– by Adesina O. Koiki
A Lot of Sports Talk editor-in-chief
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LOS ANGELES — The only thing that was as wet as the field inside the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum amidst the driving rain was USC’s College Football Playoff hopes, as a first half to forget against a Big Ten program used to sloppy conditions saw little to convince many in the stands that a comeback was in the works. But then the Trojans embraced the mud, got dirty in it while digging in their cleats, and proceeded to come away with one of the signature wins in the Lincoln Riley era in Los Angeles.
Jayden Maiava passed for 254 yards and a touchdown while Bryan Jackson rushed for two scores as No. 17 USC scored the final 19 points of the game to overcome the elements and No. 21 Iowa 26-21 on Saturday afternoon. Makai Lemon had 10 catches for 153 yards and a second-half touchdown for the Trojans, who have won four straight Big Ten games for the first time since joining the league a season ago.
“We don’t want to play catch-up,” Maiava said. “But this is a really dominant group, and we’re going to go out there and get the job done ourselves.”
Iowa thoroughly dominated the first 30 minutes, and did so in conditions that a Midwest-based school would love: driving rain and wet footing, slowing down the Trojans’ speed while providing a boon to the Hawkeyes’ ground game. Iowa scored touchdowns on three of its first four drives, the last one capped off by its version of a Philly Special, where quarterback Mark Gronowski caught a touchdown pass from wide receiver Reece Vander Zee from five yards out to give the Hawkeyes a 21-7 lead with 3:24 remaining in the second quarter.
Facing its largest deficit of the season, the Trojans leaned on Maiava and Lemon, the latter producing his fourth game of at least 150 receiving yards and a touchdown this season — and a defense that was able to slow down the Hawkeyes running game and held Iowa to just 108 total yards after halftime.
Ryon Sayeri field goals from 44 and 28 yards on drives each side of halftime cut the Trojans’ deficit to eight, then USC forced a stop and, on the following possession, Maiava found Lemon in the end zone from 12 yards out to cut Iowa’s lead to 21-19 after a missed two-point conversion. The Trojans’ other star receiver, Ja’Kobi Lane, caught a 14-yard pass from Maiava on a third-and-7 on the play immediately before the touchdown.
After Lemon’s score, USC defensive tackle Jahkeem Stewart intercepted a deflected pass in Iowa territory, leading to Jackson’s go-ahead score on the third play of the fourth quarter.
USC, now 8-2 and 6-1 in Big Ten play, plays its final two games of the regular season in the Pacific Time Zone, including a monumental showdown next weekend in Autzen Stadium against No. 8 Oregon. The crosstown rivalry with UCLA follows the next week in the Coliseum.
*Editor’s note: Above the byline is the photo gallery from Thursday evening’s game, with photos taken by staff photographer Elliott Brown. After clicking on a photo to enlarge the picture, press the left and right arrow buttons on either side of the caption to scroll through the rest of the pictures that appear on the first page, Also, click on the numbers and/or arrow appearing immediately below the picture grid to load the next set of photos. There are 33 pictures in total.
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