Losing is painful. Losing when the College Football Playoff was one win away is painful. Yet, the most painful part of USC’s loss to Utah in the Pac-12 Championship Game is simply that: the pain of the night.
USC players experienced and absorbed a lot of pain. They dropped like flies with all the injuries that befell them.
Andrew Vorhees didn’t play. That was a massive injury — as it turns out, one USC couldn’t really live with against Utah’s front seven. It created a domino effect in which Mason Murphy had to be thrown into the game at right tackle. Utah was missing Van Fillinger and Jonah Elliss, but USC missing Vorhees mattered even more.
Then came the big one, Caleb Williams being hobbled. Late in the game, Brett Neilon and Austin Jones both went down. It was a rotten night for injuries, which exposed USC’s depth. Utah ran away with the game, but this was a three-point contest with just over 10 minutes left. USC will lament lots of things about this game, but the biggest lamentation is this: We wish we had all our guys healthy.
Credit to Utah, a tough team which was uniquely suited to make the Trojans pay the price.
Reaction to this game, specifically from the vantage point of USC’s offense, unfolds below: