It's hard to say where this USC football season is going, but it sure seems to get more interesting with each passing week.
Back home in the Coliseum on Saturday night after consecutive tougher-than-expected road tests, it figured the Trojans would be able to settle down and reassert some control in their final game before the strength of schedule spikes considerably.
Instead, they were down 17 points as Arizona took a 208-10 yardage advantage through the first few minutes of the second quarter, and it became clear nothing would come easy on this night -- yet again.
A fumbled QB-RB exchange and a botched snap on a short game-winning field goal attempt sent the top-10-ranked Trojans to overtime against the Wildcats. Make that three overtimes, before quarterback Caleb Williams finished what he had started a few hours earlier in carrying USC to a dramatic 43-41 victory.
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In the current college overtime format, the third OT period places each team on the 3-yard line for a two-point conversion attempt. Williams took off to the right, stutter-stepped an Arizona defender in prime position to make the tackle and lunged toward the right pylon for the go-ahead score. (More on the unique play design in a moment)
When it was Arizona's turn, linebacker Mason Cobb and cornerback Prophet Brown read the Wildcats' intentions perfectly and brought running back DJ Williams down for a loss of yards to end the game -- finally.
"What a college football game. I give Arizona a lot of credit. I'm not going to make a lot of excuses in any way -- they played well, played a lot better than us certainly sometimes in the game. Any time you go down 17-0, you've got a mountain to climb there," coach Lincoln Riley said afterward. "We certainly had a lot of moments where we didn't play very well, certainly in the beginning of the game, but our team's fight and resolve to get back and find a way to win that with some of just the craziness that happened in this game, I'm really proud of. A lot of teams don't win this game.
"You go down 17-0 and you don't recover. You have kind of the sequence there at the end of the game and you don't refocus back up and get the job done and win it in overtime. We had multiple opportunities where I think if our culture, our guys wasn't strong enough then I think we would have folded and we'd be sitting in here without a smile on our face right now."
For all the struggles a top-10-ranked Trojans team endured against a middle-of-the-pack Pac-12 opponent Saturday night, there were indeed no conflicted feelings for Riley or his players about the win, about being 6-0.
The rest was for everybody else to parse and critique.
Of which there are fair concerns to come away with as the now-No. 10-ranked Trojans (6-0, 4-0 Pac-12) -- who dropped in the polls after a win for the third straight week -- go from the lighter first half of their schedule to facing five ranked opponents over the final six games, including a pair of fellow top-10 teams in No. 7 Washington and No. 8 Oregon.
For one, the offensive line struggled as Williams took a season-high 4 sacks and the run game sputtered for much of the night. Foremost, though, the defense failed to assuage any of the mounting concerns from the past two weeks.
For the second game in a row, the unit gave up over 500 yards. The final total was 506 Saturday night, but overtime inflated the numbers — it was 456 through four quarters, which is still the most Arizona (3-3, 1-2) has had against an FBS opponent this season. The Wildcats rushed for 203 yards -- many of those looking far too easy with defenders out of position or missing tackles -- and backup QB Noah Fifita passed for 303 yards, 5 touchdowns and 1 interception in his second career start, replacing injured Jayden de Laura.
As the Wildcats had their way against the USC defense in building that 17-0 lead through three possessions, message boards melted down and Twitter lit up with more Alex Grinch angst.
Williams, for one, is clearly tired of all the talk about USC's defense and its embattled coordinator.
It had been bubbling inside of him this past week, as the Trojans' defensive struggles dominated a scrutinous spotlight since the too-tense 48-41 win at Colorado, and he couldn't hide his disdain Saturday night when the question was asked.
Even if it wasn't asked to him.
Riley was asked simply, "How do you assess the defense and where you're at, at the midway point of the season?"
Williams rolled his eyes while tilting his head back and then down in exasperation and waited for his coach to finish responding.
"I thought we took some great steps. Again, when you go down 17-0, you get tested right there internally. Do you really believe, are guys ready to really fight? As Jamil [Muhammad] said, and I said before, your culture gets tested quick, and the defense is what got us going, the defense is what won this football game," Riley said. "It got us going in the beginning down 17-0 and closed it against a play they had been running well all night — closed it with a huge TFL to win the game. So, proud of those guys. We're going to get better, missed a lot of pieces tonight even as the game went on and some guys got in there and responded. So we'll keep growing and proud of their fight tonight."
Before the topic could change, Williams wanted to be heard too.
"We wouldn't have won that game without defense," he interjected. "We were down 17-0, so this, this whole defensive thing, our brothers, the score wouldn't be 43-41 without them. So, put it simply that way."
That's sort of the point, though -- the score wouldn't have had to be 43-41 or needing three overtimes to settle if not for the continued struggles of the defense. But, yes, the unit also had its moments.
The defense didn't win this game for USC, though -- Williams did.
The Heisman winner put the Trojans on his back Saturday night more so than he's had to do all season.
On a night when USC finished with just 365 yards (190 below its season average), Williams was a quiet 14-of-25 passing for a season-low 219 yards and 1 touchdown but rushed for 3 touchdowns and that game-winning conversion in the third overtime.
"Shoot, just, [that's] who he is. He just balled out. When we needed him, he came through," wide receiver Tahj Washington said.
Right after Williams and the offense finally broke through early in the second quarter on a 53-yard completion to Brenden Rice downfield, Williams had the ball stripped from him on the next play and it was actually the USC defense that came to the rescue in that instance.
On the ensuing series, Jacobe Covington intercepted Fifita, setting the Trojans up at the Arizona 12.
A facemask penalty on Arizona started the ensuing USC drive and two plays later Williams scrambled in for a 4-yard touchdown run, directing Rice to deliver the key block at the goal line.
Muhammad then had 2 sacks of Fifita on the next Arizona drive, including one for a 12-yard loss that eventually led to a punt and the first chance for real momentum for USC.
The teams would instead trade punts the next two series before USC got moving again on a 21-yard run by MarShawn Lloyd and a tough, contested 31-yard reception by Rice down to the Arizona 9.
A few snaps later, USC was in the end zone on a patented Williams scramble drill touchdown as he bought time, rolled right and found the slightest of separation to hit Kyron Hudson with a laser to the goal line.
That score came with just 2 seconds left in the first half and cut Arizona's lead to 17-14.
The Wildcats added a field goal drive to open the third quarter, making it 20-14, but Williams was just getting started as he took the game further into his hands -- or legs, for that matter.
Realizing he would have to freelance a bit to get the offense steadily moving, Williams started the ensuing USC drive with scrambles for 11 and 20 yards. The Trojans would need more help, though -- this time from Arizona in the way of two costly penalties.
On fourth-and-7 from the Arizona 41, Williams lofted a pass down the sideline for Dorian Singer, who expertly drew the pass interference on cornerback Tacario Davis for a first down.
Moments later on third-and-5, Williams had nowhere to throw the ball but linebacker Justin Flowe was flagged for roughing the passer.
On the next play, Lloyd rumbled into the end zone for a 9-yard touchdown and USC's first lead of the game, 21-20, with 5:44 left in the third quarter.
As for the switch that flipped as Williams got more aggressive with his legs, he said that's never his preference, but he saw the opportunities.
"The D-ends kept running upfield when we'd get in passing situations and things like that, the lanes kept opening up, they kept dropping out and they left me with big lanes. I know I haven't ran this year much -- I don't really like to run, to be honest with you -- but you've got to do whatever you've got to do to win the game," Williams said. "... All it takes to win the game, that's all that really matters at the end of the day."
After yielding one first down, the USC defense forced another Wildcats punt, and Williams came out dealing with completions of 10, 7, 9 and then a 26-yarder to Washington.
Again, Arizona helped the Trojans' cause, as a 15-yard facemask penalty on the end of that long completion moved the ball to the Wildcats 12, followed by an illegal hands to the face penalty on linebacker Tyler Manoa after Williams was stopped at the 1 on third down.
With a fresh set of downs from the 1, Williams stretched the ball across the goal line to make it a 28-20 lead with 12:54 left to play.
It wasn't just the 4 sacks or the hits Williams endured along the goal line trying to make plays -- Arizona came into the night with a plan to exact a toll on the star quarterback.
In the end, he levied a more impactful one on the Wildcats.
"They came out aggressive. They did a great job in the beginning, they did a great job throughout the whole game trying to get in my head and hit me after whistles or when the ball was away from me and things like that," Williams said. "You know, mental toughness, keep fighting, keep believing. That's what you do as a leader, that's what you do as a quarterback for the team is keep fighting. So the longer we go, the better we get."
That 8-point lead and any comfort it brought was short-lived, though.
Any redemption the defense had earned to start the second half was lost when Arizona immediately answered Williams' touchdown run with a 10-play, 75-yard touchdown drive of its own.
A 27-yard run by Jonah Coleman, finding yet another hole in this vulnerable rush defense, got the Wildcats moving, and an 11-yard Coleman run later got the visitors to the USC 5.
The defense answered with three straight stops, including a tackle for loss by Shane Lee on third-and-goal from the 1, but on fourth down Fifita calmly stared down pressure off the edge and found Jacob Cowing wide open for a 3-yard touchdown on the left side of the end zone. Fifita then threw an identical pass to Tetairoa McMillan for the game-tying two-point conversion to make it 28-28 with 8:17 to play.
There was a lot of football left to play.
Two possessions later, the Wildcats would stall inside the Trojans' 40 as USC finally came up with a stop on third-and-long. Tyler Loop missed a 50-yard field goal attempt wide left, and USC took over at its own 33 with 2:08 on the clock.
On the second play of the Trojans’ final drive, Williams hit Washington over the middle for a 26-yard gain and a few plays later Lloyd ripped off a 24-yard run down to the 6.
Again, though, there was more drama to go.
Williams fumbled an exchange with Lloyd and fell on the ball as the clocked ticked. With 4 seconds left, he spiked it to set up fourth down and a chance for the field goal unit to win the game.
"We were getting ready to run it and we just had obviously a missed exchange," Riley said, recounting those final moments of regulation. "It was close there whether you go ahead and score. We had conversations about, should we just take a knee? Because you could tell that they were getting ready to maybe let us score. The clock was so low, though, that it is a unique conversation on do you kick the field goal because something can happen, right? Like what did happen. Or do you go ahead and try to score? So, those are conversations that we were having. Obviously, unfortunate that we mishandled that exchange there -- that didn't go to plan."
Worse, the snap for the field goal was high and kicker Denis Lynch never even got a real chance at the 25-yarder.
That meant overtime with USC getting the ball first from Arizona 25-yard line.
On third down, Williams scored on an 18-yard touchdown run as the Trojans struck first.
But Arizona needed only one play to answer as Fifita hit Cowing in the end zone for a 25-yard strike to tie it.
Arizona started the second overtime with a 5-play scoring drive ending in an 8-yard touchdown from Fifita to Cowing. Per rule, the Wildcats had to go for a two-point conversion and USC star safety Calen Bullock broke up the pass in the end zone.
The Trojans immediately started their turn with a 10-yard holding penalty on Mason Murphy to set up first-and-20, but on second down Caleb Williams found Mario Williams for a 23-yard gain down to the 11 and Austin Jones rushed in for the touchdown on the next play. The two-point conversion pass to Rice was incomplete, though, setting up the third OT period.
This time, each team would only get one shot at punching it in from the 3.
USC went with a wild formation that had the offensive line and running back set all the way to the left side of the field, three receivers bunched to the right and tight end Lake McRee snapping the ball to Williams. The star QB then started to run right while not finding any open receivers. He should have been brought down around the 5-yard line, but he juked the defender just enough to create a path to the pylon for the go-ahead score — a fitting punctuation to all he meant to USC on this night.
"Yeah, we've been working it. I'm glad we had confidence to get it done," Riley said of the unique play design. "It something that gave Caleb a chance to run it or throw it. I actually think he would have thrown it -- we had two receivers that tripped each other up, which was a little unfortunate. It might have been a little less dramatic, but guys executed it in the end and that's what you practice for those moments for. I told you guys throughout the offseason we've really spent a lot of time on situational ball. To get that stop, to stop a couple of their two-point plays, that was the game there in the end. Again, proud of our guys for getting it done."
Washington said the Trojans have worked on that one for a while.
"It's something we put in a while ago, so just being able to see it play out in a game is cool to see," he said. "I mean, the first time [in practice] the defense didn't recognize it so we scored on it pretty fast."
The Trojans still needed a stop to seal it, though, and this time the defense was right where it was supposed to be as Cobb and Brown pulled down the Wildcats running back behind the line of scrimmage to end it.
"They like to get the ball out with that tight bunch, they kept running that little toss. Previous plays I went over blockers, that time I decided to kind of do my own thing and go in between them, was unblocked," Cobb said.
As for the slow start that put the Trojans in that position to need late-game dramatics, Riley said the blame was shared all around, but he thought the response revealed something about this team.
"Obviously, you don't want to put yourself in that hole, but when you're in it, man, you can either feel sorry for yourself or you can dig yourself out and we dug," he said.
His players concurred.
"That's what we play football for," Cobb said. "To me, personally, I don't want to win by 40 points -- I get bored. You want that grind, that grit, you can feel that. There's nothing like that on the field."
Said Washington: "This is something we needed. It's a character-defining game, for us to finish the way we did and come out with the W."
The questions about the defense will only amplify further this week, along with fresh concerns about the offensive line.
But, yes, these Trojans are 6-0 with the rest of their story still the write and the pen in their hands.
