{"id":31411,"date":"2023-10-01T01:00:42","date_gmt":"2023-10-01T07:00:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/no-8-usc-withstands-late-colorado-rally-for-48-41-win\/"},"modified":"2026-03-31T01:40:18","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T07:40:18","slug":"no-8-usc-withstands-late-colorado-rally-for-48-41-win","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/no-8-usc-withstands-late-colorado-rally-for-48-41-win\/","title":{"rendered":"No. 8 USC withstands late Colorado rally for 48-41 win"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Southern
Southern California quarterback Caleb Williams surveys the crowd as he heads off the field after an NCAA college football game against the Colorado Saturday in Boulder. David Zalubowski\/The Associated Press<\/span>David Zalubowski<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>\n

BOULDER \u2014 It didn\u2019t take long for Caleb Williams<\/a> to realize this wasn\u2019t the same Colorado team. That Deion Sanders has brought a different vibe to the sideline, along with a host of celebrity friends.<\/p>\n

The result was all too familiar, though \u2013 another win for Southern California.<\/p>\n

Williams threw for 403 yards and tied a career high with six touchdown<\/a> passes as the eighth-ranked Trojans held off the Buffaloes 48-41 on Saturday after racing out to a big lead.<\/p>\n

Up 34-7 in the second quarter, the Trojans saw Colorado storm back to<\/a> make it a one-score game with 1:43 remaining on Shedeur Sanders\u2019 16-yard TD strike to Jimmy Horn Jr. The Trojans recovered the onside-kick attempt and Williams kneeled three times to close out the win.<\/p>\n

The Trojans (5-0, 3-0 Pac-12) improved to 17-0 all-time against the Buffaloes (3-2, 0-2), who were knocked off for a second straight week after a 3-0 start that made Deion Sanders\u2019 team the biggest story in college football.<\/p>\n

\u201cDeion and that team, they brought a lot of energy to Colorado,\u201d Williams said. \u201cIt\u2019s great. It\u2019s fun.\u201d<\/p>\n

After a two-game losing streak, Sanders insists his team is going to grow stronger.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you can\u2019t see what\u2019s coming with CU football, you\u2019ve lost your mind,\u201d the Buffaloes coach said. \u201cYou\u2019re just a flat-out hater. If you can\u2019t see what\u2019s going on and what\u2019s going to transpire over the next several months, something\u2019s wrong with you.\u201d<\/p>\n

USC picked up right where Oregon left off last week, overwhelming the 21 1\/2-point underdog Buffaloes in the first half.<\/p>\n

Williams smoothly operated the offense, completing 17 straight passes at one point. The reigning Heisman Trophy winner spread around the wealth, too, throwing TD passes to five different receivers as Coach Prime\u2019s house full of celebrity guests watched<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat kid is a flat-out baller,\u201d Sanders said.<\/p>\n

Williams also threw six TD passes on Oct. 30, 2021, against Texas Tech while at Oklahoma. He threw his first interception of the season when Cam\u2019Ron Silmon-Craig picked him off late in the third.<\/p>\n

Shedeur Sanders finished with 371 yards passing and four touchdowns, along with a 25-yard scamper for a score just before halftime. The Buffaloes fell behind by 27 after a costly interception and a blocked punt, both deep in their own territory, late in the second quarter before rallying.<\/p>\n

Sanders completed a 9-yard TD score to Omarion Miller on fourth-and-5 with 11:55 remaining to make it 48-34. USC kicker Denis Lynch had a chance to extend the lead, but his 38-yard attempt sailed wide right.<\/p>\n

\"Colorado
Colorado quarterback Shedeur Sanders, left, is stopped by Southern California linebacker Tackett Curtis (25) in the second half of an NCAA college football game Saturday, Sept. 30, 2023, in Boulder, Colo. (AP Photo\/David Zalubowski)<\/span>David Zalubowski<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Miller had seven catches for 196 yards and a score for the Buffaloes, who outgained the Trojans 564-498.<\/p>\n

\u201cToday we kind of got a glimpse of who our identity is,\u201d Shedeur Sanders said. \u201cOffensively, no matter what happens, we\u2019ve got to go out and score every drive. That\u2019s where I feel like we got our mindset in the second half. We can take that from that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Colorado lost 42-6 at No. 9 Oregon last weekend when safety Shilo Sanders, Shedeur\u2019s older brother, injured a kidney. Shilo Sanders sat out Saturday along with two-way star Travis Hunter, who missed his second game with a lacerated liver.<\/p>\n

Their presence was missed against USC\u2019s explosive offense, which has scored more than 40 points in every game this season. But highly touted defensive back Cormani McClain stepped up to help slow Williams and Co. in the second half.<\/p>\n

Former Colorado receiver Brenden Rice had two touchdown catches in his return to Boulder. Rice, who\u2019s the son of Hall of Fame receiver Jerry Rice, left for the Trojans before the 2022 season.<\/p>\n

The Buffaloes were plagued by special teams woes, with Jace Feely missing a 41-yard field goal wide left and Mark Vassett having a punt blocked<\/a> by Eric Gentry.<\/p>\n

Both miscues were turned into TD passes by Williams.<\/p>\n

\u201cI promise you at the end of the year, nobody\u2019s going to look back on this and care. They\u2019re going to look back and see it was \u2018W,'\u201d Trojans coach Lincoln Riley said.<\/p>\n

Colorado had plenty of star power at sold-out Folsom Field, with some of familiar names in the world of sports and entertainment showed up Saturday. Among the guests in the house were NBA standouts Paul Pierce and Kevin Garnett, along with pitcher CC Sabathia, receivers DeSean Jackson and Michael Westbrook, and rapper DaBaby<\/a>.<\/p>\n

DaBaby figured heavily into the weekend as he gave a motivational speech the night before the game and led the team onto the field by high-stepping along the sideline.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Williams ties career high with 6 TD passes<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":31412,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[346],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-31411","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-sports"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31411","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=31411"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31411\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":81432,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31411\/revisions\/81432"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/31412"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=31411"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=31411"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=31411"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=31411"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}