Defense finally flips script
Tuipulotu and Co. take command in USC’s victory, which is tempered by loss of star back Dye for season.
The final dress rehearsal was dragging, the last kinks still being ironed out ahead of next week’s consequential crosstown showdown, when Tuli Tuipulotu burst around the edge and closed the curtains on Colorado himself.
Little about the past month, outside of the No. 8 affixed next to its name, had suggested USC was ready for the bright lights and big stage that awaited next week at the Rose Bowl. In consecutive games, California and Arizona had pushed the Trojans to the brink. Now Colorado, a Pac-12 doormat and one of the worst teams in college football, was pushing them around, too.
It wasn’t until Tuipulotu forced his way into a collapsing pocket and flung the football loose during Friday’s second quarter that USC found the nerve to push back. It kept pushing and pushing and pushing from there, until its backups applied one final shove for good measure in a resounding 55-17 victory.
After a frustrating first quarter, USC’s oft-maligned defense turned in one of its most impressive performances in months, albeit against a team that has scored fewer than 128 other teams this season. It held Colorado to 158 yards over the final three quarters, notched three sacks and forced two turnovers.
Considering where its defense had been in recent weeks, USC might’ve come away encouraged by its easiest victory in months, if its star running back hadn’t left the field Friday night on an injury cart.
Travis Dye had been one of the strongest voices in the Trojans’ locker room all season, each week offering up a new pregame speech to inspire the team. But as he lay on the grass during Friday’s second quarter, cradling his left leg, the Coliseum crowd was silent. The USC sideline emptied as he was loaded onto an injury cart, and the
crowd roared as the cart rolled up the tunnel.
Afterward, USC coach Lincoln Riley would confirm the worst: Dye won’t be returning again this season.
“It just sucks. There’s no other way to put it,” Riley said. “He was one of the key cogs in this team.”
And now, with its most critical stretch ahead, USC will have to forge on without the engine of its offense and the soul of its locker room. Its first test? Matching the top rushing offense in the Pac-12.
“Now we get a chance to reset,” Riley said, “and play those guys across town.”
It won’t be easy from here, even if USC made it look as such on Friday. Dye’s injury still loomed over the rest of Friday, even as USC continued to roll along without its running back. Whether it will be able to move the ball as well next week without him would be another question.
If it has any hope of outlasting UCLA and Notre Dame, after that — Caleb Williams will almost certainly have to carry an even heavier load than usual. He wasn’t at his best on Friday, just barely completing 50% of his passes (14 of 26) for 268 yards and three touchdowns.
It’ll be up to Austin Jones, too, to fill the void in USC’s backfield. He finished with 113 all-purpose yards and a touchdown after stepping in for Dye. Both will have to be at their best against a stingy UCLA defense.
Nothing about USC was its best to start. Williams and the USC offense opened out of sorts. Two of the Trojans’ first three drives ended in threeand-outs. The other ended with a Colorado interception, wrestled from the hands of receiver Brenden Rice.
The pick was just Williams’ second of the season — and only the second turnover for the Trojans this season. Still, it ended up yielding more points than any other USC drive in the opening quarter. On the next play, with pressure bearing down, Colorado quarterback J.T. Shrout threw away a pass from the end zone while still in the pocket. Intentional grounding was called, and two points were put up, courtesy of USC’s defense.
After a frustrating start, the Trojans trailed Colorado, 3-2. Their offense had just eight yards, and their quarterback had completed just one for six passes for two yards. But those would flip in a flash after that, as Williams hit Kyle Ford once to convert on thirdand-long, then again. The spark was enough to kickstart USC’s offense, which mounted a 12-play drive, capped by a Williams’ keeper for a two-yard touchdown.
The sack and forced fumble from Tuipulotu gave the ball back to USC’s offense. Barely two minutes after his first score, Williams was left unattended again, strolling untouched into the end zone for a second, extending a lead over Colorado that would quickly grow from there.
But the sequence of scores was merely subtext in light of Dye’s injury. As he left the field on the cart, his left leg in a cast in the wake of USC’s victory, he waved to fans gathered around the tunnel. They roared in appreciation, knowing just how much they’d lost.