In the first quarter of USC Football's highly-anticipated Pac-12 matchup with Utah, a horrendous roughing the passer call was called on Stanley Ta'ufo'ou for....well, not roughing the passer. The Pac-12 refs were back at it again, with another horrible roughing the passer call. The type of call that has been plaguing the NFL lately. Here is a look at this horrible flag:
The worst part of this flag, of course, is that the pass was picked off in the end zone by Calen Bullock. It was a great interception to set up USC with the ball again up 14-0, but instead the roughing the passer made it first down Utes at SC's 12 yard-line. Utah got another chance and scored another play later on a rushing touchdown from Micah Bernard.
FOX Color Analyst Brock Huard, who is broadcasting the game, ripped the referees to shreds. It would have been easy for USC to lay down after this incredibly influential and horrendous call. Instead, Caleb Williams rallied the troops.
He led USC to two more touchdown drives by the end of the half. He had an insane second half, finishing the half with 249 passing yards on 27 attempts, and tossing three passing touchdowns with no turnovers. He made highlight reel play after highlight reel play to make up for the free seven points for Utah.
Caleb Williams even chipped in 53 rushing yards on four carries in the first half for USC Football.
Caleb Williams battled through many more horrendous calls against USC Football, too, which made his composure to get the job done even more impressive.
There were obvious pass interference calls not being called for USC, and USC was charged a timeout at one point because they called a timeout to stop the clock before the passing play was under review and ruled back as not a reception. The refs stopped the game themselves to review the play, and overturned it as an incomplete pass, yet STILL charged SC with a timeout...
Therefore, Williams did a great job leading USC to a 28-21 advantage for the Trojans heading into the half. Hopefully there will be no more ridiculousness from the referees in the second half, in what legitimately feels like a performance where they're spiting SC for leaving their conference. Of course there's no way to prove that, but it's gotten out of hand at this point.