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USC vs Alabama Score and Recap: Tide Roll Big Over Trojans
Saturday night’s USC vs Alabama game was supposed to be the main event in a great weekend for college football. It turned out to be a romp for the Crimson Tide, 52-6.
The lowdown: The Trojans got out to a red-hot start on Saturday night at AT&T Stadium, driving 46 yards down the field to set up a field goal, on the back of a spectacular catch from senior wide receiver Darreus Rogers. Defensively, they controlled Alabama.
When the first quarter was all said and done, USC out-gained the Tide 78 to 12 and didn’t seem close to letting up on the defensive side of the ball.
But a missed opportunity –a three-play, negative-three-yard drive following a Jalen Hurts fumble — did them in.
The true freshman quarterback settled in and the Trojans never seemed to do a thing on offense from then on out.
The boat race was on, as Alabama scored 38-straight points while USC punted or turned the ball over on 10-straight drives.
Alabama finished with 465 yards of offense as they cruised to an easy, 52-6 victory. It was an historic defeat for the Trojans, up there with a 51-0 loss to Notre Dame in 1966.
The takeaway: USC was always going to be facing an uphill battle against an Alabama team coming off of four national championships in seven years, and two physical fronts on both sides of the ball.
But losing 52-6 is brutal in every way possible.
Sep 3, 2016; Arlington, TX, USA; Alabama Crimson Tide head coach Nick Saben (right) shakes hands with USC Trojans head coach Clay Helton before the game at AT&T Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Kirby Lee-USA TODAY Sports
There are positives, including better-than-expected play from the defensive line, a fully healthy Cam Smith making plays, Leon McQuay possibly having the game of his life and Alabama not being a conference game. Unfortunately for the Trojans however, they got beat down in a way that hasn’t been seen in decades.
They didn’t score a touchdown and outside of a decent opening drive, never looked like threatening.
Band-aids don’t fix embarrassments and until USC gets back out on the field against Utah State in Week 2, there’s not much you can polish up.
And that speaks to the biggest key of all of it: The Trojans absolutely cannot let Alabama beat them twice, especially with Stanford and Utah looming on the horizon.
If USC rebounds, you forget about Week 1 and pretend it never happened. If they don’t, Saturday night was the game that ignited an implosion.
Player of the game: True freshman quarterback Jalen Hurts wasn’t expected to play for Alabama, yet he made a pivotal difference for the Crimson Tide following a rough start from quarterback Blake Barnett. He led Alabama to
Stat of the game: After tallying 90 yards on their first 16 offensive plays, USC had negative-6 yards on its next 28 plays, over 10 drives. That’s horrific.
Next on tap: Following the disastrous loss to Alabama, USC now gets the pleasurable fortune of waking bright and early next week to host Utah State at 11 am from the friendly confines of the LA Coliseum.
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