BOULDER, Colo. – Junior quarterback Caleb Williams threw for 403 yards and six touchdowns to lead No. 8 USC to a 48-41 victory over Colorado Saturday at Folsom Field.
The win kept USC (5-0, 3-0 Pac-12) unbeaten against Colorado (3-2, 0-2 Pac-12) since the Buffaloes joined the Pac-12, extending the Trojans’ overall record against them to 17-0.
“You’d obviously love to finish it and separate it more, but you put yourself in those moments and you get used to the adversity a little bit because it’s coming,” head coach Lincoln Riley said, referencing USC’s upcoming schedule against highly ranked opponents. “This is road football. … We’re a team that gets circled every single week.”
USC may have entered the game favored by 22 points, but Colorado junior quarterback Shedeur Sanders bet otherwise, throwing for four touchdowns and 371 yards. He also ran for a team second-best 50 yards.
Coming off of a 42-6 loss at Oregon, the Buffaloes needed to “lock in” to not let last week’s crushing defeat against a ranked opponent repeat itself, according to Sanders.
Despite the loss, Colorado first-year head coach Deion Sanders praised his team for battling back in the second half.
“They were resilient,” Deion Sanders said. “They did not give up when they had multiple, multiple opportunities to give up.”
With less than three minutes left in the first half, USC led 34-7, dominating on all sides of the ball while holding Colorado to 163 total yards before the Buffaloes’ final drive of the half.
In its final possession, Colorado quickly drove the ball 83 yards down the field, culminating in a 25-yard wide-open rush down the middle for Shedeur Sanders with 21 seconds left before halftime.
Riley said that touchdown gave Colorado momentum leading into halftime, contributing to the games’ final score being so close.
“We were suffocating them,” Riley said. “That gave them life.”
Before then, the game was all USC, with Williams’ finding different receivers for each of his four touchdown passes in the half.
For USC’s first passing touchdown, Williams connected with a wide-open Tahj Washington for a 71-yard score, the redshirt senior receiver’s fifth of the season. The Trojans led 21-0 as Williams hit junior receiver Dorian Singer for an 8-yard touchdown following a blocked punt by USC junior linebacker Eric Gentry.
Williams later connected with one of his favorite targets, senior receiver Brenden Rice, for a 26-yard score. Rice, who is in his second year at USC after transferring from Colorado, leads the Trojans with seven touchdowns.
Rice admitted he “kind of had butterflies” prior to his homecoming, but he seemed to settle in just fine. He finished the game with 81 yards and two touchdowns, his second coming on a short pass from Williams in the third quarter.
“Caleb’s gonna go ahead and spread the ball out to each and everybody, so you have to go ahead and make sure you make the most of those moments,” Rice said.
In the second half, Colorado outscored USC 27-14, pulling the game within seven late following a touchdown pass by Sanders with 1:43 left to play.
Colorado, however, was criticized in its final drive for taking extra time to switch plays prior to snapping the ball, allowing valuable seconds to tick away.
“I’d rather take our time rather than have a negative play,” Shedeur Sanders said. “That goes on me for not controlling the offense and not controlling everybody knowing what to do in that specific play.”
Riley blamed USC’s second-half lapse on his team’s inability to keep up its first-half momentum.
“They made plays, and we kind of didn’t,” Riley said. “When you stop doing that, especially on the road against a good team that has some talent like they do, they’re gonna make a run. And they did.”
Redshirt senior safety Bryson Shaw called the defense’s second-half performance “embarrassing,” allowing plays that should have been short gains to go for 20 yards or more.
“Coach Grinch put us in the right spots,” Shaw said of USC defensive coordinator Alex Grinch. “I think we let him down at this point, but I have full faith in our defense.”
Riley agreed that he still has faith in Grinch, but the team still has much to work on and learn from.
“We’re going to own the mistakes; we’re going to own the good,” Riley said. “We’re going to go back to work and get ready to get back home to the Coli.”