turning swaths of open turf into another victory for the West Coast on a momentous sports night for Los Angeles. Steady-as-ever Marks provided the first punch, scoring three first-quarter touchdowns. Moss threw a constant flurry of jabs from kickoff to buzzer, finishing 20-of-28 for 308 yards. Lemon was the knockout, finishing with 256 all-purpose yards (134 receiving on four catches with the TD) in a true breakout.

The hardest these Trojans had to strain on Friday night, ultimately, came at the hands of defensive coordinator D’Anton Lynn, put in an unenviable position with a rash of injuries that depleted his unit, especially in the secondary. Safety Kamari Ramsey, cornerbacks Jaylin Smith and Jacobe Covington, and nickel back Greedy Vance Jr. all were scratched Friday, leaving USC down four erstwhile starters – and soon five, as defensive tackle Nate Clifton exited in the first quarter on an already-thin defensive line.

In the second quarter, after Ford’s get-off-me touchdown extended USC’s lead to 21-3, Lynn threw a heavy dosage of soft coverage at the Scarlet Knights. Kaliakmanis entered Friday’s matchup commandeering one of the poorer passing attacks in the FBS, hauling in a 53% completion rate. But chunk-yardage cushions gave him sudden comfort, and he marched Rutgers down the field on a pair of 22- and 15-yard completions before the Scarlet Knights’ Antwan Raymond punched it in from 3 yards to cut USC’s lead to two scores.

Again, USC came out of the second-half gates flat. Kaliakmanis, after missing a couple of deep shots in the first half, hit on a 45-yard bomb to Dymere Miller and then a 25-yard touchdown strike to Christian Dremel. Suddenly, after a nifty two-point conversion (a pass to the quarterback from Chris Long on a trick play), Rutgers had cut USC’s lead to a score, and another game seemed ready to slip.

And then Riley schemed, Lemon struck, and at long last USC closed out a victory.

“We’re a no-excuses program,” Riley said afterward, speaking in response to USC’s rash of injuries. “We’ve got a no-excuses mentality right now.

“Like, whatever’s stacked up against us, we really don’t give a damn. Like, we’re just going to keep going.”

NOTES

The Trojans recorded a season-high four sacks. … Kaliakmanis ended up with 313 yards passing, and Kyle Monangai had 86 yards on 18 carries. … Rutgers has lost four straight and its defense has fallen apart over the past three games, giving up 119 points to Wisconsin, UCLA and USC. The Trojans gashed the Scarlet Knights for 8.7 yards per play.