Game Breakdown: USC takes care of Colorado 55-17

The first quarter Friday night certainly wasn't what anyone expected from No. 8-ranked USC playing against a one-win Colorado team with one of the worst defenses in college football.

The Trojans managed only 8 yards on 12 plays in the opener quarter while looking totally out of sync, but the beleaguered Buffaloes could only hold off Heisman Trophy candidate Caleb Williams and this offense for so long.

USC scored 24 straight points in the second quarter while pulling away for an eventual 55-17 win, managing to cover the whopping 34.5-point spread for the game.

Williams threw just his second interception of the season, but he finished 14-of-26 passing for 268 yards and 3 touchdowns through the air while also rushing for 2 touchdowns.

It marked his fourth straight game with at least 5 total touchdowns.

As for the sluggish start, he said it stemmed from the way the Trojans (9-1, 7-1 Pac-12) practiced during the short week of prep.

"I'm going to relay it back to practice again. Everything kind of always goes back to practice in a sense, so there was times throughout practice this week that we just weren't consistent, we weren't communicating. We weren't doing some small things that help you win games, that help you not have penalties, get behind the sticks, on big third downs you're on target with your receiver, or you don't hand ball off when you're not supposed to hand the ball off," Williams said. "Things like that. Consistency, communication and making sure that we're always focused and locked in throughout the week.

"And I promise that I will not allow what happened this week in practice to happen again."

It was also a much-needed -- and expected -- bounce-back performance for the USC defense, which held Colorado (1-9, 1-5) to 259 yards while the Trojans' offense eventually piled up 531.

Star defensive end Tuli Tuipulotu had 2.5 sacks to extend his FBS-leading total to 11.5 through 10 games, with one forcing a fumble at the Colorado 8-yard line that was recovered by Stanley Ta'ufo'ou and led directly to a 4-yard Williams rushing touchdown two plays later for a 16-3 lead midway through the second quarter.

Calen Bullock had an interception for the Trojans.

"Our defense played well. We affected the passer, which was huge. Did a really nice job on third down. We got a couple of turnovers. We played really well early in the football game, so yeah, I was proud of the defensive effort. We played like we expected them to play," Riley said. "Each game's its own journey. We get a chance to reset. We've got a little bit of a long week and a chance to reset and then get ready to play those guys across town."

But ultimately, a season-ending lower leg injury to star running back Travis Dye hung over everything Friday night.

RELATED: Full transcript of Lincoln Riley's postgame comments | Video interviews with DC Alex Grinch and USC players after the win

First quarter

7:18, USC -- safety, USC 2-0

1:24, Colorado -- Cole Becker 28-yard field goal, CU 3-2

Second quarter

10:09, USC -- Caleb Williams 2-yard run (Alex Stadthaus kick), USC 9-3

7:55, USC -- Caleb Williams 4-yard run (Alex Stadthaus kick), USC 16-3

1:58, USC -- Brenden Rice 32-yard pass from Caleb Williams (Alex Stadthaus kick), USC 23-3

0:00, USC -- Denis Lynch 34-yard field goal, USC 26-3

Third quarter

5:49, Colorado-- Alex Fontenot 3-yard run (Cole Becker kick), USC 26-10

4:50, USC-- Tahj Washington 61-yard pass from Caleb Williams (Will Rose run for 2-Pt). USC 34-10

0:27, USC-- Austin Jones 12-yard pass from Caleb Williams (Alex Stadhaus kick), USC 41-10

Fourth quarter

11:34, USC-- Raleek Brown 25-yard pass from Miller Moss (Alex Stadthaus kick), USC 48-10

7:22, Colorado-- J.T. Shrout 8-yard run (Cole Becker kick). USC 48-17

0:36, USC-- Darwin Barlow 3-yard run ( Alex Stadthaus kick). USC 55-17

Brendan Rice had an awful beginning to this matchup against his former team, dropping multiple passes and allowing a defender to tear the ball away from him for a rare USC interception. His troubles factored into an uncomfortable first quarter after which the Trojans trailed 3-2, the ugliest (or most beautiful) of all possible football scores.

As the second quarter rolled on, USC’s offense remained inconsistent as the team maintained just a 13-point lead before Rice answered the bell on back-to-back plays to open up the game for the Trojans, earning redemption with a brilliant diving catch at the sideline and an excellent grab on a 32-yard dart from Caleb Williams for a touchdown. His score put the Trojans up 23-3, firmly placing the team in front and setting the plate for the blowout win that was expected in this game.

RB Austin Jones

After Travis Dye was carted off late in the first half, USC turned to Jones to carry the load in the backfield. Taking over for Dye in the second quarter, Jones ran the ball well to help USC put the game away in the second half. He created yardage consistently with good vision and power, rumbling for 74 yards on his 11 carries. Late in the 3rd quarter, he came through in a big way to save a play in the red zone as Williams just barely managed to shovel the ball to him behind the line of scrimmage. Jones took the toss and bolted for the end zone, outrunning defenders before leaping over a diving tackler for the 12-yard touchdown. He contributed 39 receiving yards on 4 receptions to go with his rushing totals.

DE Tuli Tuipulotu

The nation’s sack leader terrorized Colorado’s offensive line tonight, racking up 2.5 sacks in just the first half. Tuipulotu manhandled the Buffs, wrangling quarterback J.T. Shrout after arcing back around the tackle on two of those plays, forcing a fumble on the second. Between those plays came a monstrous bull rush off the edge that saw Tuipulotu drive the left tackle straight into the quarterback’s lap before shedding and forcing a safety via intentional grounding. His dominance early held together what was otherwise a very clunky first-half performance from the Trojans across the board until the rest of the team picked it up heading into halftime.

Tahj Washington made a monstrous play late in the third quarter, ripping off a 61-yard touchdown after catching an intermediate route from Caleb Williams. About 13 yards downfield, Washington spun back toward the endzone after the catch and burst off, leaving a would-be tackler grasping for air. With two defensive backs converging on him from ahead, Washington planted his left foot in the ground and made a cut to explode downfield, destroying the defenders' angles and blowing past them for the long touchdown.

After that 61-yard touchdown pass to Washington in the third quarter, USC used some trickery in setting up for the PAT but having holder Will Rose take off with the ball for a two-point conversion -- after which he did a flip in the end zone.

"It's like the angel and devil sitting on each shoulder. There's a part of me like you're in LA and you run that in there and you flip, that's awesome. And there's another part, now you've got to kick from the 20-yard line, then you're a little not real happy about it," Riley said smiling. "But ahh, we'll run him or roll him or something later."

The gap of abilities between these two teams was just too much for Colorado to overcome. Despite all the Trojans' miscues and malfunctions, their ability to make plays with ease on both sides of the ball allowed them to keep piling up the points over the course of 4 quarters. The defense showed troubling vulnerabilities throughout the night, particularly against the run, but the dominance of Tuipulotu and the general ineptitude of the Colorado offense allowed USC to keep them at bay.

Williams was far from his best in this game, but he made enough big plays to heap the points on the board for USC. Overall, this wasn't a particularly good display of execution for the Trojans, but they were just too much better than Colorado do to anything but win this game handily.

Next up is the much-anticipated crosstown showdown with UCLA (No. 12 in the CFP rankings).

Passing:

Caleb Williams: 14/26, 268 yards, 3 TD, 1 Int

Miller Moss: 6/7, 78 yards, 1 TD

Rushing:

Austin Jones: 11 carries, 74 yards

Raleek Brown: 7 carries, 52 yards

Darwin Barlow: 5 carries, 41 yards, 1 TD

Travis Dye: 9 carries, 26 yards

Caleb Williams: 8 carries, -4 yards, 2 TD

Receiving:

Kyle Ford: 3 receptions, 73 yards

Brenden Rice: 3 receptions, 70 yards, 1 TD

Tahj Washington: 2 receptions, 66 yards, 1 TD

Austin Jones: 4 receptions, 39 yards, 1 TD

Raleek Brown: 2 receptions, 38 yards, 1 TD

Darwin Barlow: 2 receptions, 31 yards

CJ Williams: 2 receptions, 9 yards

Jordan Addison: 1 reception, 2 yards

Lake McRee: 1 reception, 18 yards

Defense:

Xamarion Gordon: 6 tackles

Tuasivi Nomura: 6 tackles

Tuli Tuipulotu: 2.5 sacks, 1 forced fumble

Korey Foreman: 1 tackle for loss, 3 tackles

Calen Bullock: 1 interception