USC is the comeback king of college football.
The No. 15 Trojans (5-0) stormed down the field to score with 16 seconds left to beat UCLA 43-38 on Saturday night. It’s the third comeback in the final two minutes for the Trojans over five games in 2020.
This comeback took 36 seconds. UCLA (3-3) took a 38-36 lead with 52 seconds to go thanks to a 43-yard field goal by Nicholas Barr-Mira. USC returned the ensuing kickoff across midfield and QB Kedon Slovis hit WR Tyler Vaughns on a 35-yard pass on the first play of the drive to put USC in scoring position.
USC didn’t go for the game-winning field goal either. Instead of centering the ball for a kick, Slovis had Amon-Ra St. Brown in single coverage and threw an eight-yard TD to his other star receiver for tjhe game-winning score.
UCLA had a chance to win the game on a last-second Hail Mary but it fell incomplete. Players from the two teams exchanged some heated words after the game but they were quickly separated by coaches and staffers.
A wild game
It wouldn’t have been all that surprising if UCLA would have won the game with that Hail Mary. Saturday night’s battle of Los Angeles was full of twists and turns.
UCLA led for nearly 40 minutes until USC took a 36-35 lead with 8:09 to go. The Trojans had been chipping away at UCLA’s lead all night but never could fully erase it until the fourth quarter. The Trojans stopped UCLA on downs in the third quarter while trailing 28-23 but a Slovis pass was immediately deflected and intercepted. UCLA then scored a 69-yard TD on the next play when Dorian Thompson-Robinson found Greg Dulcich for the score.
That TD extended the Bruins’ lead to 12 and forced USC to keep playing catchup.
But USC is really good at coming back. The Trojans opened the season with a late comeback vs. Arizona State and then got a late score to beat Arizona. USC’s last two wins were far more comfortable, but the magic was necessary again on Saturday night.
Pac-12 South champions
The Pac-12 announced during the game that USC would play Washington for the Pac-12 title on Friday night. USC clinched the South because Colorado lost to Utah earlier in the day. Washington won the North despite having its Saturday game against Oregon canceled due to COVID-19 cases.
Will Washington be able to play against USC on Friday? No one’s sure about that. And if Washington can’t play, who will USC play? Again, no one is sure about that either. The winner of the Washington vs. Oregon game was in line to win the North had it been played.
Slovis finished the game 30-of-47 passing for 344 yards and five touchdowns with two interceptions while Vaughns had eight catches for 128 yards and a score and St. Brown had 10 catches for 73 yards and two TDs. RB Vavae Malepeai also rushed 19 times for 110 yards and a touchdown.
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