Cats can't hang with USC in 38-17 loss

Northwestern was going toe-to-toe with No. 19 USC, tied at 14 and poised to take the lead in the second quarter, when disaster struck.

An apparent Najee Story pick-6 turned into a touchback instead, and the eventual 14-point swing snuffed out any chance the Wildcats had for an upset as the Trojans coasted from there to a 38-17 victory.

You can’t say the sequence cost Northwestern the game. USC piled up 38 points and 482 yards, more than anyone generated against the Wildcats all season. They were clearly the better team.

But the Wildcats would never recover from that play and were outscored 24-3 from that point forward.

The loss was the second straight for the Wildcats (5-4, 3-3 Big Ten), who are still searching for their bowl-clinching sixth win. USC (7-2, 5-1), meanwhile, bolstered their case for a potential CFP bid.

The devastating turn of events came after defensive tackle Story dropped into coverage on a zone blitz and picked off a short Jayden Maiava throw over the middle at the USC 25. He rumbled all the way down to the 1-yard line and appeared to be stretching the ball to the goal line when Maiava, of all people, hit him and knocked the ball loose. The ball bounced into the end zone, where Braydon Brus couldn’t corral it before it went out of the back of the end zone for a touchback, giving the Trojans the ball back at the 20-yard line.

On the next snap, King Miller broke off a 55-yard run to the NU 25. Two plays after that, he scored on a 12-yard TD run. The Wildcats went from an apparent 21-14 lead to a 21-14 deficit. They never got that close again.

Maiava was masterful for the Trojans, throwing for 299 yards and two touchdowns, along with the one interception that he erased by forcing a fumble. Northwestern’s typically rock-solid defense had no answers for the Trojans’ sublime receivers: Makai Lemon, the top pass catcher in yards per game in the Big Ten, caught 11 passes for 161 yards and a score, while Ja’Kobi Lane had seven grabs for 74 yards and one TD of his own. Miller ran for 127 yards and a score.

Northwestern’s offense started off strong with two long drives but couldn’t sustain it and petered out in the second half. Preston Stone threw for 150 yards and one TD, without a turnover. Caleb Komolafe ran for 118 yards and one score, with 77 of his yards coming in the first half.

The game opened with both offenses humming. USC started things off with an 18-play, 75-yard touchdown drive that required two third- and one fourth-down conversion and took 7:14 off the clock. Maiva completed 9-of-11 passes for 66 yards, including a 7-yard TD pass to Lemon.

The Wildcats responded with a long, 7-plus minute drive of their own. Komolafe ran for 22 yards, while Stone threw for 43 on 5-of-6 passing, including a 4-yard touchdown to Griffin Wilde on third-and-goal to draw even at 7-7.

After just one possession by each team, only 45 seconds were left in the first quarter. The early pace played right into Northwestern’s hands, as they wanted to eat clock and limit possessions to keep USC’s high-powered offense idling on the sideline.

The Trojans got the first big play of the game with some trickeration on the next drive. Talk about sneaky. The Wildcats looked like they got a stop after stuffing Miller on third-and-6. But USC put backup quarterback Sam Huard out there to punt wearing the same No. 80 as regular punter Sam Johnson. He threw a 10-yard dart to Tanook Hines for a first down at the NU 44 to extend the drive.

Five plays later, Maiva rolled right under pressure, broke a tackle attempt by Aidan Hubbard and ran it in from six yards out for the touchdown and a 14-7 lead.

Northwestern, to their credit, again punched right back. Komolafe took an inside zone handoff and busted it outside for 37 yards down to the USC 2. He crossed the goal line for the score on the next play to tie the game at 14. After two drives, the Wildcat offense had 150 yards and two touchdowns.

But that’s when Story’s moment of glory transformed into a moment of anguish.

USC took a 21-14 lead into halftime and then grabbed control of the game on their first drive of the third quarter, when they went 91 yards for a touchdown to make it 28-14. The big strike was a 52-yard pass from Maiava to Lemon, and then Lane made a sensational 10-yard touchdown catch, leaping up and coming down with the ball while tightly covered by Fred Davis II.

Northwestern wouldn’t go down quietly, getting big plays from some unusual sources on the next drive to answer the Trojans. First, tight end Lawson Albright took a direct snap on fourth down and dove forward for a first down. Then, on third-and-7, Stone found Ricky Ahumaraeze down the sideline for a 32-yard pass on third-and-7 to get to the USC 12.

The Wildcats had to settle for a 33-yard field goal by Jack Olsen, however, to make it 28-17. That turned out to be Northwestern’s last points of the game.

The Trojan offense, however, just kept right on rolling, as Maiava led another long drive, this one ending on a Lemon four-yard touchdown run to make it 35-17 and put the game out of reach.

USC tacked on a chip-shot, 22-yard Ryon Sayeri field goal to produce the final score.

Northwestern takes on No. 21 Michigan next week at Wrigley Field.