SALT LAKE CITY – Troy Williams threw for 270 yards and two touchdowns — including an 18-yard toss to Tim Patrick with 16 seconds left — to rally 24th-ranked Utah to a 31-27 victory over USC on Friday night.
Utah needed to convert a pair of fourth downs on its final 15-play, 93-yard drive to set up Patrick’s go-ahead touchdown. Zack Moss converted the latter by running for 5 yards on a fourth-and-1 play from the USC 23 with 45 seconds left. The touchdown pass came on the next play.
Patrick finished with 100 receiving yards and a touchdown on six receptions for his third 100-yard game of the season. Moss added 90 yards on 23 carries for the Utes (4-0), who won their Pac-12 opener for the second straight season.
USC redshirt freshman quarterback Sam Darnold threw for 253 yards and rushed for 41 yards and a touchdown in his first collegiate start. Justin Davis added 126 yards and a touchdown on 10 carries. It wasn’t enough to help USC (1-3) avoid its third loss to a Top 25 team in four games.
USC opened the third quarter with the same degree of offensive momentum it showed late in the second quarter. The Trojans scored on Darnold’s 8-yard keeper after a 35-yard catch by JuJu Smith-Schuster helped USC move inside the Utah 10. The touchdown gave the Trojans a 24-10 lead with 9:48 left in the third quarter.
Utah trimmed the deficit to 24-17 on the ensuing drive after narrowly avoiding a costly turnover. Armand Shyne fumbled at the goal line and offensive lineman Isaac Asiata got the ball in the midst of a pile in the end zone to preserve a Utes touchdown.
Moss came up with a big fourth-down conversion, gaining 2 yards on fourth-and-1 from the USC 12, to set up a 10-yard touchdown catch by Raelon Singleton on Utah’s next drive. It helped the Utes cut the Trojans’ lead to 27-24 with 9:45 left.
That set up Utah’s game-winning final drive.
USC struggled to hold onto the ball in the first half. The Trojans coughed up fumbles on each of their first three offensive possessions — each time after advancing into Utah territory.
The Utes cashed in on the first fumble with a 10-yard touchdown run by Williams. Utah ran 12 straight plays on the drive, culminating in Williams’ keeper on a read-option play.
USC wasted no time answering. Adoree Jackson returned the ensuing kickoff 100 yards to tie it at 7-7. Jackson also scored on a 100-yard kickoff return against Utah in 2014.
The Trojans seemed to have all the momentum when they recovered a fumble by Zack Moss after a first-down run on Utah’s next possession. But USC fumbled on back-to-back possessions to kill promising drives. Utah cashed in on the second of those USC fumbles, going ahead 10-7 on a 36-yard field goal by Andy Phillips with 6:39 left before halftime.
Once the Trojans finally held onto the ball, they made it pay off. Justin Davis ripped off a 50-yard run to set up his eventual 14-yard scoring run that gave USC its first lead at 14-10. A 32-yard field goal from Matt Boermeester extended the Trojans’ advantage to 17-10 with 35 seconds remaining in the first half.
NOTES: USC lost a fumble on three first-half drives after not losing a fumble in its first three games of the season. … Trojan RB Justin Davis rushed for 102 yards and scored a touchdown on just six carries in the first half. … Utah ran the ball on 13 consecutive plays to open the game. The Utes rushed 32 times before halftime while passing just nine times.
Grudge match. Idiots.