Michigan scores late to defeat USC in physical Big Ten opener

It seemed, at first, like just the sort of old-fashioned Big Ten welcome that would have made Bo Schembechler swoon. Two defenses swarming to the ball. Two rushing attacks grinding away, one yard, two yards, three yards at a time. Two coaches wary of the forward pass. And in the wreckage stood USC, the new Big Ten team on the block, forced into a foreign style of football at the start of a new era.

This was not, however, the sort of game Lincoln Riley had hoped to wind up in for USC’s Big Ten debut, with his new quarterback under heavy attack and his new defense holding on for dear life and the game’s every beat dictated by the defending national champs.

Even still, a fourth-quarter forced fumble helped give the Trojans a lead late, one that appeared, for a moment, insurmountable for a one-dimensional Michigan offense incapable of piling up more than a few dozen yards through the air. But then Michigan’s Kalel Mullings took a third-down handoff and kept running, through one tackle, then another, then another. He rumbled and spun his way into scoring position 63 yards, erasing any hope that had been there just a few minutes before for USC.

Instead, here was Michigan — a team that could barely pass more than the five yards downfield—– inside the two-yard-line with 37 seconds remaining. And here was USC’s defense, victim of another big play, huffing and puffing, before Mullings burst into the end zone once again, handing the Trojans a 27-24 defeat.

“We had a couple opportunities to close the door,” Riley said. “But we finished one play short.”

It all turned so quickly. Only a few minutes earlier, it seemed a herculean, second-half effort might be enough for USC to survive its first new conference test. Until Mullings burst through the second level on that final drive, the Trojans had held Michigan’s offense to seven total yards after halftime.

Linebacker Eric Gentry had even punched out a fumble on the previous drive, giving USC the ball inside the red zone to cap off his 12-tackle performance. The Trojans quickly took advantage, as Miller Moss found Ja’Kobi Lane with a daring pass between two defenders for a touchdown that appeared to put the game away.

But a back-breaking big run once again derailed what was otherwise a stifling second-half defensive performance. Mullings had already sprinted 53 yards for a first-quarter touchdown, only to be followed shortly after by fellow back Donovan Edwards, who broke off a 41-yard score in the second quarter.

The three explosive scampers were nearly all the offense Michigan could muster. It averaged just three yards on their other 55 plays.

That, as it turned out, was all they needed.

“It was just better execution by them,” linebacker Easton Mascarenas-Arnold said. “We had all the fight. It wasn’t that they wanted it more than us. That was a four-quarter fight. But when it comes down to big games like this, you’ve got to execute.”

It didn’t help that USC’s offense opened the game unable to move the ball more than a few inches, content to match Michigan in its attempt to muck up the game and grind away on the ground. One team just did it better as Michigan had 199 rushing yards to USC’s minus-16 at half.

Riley certainly should’ve known that’s how the game might unfold, having been given a full five days to plan for a new quarterback who’d thrown only seven total passes coming into Saturday. Alex Orji ultimately threw for just 32 yards in his first start, while Michigan punted eight times.

USC was unable to take advantage. After three possessions, two of which went backward, the Trojans had just three total yards.

“The defense played their ass off the entire game,” Moss said. “We didn’t help them out much early on.”

Moss did what he could to power USC’s offense after that slow start. When the Trojans finally came to life late in the second quarter, it was because of Moss’ poise in a crumbling pocket.

He finished with 283 yards and three touchdowns, but his biggest mistake haunted the Trojans the rest of the way. After cutting the lead to four with a touchdown pass to Duce Robinson, USC’s defense forced a three-and-out, giving the Trojans a chance to steal Michigan’s momentum.

Instead, Moss handed it right back, throwing his first pick-six to All-American Michigan cornerback Will Johnson.

“I feel like I cost our team in a big way,” Moss said. “You can’t do that against a good team. I have to be a lot better.”

The same, too, could be said of a USC defensive front that allowed 290 yards on the ground. Or a coach whose play-calling was repeatedly called into question Saturday, including in the fourth quarter.

One blemish in the Big Ten, against the three-time defending conference champs, will hardly sink USC’s College Football Playoff hopes, in the same way that three big rushing plays won’t define the progress of the Trojans’ retooled defense.

But Saturday was a rude welcome for USC, nonetheless, to a conference that’s content to bully the new kid on the block.

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This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.