Advertisement

USC ruins Utah's perfect season with 42-24 win

Graham Watson

Utah’s dream undefeated season is over thanks to the team many originally predicted to be the power in the Pac-12 South.

USC, a team that has lost its last two games and its head coach, played inspired Saturday night and defeated the Utes 42-24.

It was the first win by an unranked USC team over a Top 3 program since 1975 when the Trojans defeated Texas A&M in the Liberty Bowl.

While on the surface, the number No. 3 team losing to a 3-3 USC team would appear like an upset, but the Trojans actually came into this game almost favored by a touchdown. That’s probably because despite Utah’s 6-0 record coming in, its best win came against Michigan at the beginning of the year.

It barely scraped by a Cal team that was thrashed by UCLA this week and its 62-20 win against Oregon — the win that got the nation to take notice of the Utes — doesn’t look nearly as good now as it did at the time.

Utah’s strength all season had been its defense. And while the defense did play well against the Trojans, it couldn’t sustain its intensity with Utah's offense failing to mount lengthy drives. Eventually, the Utah defense wore down thanks to a nice mixture of playcalling by USC interim coach Clay Helton and some up-tempo offense that left an already tired defense gasping for air.

Utah quarterback Travis Wilson started the game completing nine consecutive passes and throwing for a touchdown. After that, Wilson struggled with USC’s varied defensive looks and was especially susceptible to the play of true freshman defensive lineman Cameron Smith, who intercepted Wilson three times, including one he ran back for a score. Wilson came into the game with just three interceptions all season. Against USC, Wilson completed 24 of 36 passes for 254 yards, two touchdowns and four interceptions.

Running back Devontae Booker, who had been the Utes offensive workhorse, managed just 14 carries for 62 yards and no touchdowns.

For USC, this game was a bit of a renaissance. The Trojans finally played like the team that started the season and the team many expected to see throughout the year. In the preseason, it was supposed to be the team in the national conversation and competing for a spot in the College Football Playoff. However, slips against Stanford, Washington and Notre Dame derailed the Trojans' dream season pretty quickly.

Despite the loss, Utah still has at least a one-game lead in the Pac-12 South. USC, UCLA and Arizona State are 2-2 in the league, but the Trojans have two of the three tiebreakers with wins against the Sun Devils and Utes and could pull off a miracle comeback if it wins all of its remaining games – including a contest against UCLA – and Utah loses one more time along the way.

For more Utah news, visit Utezone.com.

For more USC news, visit TrojanSports.com.

- - - - - - -

Graham Watson is the editor of Dr. Saturday on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email her at dr.saturday@ymail.com or follow her on Twitter!

And don’t forget to keep up with all of Graham’s thoughts, witty comments and college football discussions on Facebook