PASADENA, Calif. — It was extremely ugly, but what matters most in rivalry games are wins. USC won’t apologize for the style in which it beat crosstown rival UCLA 19-13 on Saturday at the Rose Bowl.
The Trojans don’t have to. They won, regained the Victory Bell and are bowl-eligible — which isn’t something that should be viewed as a major accomplishment, but it’s something the program desperately needed after a horrendous midseason slump.
So let’s unpack some takeaways from USC’s triumph.
Offense made the key play
There’s so much to say about USC’s offensive performance. It was embarrassing for three and a half quarters. The Trojans didn’t have a touchdown in that span.
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In the first half, USC had first-and-goal inside the UCLA 5-yard line three times. Those possessions produced nine points — three field goals. The Trojans got close to the end zone, neglected 1,000-yard running back Woody Marks and got pass-happy.
“We didn’t run the ball well down there,” Lincoln Riley said. “We had a number of busted assignments, which was kind of strange because we were running the ball in the open field real well. … In the throw game, we had an opportunity to make a lot of one-on-one plays, and we didn’t make enough of them. Obviously, excited to get the win despite that, but we know that’s going to have to get a lot better.”
The Trojans failed to take advantage of good field position, and Riley’s play calling left room for a lot of questions. But with 7:44 left in the game, Riley reached deep into his bag of tricks: Quarterback Jayden Maiava hit Makai Lemon with a lateral, and Lemon tossed a nice ball to Kyron Hudson for a 39-yard gain, which put USC at the UCLA 4.
This time, the Trojans won their battle against the goal line. It took Maiava creating something out of nothing, scrambling around and buying time before he found Ja’Kobi Lane, who has gone from starter to limited snaps in the past two weeks, in the back of the end zone for the crucial touchdown.
Trojans take the lead with a TD 👀
Ja’Kobi Lane adds 6 for @uscfb ✌️
📺: NBC pic.twitter.com/GOElIqZ0OC
— FOX College Football (@CFBONFOX) November 24, 2024
There was a lot of bad from USC offensively. Maiava still looks raw. He finished this game with 19 completions in 35 attempts, 221 passing yards and a touchdown.
“Definitely could be a lot better,” he said.
But USC’s offensive issues have never been about the quarterback. The receivers have been fairly underwhelming relative to the preseason hype. But they did make critical plays on Saturday night. There’s a lack of commitment to the running game and no identity for USC to build its offense around, along with the questionable play calling.
USC did just enough offensively Saturday night. A performance like that won’t be good enough next week against Notre Dame and is one of many reasons Riley has to take a long, hard look at the unit this offseason and diagnose what’s wrong.
Another close game
Make this two consecutive weeks in which the Trojans have won a one-score game. All five of USC’s losses have come by seven points or fewer. The Trojans led in the fourth quarter in all five of those games. They just couldn’t make the plays necessary to win them.
This sort of thing tends to balance out over time. And the ball has bounced in USC’s favor lately.
Of course, a team can make its luck. A key reason the Trojans haven’t been able to close out games is because of the lack of a true pass rush. It especially hurt in an overtime loss to Penn State.
But USC came up with three sacks on Saturday night and was able to disrupt UCLA quarterback Ethan Garbers enough to make things difficult for him.
“We were able to affect the quarterback,” Riley said. “Obviously, that for us has been a little bit of our Achilles heel defensively this year. … To see the whole D-Line starting to step up and affect the quarterback, then that changes the way we can play the game. … We really didn’t break much at all.”
During those close losses, the Trojans defense has often been in position to close out the game. Just one play away from putting USC in a commanding position. And it has often fallen short.
Last week, nickel back Greedy Vance picked off Nebraska quarterback Dylan Raiola in the end zone to seal the win. Against UCLA, the defense came up with two fourth-down stops to put an end to the Bruins’ final two possessions.
“We’re battle-tested,” Riley said. “We’ve been through a lot of them. I told y’all when we lost a few of these, at some point this is going to become our advantage because we have been in so many. We really don’t know anything else, honestly.”
USC is battle-tested. But a lot of these battles have come against bad teams. Michigan isn’t great. Neither is Minnesota, nor Washington. Maryland is flat-out bad. UCLA has played better in recent weeks but isn’t very good.
Those were all winnable games against teams that weren’t very strong, and USC will look back at this year as a missed opportunity because of those defeats. In the future, Riley has to figure out a way for his team to separate against those sorts of programs.
The postseason
With its sixth win, USC is now guaranteed a bowl game. It’s not anywhere near what the Trojans were aiming for this season. It likely will be something along the lines of an LA Bowl or the Vegas Bowl.
But a postseason game does matter for USC. The Trojans finished 8-5 last year. There has been no progress results-wise this season. At best, all USC can hope to do is match last year’s 8-5 record, and that’ll be difficult with a top-10 Notre Dame team coming to the Coliseum next weekend.
But the worst-case scenario for USC would have been to follow the disappointing 2023 season by missing a bowl game in 2024. Recruiting has been enough of an uphill climb for this Trojans staff. It would’ve been even tougher with a 5-7 season.
When Riley was hired three years ago, the goals were greater than just making a bowl. Of course, the past two seasons haven’t been close to good enough. Who knows if next year will be either?
But this team has guaranteed itself one extra game.
“We’ve played some good football this year. We really have,” Riley said. “We’ve tried to block out any of the good, any of the bad, any of the things that went our way, any that didn’t and just really focus on being in the moment here in the end. Sometimes you get so wrapped up in all the outside and you miss the opportunities that are just right in front of your face.
“These are unbelievable opportunities. These are lifelong memories. It was important to this team at the end certainly to play another game after next week. Just because, honestly, it’s been a really fun team to coach, there’s a great vibe in that locker room and anybody that’s watched us play — this team leaves it out there every single time. I mean, they have. Glad we get to play a couple more together.”
Last offseason, USC tried to ride the wave of positivity from its Holiday Bowl win over a ranked Louisville team. It was supposed to represent some sort of turning point. It hasn’t.
It’s likely this season’s bowl game won’t either. Win or lose over these final two games, there’s plenty of work for Riley and USC to do. Even in a win, Saturday night showed that.
(Photo of Jacobe Covington: Sean M. Haffey / Getty Images)
