Eleventh-ranked USC was supposed to walk away with a victory in the annual cross-town rivalry against unrated UCLA, but it didn’t quite turn out like that.
Ronald Jones II ran for 122 yards and two touchdowns and Sam Darnold threw for 264 yards and ran for a score leading USC to a 28- 23 surprisingly narrow victory over UCLA Saturday evening at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum.
The Bruins never led. They cut the deficit to 28-23 on Josh Rosen’s 27- yard touchdown pass to Jordan Lasley with two minutes, 43 seconds to play, missing the two-point conversion on an incomplete pass by Rosen. Lasley, a junior, caught 10 passes for a career-high 204 yards.
Matt Lopes made a fair catch on JJ Molson’s onside kickoff and the Trojans ran out the clock for their 15th victory over UCLA in the 19 games between the two teams since 1999 and increased its lead in the series to 46-31- 7, not including victories in 2004 and 2005 that were vacated due to NCAA penalties. .
Rosen completed 32 of 52 passes for 421 yards and three touchdowns, had one pass intercepted and was sacked four times before a crowd announced at 82,407. Rosen has passed for more than 400 yards four times this season.
The Bruins (5-6, 3-5 Pac-12 Conference) remain one victory short of being bowl eligible. If UCLA loses to California Friday in the regular-season finale it will miss going to a bowl game in consecutive seasons for the first time since 1989 and 1990.
Darnold completed 17 of 28 passes for 264 yards, had one pass intercepted and was sacked once as USC (10-2, 8-1) won its 16th consecutive home game, the nation’s second-longest current streak behind Alabama, which has won 19 consecutive home games. The Bruins have lost nine consecutive road games.
UCLA out-gained the Trojans, 501 yards to 417, led 28-24 in first downs and 30:18-29:42 in time of possession.
The Bruins had a chance to tie the score early in the fourth quarter. Rosen threw a 43-yard pass to Lasley, advancing the ball to USC’s 26-yard line. Three plays later Soso Jamabo’s three-yard run gave UCLA a first down on the Trojans 15-yard line.
Facing third down and nine from USC’s 14-yard line, Rosen’s five-yard pass to Austin Roberts was four yards short of a first down, with Molson kicking a 26-yard field goal, cutting the deficit to 21-17 with 10:19 left.
The Trojans responded with a 10-play, 90-yard drive that consumed 4:53 with Jones running the final two yards for the touchdown with 5:19 remaining. Darnold completed all three of his passes on the drive for 54 yards.
USC benefited from a defensive holding penalty against freshman defensive back Darnay Holmes that wiped out a third down incomplete pass and gave the Trojans a first down on their own 28.
USC led 14-7 at halftime. UCLA drove to the Trojans 13-yard line on the first possession of the second half, but Marvell Tell intercepted a pass by Rosen in the end zone.
USC increased its lead to 21-7 on Darnold’s one-yard run on a five-play, 44-yard drive after that followed a 17-yard punt return by Ajene Harris. Darnold completed both his passes on the drive for 38 yards.
The Bruins responded with a seven-play, 79-yard drive on the ensuing possession which concluded with Rosen’s nine-yard touchdown pass to Lasley, one play after his 35-yard pass to Austin Roberts. Rosen was three-for-three for 52 yards on the drive, which also included a 21-yard run by Jamabo.
The Trojans opened the scoring 5:48 into the first quarter when Michael Pittman Jr. returned Stefan Flintoft’s punt 72 yards for a touchdown. Harris fooled at least six members of UCLA’s coverage team into believing he was about to catch the punt outside of the right hashmark.
Instead Pittman caught the ball just inside the left sideline ran untouched for USC’s first punt return touchdown of the season.
The Bruins tied the score on the ensuing possession on Rosen’s 11-yard touchdown pass to Lasley. Rosen completed four of five passes for 74 yards on the seven-play 80-yard drive, including a 41-yard pass to Lasley on the third play.
Velus Jones Jr. returned the ensuing kickoff 59 yards, but a personal foul penalty against Juliano Falaniko moved the ball back to the Trojans 44- yard line. Jones ran four times for 37 yards on the six-play, 56-yard drive, including a 23-yard gain two plays before his two-yard touchdown run.
Darnold was two-for-two for 28 yards, including a 15-yard completion to Deontay Burnett on the play before the touchdown
Rosen’s 32 completions moved him into second on the school’s career list with 698, passing Cade McNown, who had 694 from 1995-98. His 3,515 passing yards are the second most for a season in school history behind Brett Hundley’s 3,740 in 2012.
The victory give USC sole ownership of the South Division title. The Trojans clinched a berth in the conference’s championship game last Saturday with a 38-24 victory over Colorado, but would have tied with Arizona for the division title with a loss and victories by the Wildcats in their final two games. Arizona lost to Oregon, 48-28, Saturday.
The victory means the Trojans retain the Victory Bell, a 295-pound bell originally hung atop a Southern Pacific freight locomotive.
The bell was given to the UCLA Alumni Association in 1939. In 1941, it was taken by a group of USC students who hid it in a variety of locations for more than a year.
Following an intervention by school administrators, the student body presidents of both schools signed an agreement in 1942 providing that the winner of the football game would keep possession for the next year, a tradition that has continued, along with painting the bell’s carriage in the school color of the winner.
— City News Service