Utah scores 34 straight points in demolition of USC
SALT LAKE CITY, Utah -- The fan frustrations have been loud and growing this season for USC. Even after three straight wins and an 11-point victory last week over a previously-unbeaten Colorado team.
For this very reason -- what would happen when the Trojans and all their flaws came up against an opponent with far less of its own?
The answer: Utah 41, USC 28.
The Trojans (4-3, 3-2 Pac-12) got off to an ideal start at Rice-Eccles Stadium on Saturday night, thanks to a ridiculously good play by Michael Pittman to somehow turn a pressured throw into double coverage into a 34-yard touchdown, and Jay Tufele's 48-yard fumble return for touchdown to make it 14-0 less than 10 minutes into the game.
But that was the high point for USC.
Utah (5-2, 3-2) scored the next 34 points, showing yet again that when things go bad for this Trojans team, they go really, really bad.
"Obviously not our best night," coach Clay Helton said. "All the credit goes to Utah. I thought they put a good plan together, and the fact of the matter is they played better than us. We made mistakes on both sides of the ball. ...
"I'm going to put everything on me as far as performance. It's my job as head coach to make sure we're performing at a high level, and we didn't do good enough tonight to win the football game -- a very critical football game for this stretch run in the Pac-12."
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Despite that 14-point head start, the Utes had so thoroughly dominated this game by the end of the third quarter that they had more than three times as many yards as the Trojans (435-121).
Utah came in with the second-ranked rushing defense and played to form, holding USC to just 73 yards on the ground. That's not a new development for the Trojans, though -- they had zero rushing yards at halftime last week against Colorado and were held to -5 for the game in a loss at Texas.
Unlike last week, the passing attack couldn't bail out USC. Unlike last week, the defense couldn't dominate.
The final tally was 541 yards for the Utes and a measly 205 for the Trojans -- a season-high against an FBS opponent for Utah and a season-low for USC.
"They just really outplayed us tonight, and we've just got to go back and watch the tape and come back better," tight end Tyler Petite said. "As an offense we just weren't producing the way that we should have. It's really tough to go out and ask a defense to play a perfect game the whole night. ... After so many three-and-outs and you keep putting your defense back out there, you know they get three plays off and have to go back in, that's tough. That's a lot to ask from your defense."
The Utes got started immediately after the 14-0 deficit with a 38-yard Britain Covey kickoff return to help set up a 46-yard touchdown pass from Tyler Huntley to Covey, as he eluded nickel Ajene Harris and broke an arm tackle from Talanoa Hufanga.
USC's offense, as it has done too often the season, failed to pounce on the early momentum and followed with one of those many three-and-outs and then a JT Daniels interception on a pass tipped by Javelin Guidry and secured by linebacker Chase Hansen at the Trojans' 20-yard line. That set up an easy 33-yard field goal for Utah.
The Utes then quickly transitioned from chipping away at a deficit to asserting full control.
Another USC three-and-out preceded an 11-play, 67-yard touchdown drive for the hosts.
With top pass rusher Porter Gustin lost for the season, the Trojans needed somebody to emerge in his place and junior Christian Rector did a good job of getting in the backfield early in the game. But on back-to-back plays he failed to wrap up Huntley on his own. The first one still went for a sack while on the next play, Huntley escaped and threw a 27-yard pass to Brant Kuithe down to the 5. Huntley scored two plays later on a 3-yard run to give the Utes a 17-14 advantage.
That was followed by yet another USC three-and-out and then a missed 39-yard field goal by Michael Brown on the Trojans' last series of the first half.
Utah instead tacked on a 30-yard Matt Gay field goal to make it 20-14.
With the offense already collapsing, the USC defense followed suit after halftime.
On one play senior cornerback Isaiah Langley made a nice pass breakup in the end zone on a pass down the right sideline. On the very next play, Utah went to the same spot and got a 27-yard touchdown to Solomon Enis against Langley. That made it 27-14.
After an ineffective five-play USC series, as the Trojans simply couldn't counter the momentum swing, Utah followed with a 12-play, 85-yard touchdown drive capped by an 11-yard strike from Huntley to Demari Simpkins in the end zone.
Just like that, it was Utah 34-14. Just like that, the game was over with more than 3 minutes left in the third quarter.
Afterward, both Helton and offensive coordinator Tee Martin lamented the once-again dormant rushing attack and expressed surprised at how much Cover-2 (rather than Cover-1) the Utes played on defense.
"They played a lot of Cover-2 to stop the explosive passing game. We tried to connect on a few of them, we got an interception, they were able to get pressure without blitzing most of the time and they slowed down the run without having to pressure. It's a long night when a team can do that," Martin said.
"We knew it was a bunch where you couldn't dance around. They were too fast, too physical to dance. You had to get downfield and it was going to be a tough grind with our type of running game -- we knew that. But they were able to slow us down and play Cover-2, which is, we haven't had a night like that since Alabama in '16. So it was a tough night."
Even when USC got a major break as Utah fumbled a punt return and Greg Johnson fell on the ball at the Utes' 14, the Trojans couldn't capitalize. On fourth-and-9, Daniels was hit hard as he released the ball, resulting in an interception and the end of his night as he gave way to backup Matt Fink.
Helton simply said that Daniels "got dinged in the head" while later acknowledging uncertainly about his availability for next week.
In the end, it was Daniels' roughest performance of his young collegiate career. He finished just 6-of-16 passing for a season-low 89 yards, 1 touchdown and 2 interceptions.
Fink, who was 6 of 7 for 43 yard and a touchdown and rushed for 21 yards, led a couple touchdown drives late, but those late scores had no bearing on the outcome.
This one was a rout.
This one was ugly and discouraging.
The only offensive player with any success for USC was Pittman, who tallied 4 catches for 107 yards and a touchdown. Tyler Petite (3-yard reception) and Vavae Malepeai (12-yard rush) had the Trojans' late scores.
Meanwhile, Huntley was 22 of 29 for 341 yards, 4 TD, 0 INT and 33 rushing yards with another TD on the ground.
The Pac-12 South standings are now a jumbled mess with USC, Utah, Colorado and a resurgent UCLA all tied in the loss column.
But the standings may not be the Trojans' biggest concern at this point.
They are a team without an identity seven games into the season and a restless fan base frustrated with the direction of the program.
"We have no time to feel sorry for ourselves," Helton said.