Utah Took Down USC In A 43-42 Thriller On A Late Touchdown And Two-Point Conversion

USC entered Saturday night’s trip to Utah as a 3.5-point underdog despite being ranked 7th in the country at 6-0, as the Utes playing at home figured to be their biggest test yet.

Early on, it looked like we might see another USC boatrace, as they jumped ahead 21-7, but Utah’s offense would start to settle in and make things a 28-21 game at the half. Utah quickly tied it up in the third quarter and from there the two teams traded blows, with USC taking the lead back each time the Utes tied it up, like in the fourth quarter when Cam Rising’s second rushing touchdown of the game was answered almost immediately by Caleb Williams’ fifth touchdown pass of the night.

At that point, Utah had two options to have a chance at winning, it felt. The first was to score quickly enough that USC would score too quickly and give them the last possession. The second was to grind out a drive and leave as little time on the clock as possible, and they achieved that in a bit more stressful of a fashion as they’d hoped, punching it in with Rising on the ground again with 48 seconds left.

Wisely, recognizing that they weren’t stopping USC’s offense and playing for OT was a bit foolish, the Utes lined up to go for two and, once again, it was Rising using his legs after USC covered up his receivers to push Utah ahead for the first time all night, 43-42.

From there, USC had a long kick return called back for holding and started at their 20, facing a sea of black shirts and a wall of noise, leading to an immediate false start.

Williams would then throw what appeared to be a game-sealing pick, but got a reprieve with a pass interference flag — with USC getting an even bigger break by a referee making an errant timeout signal on the field that gave them almost 10 extra seconds on the clock after review. However, Utah’s defense finally bowed up and wouldn’t give up a big play, eventually forcing Williams into a last second heave on the run that didn’t make it anywhere close to the end zone from 60-plus yards away to give Utah a non-upset upset win, moving them to 5-2 and back in the hunt for the Pac-12 South title.

For USC, their defensive woes finally resulted in a loss, as Williams’ monster night was in vain as he went for 381 yards and five touchdowns in defeat. On Utah’s side, Rising was equally sensational, throwing for 415 yards and two touchdowns while rushing for 60 yards and three more scores. Rising’s favorite target on the night was Dalton Kincaid, as the tight end showed out with 16 catches for 234 yards and a touchdown, as he terrorized the USC defense all night.

It was a fittingly chaotic end to a chaotic day in college football (and sports in general), as No. 7 USC joined No. 3 Alabama as Playoff contenders to suffer their first loss of the season on the road against a conference rival.