There is a lot to be positive about regarding No. 9 USC’s 41-35 win over Cal on Saturday night at the Coliseum.
Sophomore quarterback Caleb Williams was dominant, carrying the offense with nearly 400 total yards and five total touchdowns.
Sophomore receiver Michael Jackson III had a breakout game, with 150 all-purpose yards and a pair of touchdown catches.
Redshirt junior safety Bryson Shaw had another big game with 11 tackles, junior defensive end Tuli Tuipulotu had two more sacks and sophomore safety Calen Bullock had an interception and a pass breakup.
USC is 8-1 and squarely in the mix for the College Football Playoff after two teams ahead of it in the rankings lost on Saturday.
But after the game, players and coaches still felt frustrated with the team’s play.
“We came here to dominate and really show the world what kind of team we really are,” redshirt senior running back Travis Dye said. “It’s just not happening yet, but it will. It definitely will. I have full confidence, full faith in this team.”
The frustration especially stems from the Trojans’ defensive play, as they haven’t been able to close out games. USC allowed 21 fourth-quarter points from Cal on Saturday night.
“We can be excited by a win and pissed off about how we played,” defensive coordinator Alex Grinch said. “We got to play 60 minutes and we’re going to find a way to do that.”
The Trojans didn’t come out of the gates particularly strong. Their first drive on offense stalled out fairly quickly, then the Golden Bears marched down the field in under two minutes to take an early 7-0 lead. Cal freshman running back Jaydn Ott ran at will early; he concluded the possession with a 10-yard run into the end zone, breaking a couple of tackles along the way. With linebackers sophomore Eric Gentry and senior Ralen Goforth out due to injury for a second straight week, it looked as though it might be a long night for the Trojans’ run defense.
But USC quickly settled into the game on both sides of the ball. Despite not having his two star receivers — junior Jordan Addison and sophomore Mario Williams — for a second straight week, Williams found other options through the air against a lackluster Golden Bears pass defense. After a breakout performance last week that included 118 receiving yards and two touchdowns, redshirt junior Tahj Washington again saw plenty of targets, including eight in the first half.
The Trojans found the end zone on two of their next three drives, with both Williams and Dye finding pay dirt on the ground to take a 13-7 lead. Still in just his second season, Williams showed some savvy, veteran skills, especially during a huge fourth-down conversion for the Trojans on their second scoring drive. Williams coaxed a pair of Golden Bears offside, then used the free play to find wide-open redshirt senior receiver Terrell Bynum for a 20-yard gain into the redzone.
“[Caleb] has come a long way since I played him in the Alamo Bowl a year back,” Dye said about playing Williams when the two were at Oregon and Oklahoma, respectively. “The fact that he’s just a sophomore always surprises me.”
The USC defense also found some rhythm, something the group hadn’t had in its past couple of games. The Trojans weren’t as reliant on their turnover-dependent, “bend-don’t-break” style, forcing three Cal punts on its next three possessions and holding the Golden Bears scoreless for the rest of the first half. USC especially locked down Ott after his big opening drive, when he had three rushes for 40 yards; he was held to only 15 yards on his remaining 11 rushes of the game.
That defensive rhythm continued when USC forced a turnover on downs deep in Trojan territory late in the first half; then, with just over a minute remaining before halftime, Bullock picked off a deep pass by Cal redshirt senior quarterback Jack Plummer. In just two plays — a 39-yard pass to Washington inside the 10-yard line and a diving catch by Jackson in the end zone — the Trojans extended their lead to 20-7 before halftime.
Jackson, who has seen more snaps in recent weeks due to injuries in the receiver room, has made the most of his newfound opportunities. His second catch of the day also reached the end zone, as this time Jackson took a screen pass 59 yards to the house, increasing USC’s lead to 27-7. He hadn’t appeared in a game this season prior to Utah, but the young wideout now has three touchdown catches in three games.
“They are two guys that, right at the beginning, weren’t necessarily … getting a lot of opportunities,” head coach Lincoln Riley said of Washington and Jackson. “They’ve continued to work, continued to improve. Those guys are evident of what we need to be as a team.”
With Ott struggling on the ground and Cal’s deficit quickly growing, the Golden Bears had to lean on Plummer and the passing game in the second half. The Golden Bears got a much-needed big play when Plummer found junior receiver Jeremiah Hunter deep on the sideline for a 58-yard gain; redshirt senior receiver Monroe Young caught a touchdown pass a couple plays later to keep Cal within striking distance, though still trailing by two scores.
The USC offense still kept humming. Washington capped off perhaps the Trojans’ best offensive drive of the night with a 10-yard touchdown on another screen play. That drive put USC up 34-14 and consisted of 4-for-4 passing from Williams for 40 yards to go with four rushes for 46 yards, including a 27-yard run by Dye.
Cal still wouldn’t quite go away, though, and the USC defense struggled to get stops in the second half. Plummer responded quickly with a 47-yard touchdown pass to redshirt freshman receiver Mavin Anderson, who practically walked into the end zone after USC’s secondary blew a coverage assignment. A surprise onside kick recovery later, and the Golden Bears were abruptly right back in this game.
Plummer methodically led another touchdown drive on the ensuing possession, finding Hunter for a three-yard score to cut the lead further. Cal’s quarterback was stellar all game, completing 35 of 49 passes for 406 yards, three touchdowns and an interception.
Grinch took the blame for his team’s defensive issues later in the game.
“It’s coaching. We have done a good job in the second half in the past, but we didn’t come close to that [tonight],” Grinch said. “We got to start searching high and low to find what works.”
All of a sudden, USC led by just seven points with nine minutes remaining in a game that felt eerily similar to last week’s contest at Arizona, with the defense unable to get stops late. But thankfully for USC, like in that Arizona game, Williams took over in the fourth quarter to put it away.
Well, him and Jackson.
“He runs hard, he runs aggressive,” Riley said of Jackson. “Some guys run as the aggressor, like ‘I’m going to get mine.’ And he runs like that.”
Jackson had back-to-back big gains on USC’s ensuing drive. The first was a 29-yard diving catch coming back towards Williams on a scramble and throw. The second was a crafty reverse for 19 yards that quickly put the Trojans deep in Cal territory. Four plays later, Williams rolled out again and found redshirt freshman tight end Lake McRee at the goal line, putting USC up 41-27 with 5:34 to go.
But yet again, the USC defense allowed Cal to march right back down the field and answer with a 12-play, 85-yard drive in under three minutes. A two-point conversion cut the USC lead to six with two and a half minutes left, and the Golden Bears had all three of their timeouts remaining. However, the Trojans recovered the onside kick this time and held on to win 41-35, albeit unsatisfyingly.
“We could have really separated, and we didn’t,” Riley said, citing mistakes in all three phases of the game. “If you’re winning, you’re doing more good than bad. We just got to do more good and eliminate some of the bad football.”
USC improves to 8-1 overall and 6-1 in Pac-12 play, while Cal falls to 3-6, 1-5 in conference play. The Trojans have a short week coming up, as they will remain at home to face Colorado on Friday, November 11 at 6:30 p.m.