USC’s Pac-12 football title hopes end in debilitating loss to Oregon
EUGENE, Ore. – There was nothing left to do, at this point, except throw up their hands.
It started with one Bo Nix pass to Troy Franklin, the Oregon receiver spinning away from USC’s Max Williams and dodging through the arms of fellow safety Calen Bullock, taking a grab for 77 yards on just the second play of the game. It continued with a crossing route to the Ducks’ Troy Franklin the very next drive, such open space in the Trojans’ secondary that Franklin sped for an 84-yard score, a couple NFL scouts in the press box laughing at the disaster unfolding on the Autzen Stadium turf below them.
And after the third massive bomb of the first half, cornerback Domani Jackson given not an ounce of safety help as Franklin got behind him for a 63-yard grab, Jackson held his palms out to the heavens.
He walked over to safety Max Williams, engaging in a visibly-heated discussion for a couple minutes. Seeming completely, and utterly, lost.
And USC’s season was lost in Eugene Saturday night, scouts all gone by the fourth quarter of a 36-27 loss that emphatically ended any hopes at a shot in the Pac-12 title game – and fully broke open the door to unsavory questions about the program’s future.
It seemed fated to end this way, in front of tens of thousands at Autzen licking their chops, smelling blood from a limping defensive unit. Fated, that Pac-12 hopes would burst in flames in Eugene, doomed by the same defensive questions that had plagued them since fall camp and culminated in a messy divorce with coordinator Alex Grinch.
One final shred of hope remained, though, that interim co-coordinators Shaun Nua and Brian Odom could provide some sort of spark to a group that had looked lost for weeks.
“Let’s (expletive) go!” Nua yelled repeatedly pregame, clapping hands, welcoming a string of players from the tunnel for pregame warmups. “Let’s (expletive) go!”
Except there was no shred of visible change, in demeanor or success of scheme, without Grinch patrolling the sidelines. This defense was dealt a bad hand already on Saturday: down starting nickelback Jaylin Smith, down starting linebacker Eric Gentry, down cornerbacks Ceyair Wright and Jacobe Covington and Zion Branch, so shorthanded that freshman wide receiver Makai Lemon started the second half at cornerback. And Oregon’s Heisman-candidate QB Bo Nix cut them up, ending the first quarter an almost-unfathomable 2-of-3 for 162 yards, throwing for four touchdowns and a season high 412 yards on the night.
At the end of a long and methodical third-quarter opening drive, Nix rolled right to find Franklin again, so open in the end zone he would’ve reasonably had the space to check the time before getting tackled. Safety Bullock, the defender closest to him, again held his hand out for a moment – searching for an explanation that didn’t exist, a USC team consistently befallen by an inability to execute simple defensive principles.
USC entered the second half down just 22-14, thanks to quarterback Caleb Williams’ most unhinged performance yet. He operated like a mad scientist in a collapsing pocket, weaving and circling and testing the limits of comprehension of successful quarterbacking, extending enough plays to lead a couple touchdown drives and keep the game close as Oregon shot itself in the foot on multiple occasions with penalties. Down by a couple scores after that Franklin touchdown, though, Williams had a miscommunication with running back Austin Jones on a handoff, the ball squeaking free and Ducks falling on it to completely deflate any USC momentum.
Oregon running back Bucky Irving — who finished with 118 yards on the night – finished off a subsequent drive with a dagger of a score. And USC’s sideline was gaunt, players hunched over, spirit drained, a season that started with dreams of a national championship ending in a bottomless pit of defensive ineptitude.
After Grinch’s firing, Riley’s message to everyone in the program was simple – stay focused on the present. There would be little discussion, for the time being, of the next figurehead of USC’s defense. Not when this program still had something to play for.
“The hell with everything else right now,” Riley said Monday. “Let’s just go get in a bunker right now and just circle the wagons and go at it here for a couple weeks and see what happens and we’ll figure out the rest of it (later).”
But even as Oregon left the door slightly open in the fourth quarter – a missed field goal turning into a touchdown drive by USC – pressure from a relentless Ducks front forced a failed two-point conversion try when a short Williams pass to Brenden Rice ended short of the goal line, ending a Trojans comeback attempt down 36-27 with a few minutes to play. And there’s little left for USC to play for, now, outside of a low-totem-pole bowl game.
So focus, now, turns to the tangible and philosophical future of a defense that, for two years, has failed the loftiest of hopes.