LOS ANGELES -- In a blink of an eye the game flipped. A place that had caused so much pain for the better part of the last decade was beginning to be unfavorable once again for USC.
The Trojans jumped out to a 14-0 lead on Oregon State at Corvallis last Friday. It only took 14 seconds for the Beavers to tie the game 14-14 to get right back in it.
Uh-oh, here we go again.
The scene from this movie looked very familiar. There had been times this season where all it took was a couple of plays for things to spiral out of control for the Trojans.
Such an example took place in Tempe -- the last game under former head coach Lane Kiffin. USC was leading 21-20 in the third quarter. Twenty one seconds later on just two plays the Trojans were trailing 27-21. Forty seven seconds after that, they were trailing the Sun Devils 33-21 following a pick-six thrown by Cody Kessler to Arizona State defensive back Alden Darby. Their fate, sealed.
Last Friday, Kessler made two consecutive decisions that appeared to be costly against the Beavers. On a third down and eight at the Trojans 22-yard line, trying to avoid a sack, he threw the ball away while still in the tackle box and was called for intentional grounding.
Two plays later, the Trojans lead was cut to 14-7.
On USC's very next play from scrimmage, the Beavers tied the game on a pick six thrown by Kessler and returned by the Beavers' Ryan Murphy. It was a 14-14 ballgame with just under 10 minutes left in the first half.
The result that followed, however, was different from what happened on that September Saturday night in Tempe.
Not only did the Trojans respond, they did so immediately.
On the very next drive, Kessler orchestrated a 10-play, 75-yard drive that took four minutes and 44 seconds off of the clock and resulted in a Buck Allen 18-yard touchdown run allowing the Trojans to regain the lead, 21-14.
"I think that was the turning point in our new five-game season so far," interim head coach Ed Orgeron said.
In all, USC scored 17 unanswered points in their 31-14 win -- the first for the program at Oregon State since 2004.
Earlier this season, USC likely would have left Reser Stadium with a different outcome. In preparing the team for the trip, Orgeron tried to get the them ready for everything that they would face.
The chainsaws that are famous in Corvallis were blasted all week.
"We played that chainsaw about 100 times if we could," Orgeron said. "We played it in the meetings. We played it on the field. We played as much loud noise as we could."
In addition to that, he told the team to stick together no matter what happened on the field and assured them they would be able to handle anything the Beavers threw their way.
In the end, he was right.
