USC football prepares to play Rutgers on Friday night in the Los Angeles Coliseum. You can call it a must-win game if you want to, and we won’t disagree with that, but USC isn’t playing for a championship. USC is basically playing to save face. If we want to dive into the central, essential reality of this game, we need to mention only one basic fact. It underscores the point that there is absolutely no excuse for USC to lose this game to the visiting Scarlet Knights.
What is the one essential detail to point out about Rutgers? It lost to UCLA at home. Rutgers has looked bad against less-than-great opposition. The Scarlet Knights seemed to be on their way to a decent season when they defeated Washington at home a few weeks ago, but their month of October has been a total disaster. They were blown apart by Wisconsin — a team USC handled in the second half — and have simply looked powerless in their last few games.
USC should be able to tear Rutgers to shreds. Then again, as we all know, it should have done the same to Minnesota but did not. It should have done the same to Maryland but did not. We are all waiting for this team to finally play up to its potential in a Big Ten game.
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