No. 22 USC routed by Texas in game that spirals out of control

Following a frustrating loss to Stanford last week, No. 22 USC looked to rebound against Texas on Saturday. Instead, the Trojans’ struggles continued in a game that slowly snowballed out of control and ended in a 37-14 loss to the Longhorns at Texas Memorial Stadium.

USC jumped out to a 14-3 advantage in the first quarter, but Texas reeled off 34 unanswered points to turn the game into a blowout. Freshman quarterback JT Daniels completed 30-of-48 passes for 322 yards, but did not throw a touchdown pass as the offense was shut down in the last three quarters. The Trojans lost back-to-back games by more than 10 points for the first time since 2000.

The Trojans’ first drive began eerily similar to that of the Stanford game. Early penalties put the Longhorns in a good place to halt USC’s offensive efforts, but big gains through the air to receivers redshirt sophomore Velus Jones Jr. and freshman Amon-Ra St. Brown put the Trojans at Texas’ 23-yard line. Running back Stephen Carr capped off the drive on the ground to draw first blood for the Trojans.

At the start of the second quarter, the Longhorns reached the end zone for the first time as the result of a 40-yard gain due to a missed tackle by redshirt senior cornerback Ajene Harris. Texas regained possession on an interception by senior defensive back Kris Boyd, and again USC was able to hold UT to a field goal to reduce USC’s lead to just 1 point.

The Trojans fired back with a quick drive of their own. Another drive sparked by a big 41-yard aerial gain, that very well could have been broken up, to St. Brown placed the Trojans on the Texas 9-yard line. But Carr was stopped on fourth down, leaving the Trojans with no points at the end of a 76 yard drive.

However after pinning the Longhorns on their own goal line, the Trojans committed a costly 15-yard roughing the punter penalty that would extended drive another four downs. A big second down sack by senior linebacker Porter Gustin helped USC end the drive, forcing Texas to punt the ball away.

The half ended with a field goal from freshman kicker Cameron Dicker to give Texas its first lead of the night with the Trojans trailing, 16-14.

At half, it was evident that the Trojans needed to prevent Texas from extending drives. The USC defense had done a solid job of limiting completions from Ehlinger — ending the first half with a completion rate of just 7-17 compared to Daniels’ 16-27 — although Ehlinger had gained 132 yards compared to Daniels’ 199.

Texas opened the second half with the same hurry-up offense the Trojans saw in the first half. USC took a huge loss after Gustin was ejected for a targeting foul following a big hit on Ehlinger. Gustin will be inactive for the first half of of USC’s game against Washington State next week due to the foul, which sparked a Longhorn touchdown on a 27-yard pass to freshman receiver Joshua Moore, extending the lead to 23-14.

It looked as if Texas was going to run away with another 7 points on its next possession, but USC found a breath of fresh air in a stripped ball from sophomore safety C.J. Pollard which was recovered by junior defensive end Christian Rector. A 53-yard bomb to St. Brown seemed to give USC a good chance of scoring, but everything went wrong for USC when Texas blocked the attempt and returned the ball for a touchdown to increase their lead over the Trojans.

The game continued to spiral out of the Trojans’ hands after a quarterback-keeper from Ehlinger resulted in a touchdown for Texas’ sixth unanswered score. The Trojans failed to find any form of productive offense for the remainder of the game.

USC’s play was riddled with penalties. Ten penalties, most of which were easily preventable, put a USC comeback out of reach for the entire second half.

A notable change between last week’s matchup with Stanford was the Mater Dei duo of Daniels and St. Brown. Against Texas, St. Brown recorded nine receptions on 11 targets for 167 yards. This is in stark comparison to the Stanford game in which he had just two receptions on four targets for 39 yards.

The Trojans were also unable to produce yards on the ground as the “three-headed monster” only ran for 24 yards.

The Trojans will likely drop out of the AP Top 25 poll after falling to a 1-2 record. They return to home next week for a Friday night matchup against Washington State.

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