Opener is over early for overmatched, overwhelmed USC
ARLINGTON, Texas — USC’s players sat slumped on the bench. One threw his head back and kept it there, as if in a daze. Some gazed, transfixed, at AT&T Stadium’s humongous Jumbotron.
It was the third quarter. It was all but the end of the game for USC in a 52-6 shellacking by Alabama.
At the moment, the video board was showing very large replays of very large mistakes. The most recent: a cornerback and safety both blitzing, erroneously, to give Alabama the easiest of its seven touchdowns, a 71-yard cakewalk.
At other points, there was Jabari Ruffin, who stomped on the groin of a downed opponent and was ejected . . . a punt snap that was dropped . . . an interception returned for an Alabama touchdown . . . an offensive line dominated by Alabama’s front seven . . . and a USC defense that packed it in for the second half.
And so an unhappy road trip — in which one USC player had been suspended amid sexual assault allegations and a second player was sent home for the same — ended with on-field embarrassment, administered by the defending national champions.
It was the worst season-opening loss in USC history, its worst loss in any game since a 51-0 loss to Notre Dame in 1966 and the first time USC failed to score a touchdown since
1997. USC Coach Clay Helton dropped to 0-3 since being named the full-time coach.
“That’s on me, to be honest with you,” Helton said, citing the bevy of mistakes.
In the locker room, he told his team, “One game does not define us,” according to cornerback Adoree’ Jackson.
The happiest man in the stadium may have been Lane Kiffin, who was fired by USC early one 2013 morning at Los Angeles International Airport after a loss at Arizona State.
Kiffin marched onto the field, stone-faced, during pregame warmups Saturday wearing a white visor, white oversized windbreaker and pale khakis. He was flanked by an Alabama state trooper. He walked off, moments later, tossing candy to USC fans seated above the tunnel.
Kiffin’s countenance betrayed little of his feelings toward his former employer. The game plan he developed with Alabama Coach Nick Saban, however, did. Early on, he loaded the Crimson Tide’s offense with gadgets — bubble screens, end arounds and shovel passes. Saban subbed in a freshman, Jalen Hurts, a surprise option at quarterback, in the middle of the first quarter.
“I was wondering to myself, was this a good plan or a bad plan?” Saban said.
Kiffin and Saban were overthinking. It took them a quarter and a half to realize Alabama’s talent was simply overwhelming.
USC’s offense, meanwhile, found little more than suffering and despair, no matter what it tried. The Trojans generated just 64 yards on the ground behind their vaunted offensive line.
USC, led by a spirited early defense, teased in the first quarter. It actually led, 3-0, heading into the second.
Then it collapsed. Cornerback Iman Marshall lost his receiver, ArDarius Stewart, and Hurts dropped a 39-yard touchdown pass into his arms.
Then USC’s defensive line broke, whiffing on Damien Harris, who scampered 46 yards to set up a field goal.
One mistake bled into the next. Ruffin was ejected on the ensuing kickoff. Two plays later, Max Browne, making his first start as USC’s quarterback, threw a pass that bounced off receiver Deontay Burnett and fell, like a piece of pregame candy, into the hands of Marlon Humphrey, who returned it for a touchdown. The rout was on. The 71-yard touchdown pass to Stewart, on which Marshall and safety Chris Hawkins both blitzed, opened the second half. Alabama followed with two breezy Hurts touchdown runs, a Bo Scarbrough run (on fourth down, with Alabama up 32 points) and Blake Barnett’s 45-yard touchdown pass.
The wreckage: Alabama outgained USC, 465 yards to 194. Alabama averaged 7.4 yards per play, USC 2.9. Alabama’s Harris ran for 138 yards in just nine carries. Ronald Jones II led USC with 46 yards in seven carries. It was, Saban said, an off day for Alabama.
“If you want to know the truth about it,” he said, “I wasn’t pleased with the way we played.”
USC’s fiercely contested quarterback battle, in which Browne won the job over Sam Darnold, was mostly moot. No matter the passer, USC couldn’t move the ball.
Browne exhibited confidence, control and rhythm early. He completed his first seven passes. Then, Alabama blanketed his receivers, as if magnetized. He finished 14 for 29 for 101 yards.
JuJu Smith-Schuster, who last season was targeted on one of every three passes, caught just one pass. He was scarcely targeted.
“They just bracketed him the whole night,” Browne said.
Midway through the third quarter, USC gave Darnold a try, “just to get some experience,” Helton said. Helton said Browne’s status isn’t in question. The problem was less the passer than that there was no one to pass it to, and not enough time to find anyone. Darnold finished four for eight.
Not that he could’ve made a difference by then. Most of the defense, too, had all but decided to head for the buses.
Jackson was one of the last to give up. He chased down two would-be touchdowns, including a 73-yard scamper by Harris.
Harris got up, laughed and shook his head at Jackson, as if amused that someone had made Alabama work for something.