USC football throttles Rutgers to end losing streak

Friday night, the USC football team put an emphatic end to its three-game losing streak by dismantling Rutgers 42-20. It was a much-needed win for head coach Lincoln Rileys's team.

Scoring touchdowns on all four of its first-half possessions, the USC offense did something that it hadn't been able to in the last three games; give the Trojans considerable separation from their opponent.

That prevented any fourth-quarter drama or blown leads for USC, something that has been a theme in the last few weeks. In fact, the Trojans weren't even challenged in the second half.

Sure, Rutgers cut a 28-12 halftime deficit to 28-20 but no one really thought that USC was in trouble at that point given how easily the Trojan offense had been able to pick up yards and put points on the board.

In fact, after the lead shrunk to eight points, it took Miller Moss and the offense just four plays to answer with a touchdown of their own, a seven-yard designed QB run that was set up by a 70-yard catch and run by Makai Lemon who ended the game with a whopping 134 yards on just four catches.

After that, Rutgers tapped out, especially once the Scarlet Knights lost their star running back Kyle Monangai to what looked like a concussion in the second half. That rendered the Rutgers offense too impotent to keep pace with the Trojans, even though USC was playing without four starting defensive backs.

The Trojan defense bent at times but never gave up back-breaking plays. Sure, Rutger's incredibly spare QB Athan Kaliakmanis was able to throw for 313 yards, and at times he found some receivers running open against what was essentially the second-string Trojan secondary but mostly, USC's depleted defense stood its ground against an offense that was a one-man show entering the game and a no-man show once its Monangai was injured.

Ultimately, this was exactly the type of game USC needed in order to get back to feeling confident ahead of the final month of the regular season. With games still to come against Washington, Nebraska, UCLA, and Notre Dame, the Trojans needed to rediscover their winning formula against a beatable team and that's what they did on Friday night.

That formula was a clean game from Moss (who had no interceptions for the first time in five games) combined with huge chunk plays in the passing game, powerful goal-line runs from RB Woody Marks (who had three TD rushes), and a defense that didn't give up many big plays (though some were there to be had, Rutgers couldn't take advantage).

Now at 4-4 on the season and 2-4 in Big Ten play, the Trojans finally have something to feel good about for the first time in essentially a month. Perhaps the noise surrounding this program will decrease and this young team can start to put its best foot forward in November.

USC was supposed to take apart Rutgers, especially given that the Scarlet Knights had to fly across the country to play a day earlier than usual and kick off at 11 p.m. Eastern time. But then again, USC was supposed to handle teams like Maryland and Minnesota, and they couldn't do that.

That's why Friday night was a step in the right direction. Sometimes, all it takes to turn the tide for a team is a big win against a beatable opponent to get the feel-good vibes flowing once again. Hopefully, that's what the Trojans got by hammering Rutgers.