Arlington, TX- Alabama’s miscues couldn’t stop the Crimson Tide after they started going downhill. The No 1 team in the nation Rolled past the USC Trojans 52-6. The Tide were lead by True Freshman quarterback Jalen Hurts who came off the bench to make the offense click.
This highly anticipated contest had some many story lines and ways it could go from fired USC coach Lane Kiffin now Alabama offensive coordinator, to who will start at quarterback for Alabama, are they really No 1 team in the nation, can USC 10 returning starters on offensive outscore Alabama?
After the first quarter of play the Trojans hopeful were feeling ok with 3-0 lead and three quarters left to play. By then Alabama coach Nick Saban made his best decision of the night entering in Hurts to replace Blake Barnett. He fumbled first snap from center but then exploded for 2 touchdown pass & 2 rushing touchdowns for total of 150 yards.
USC offense couldn’t find its rhythm against the big front seven of Alabama who held them to 194 total yards. The running game was nonexistent which allowed the Tide to remain in their base defense and not adjust with eight men in the box. So their game plan worked, shut down JuJu Smith-Schuster with coverage underneath and over the top. Then still had seven in the box to stop the running game.
Saban was still not satisfied with his team big win, ” “We scored a lot of points, made a lot of big plays, but still our consistency in execution needs to be much improved…”
USC big play came from senior wide receiver Darreus Rogers who showed his vertical jump to bring down a critical catch and finish with team high 45 yards. Smith-Schuster was held to one catch for 9 yards. Their offense will have to find away to get their playmakers evolved earlier and frequently to make an impact.
USC will host Utah State back at the Coliseum next Saturday September 10th at 11am pst. This will give the Trojans the opportunity to get this bad taste out of their mouth.
