USC Football overcomes immense injuries for conference win on the road

USC Football came into their Week 9 matchup against Arizona down Jordan Addison, Eric Gentry, and Ralen Goforth. That wasn't too surprising, however. They had been day-to-day leading up to the game.

What was surprising, though, was that Andrew Vorhees and Korey Foreman were randomly ruled out despite there not being any talk about injuries with them leading into the game. What was even more surprising, though, was that Mario Williams was dressed and on the sideline yet somehow just didn't ever play...

The injury luck for this team couldn't have been much worse this week. Then, SC got hosed by officiating heading into the half, via the referees not stopping the clock until the ball was spotted after a 34-yard first down completion with six seconds left.

SC was going to spike the ball and kick a 27-yard field goal to go into the locker room up 7, but the referees just chose to let the clock run out before they spotted the ball. They supplied Lincoln Riley with no explanation as to why they did that. They were ripped by Riley, ripped online, and even ripped by the PAC-12 Network broadcast team.

USC Football, however, chose to Fight On and bounce back from the adversity.

USC Football ended up winning the game 45-37. They were missing two of their top three linebackers in their linebacker rotation, and their starting Rush End, yet still ended up edging out the win. Shane Lee even had a sack, as he stepped up for the linebacking core. They were down Vorhees, and even ended up losing starting Left Tackle Bobby Haskins during the game, yet still ran for 209 yards on 7.0 yards a carry.

They were down their top two receivers, yet still threw for 410 passing yards. Tahj Washington had seven catches for 118 yards and two touchdowns. He was magnificent. Kyle Ford eclipsed the 100-yard mark too, in grabbing six footballs for 114 receiving yards and a touchdown.

Guys stepped up. It goes to show that Riley really is building a true 'Next Man Up' philosophy, which was put on full display Saturday night.