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…
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