The USC Trojans travel to take on the Stanford Cardinal on Saturday, Sept. 8 in hopes of claiming early supremacy in the Pac-12.
Both the USC Trojans and Stanford Cardinal were likely hoping for more emphatic starts to their respective 2018 campaigns. Granted, neither team was up against a true cupcake in their Week 1 matchup with the Trojans facing UNLV and the Cardinal taking on San Diego State. Having said that, both teams seemingly left a lot to be desired with their performances.
For the Trojans, they trotted out true freshman JT Daniels as their starting quarterback against the Rebels and, without question, the youngster showed promise. Daniels finished the day going 22-of-35 for 282 yards and a touchdown (and, more importantly, no interceptions).
It was the ground game, however, that really vaulted the Trojans to the win with the trio of Aca’Cedric Ware (100 yards, one touchdown), Stephen Carr (54 yards) and Vavae Malepeai (47 yards, two touchdowns) leading the offensive charge to a 43-21 victory. Even still, conceding 21 points and showing hiccups on offense gives some slight cause for early-season concern.
The issues for the Cardinal may have been even more troubling, though. Yes, quarterback K.J. Costello may have played one of the best games of his life, going 21-of-31 for 332 yards and four touchdowns, and wideout JJ Arcega-Whiteside was a monster with six catches for 226 yards and three scores. What’s concerning is that Bryce Love was a complete non-factor.
After finishing second in the Heisman Trophy voting last season, Love looked worse than pedestrian last week against San Diego State, toting the ball 18 times for a meager 29 yards. For this offense and team to reach their potential, that’s not going to be enough from such a critical part of their offense.
In the second week of action, USC and Stanford now kick off Pac-12 play with a date against one another. After what transpired in their season-openers, both teams have something to prove. But maybe the most important thing for both to prove is that they are more contender than pretender at this point in the young season.
TV Schedule
Date: Saturday, Sept. 8
Start Time: 8:30 p.m. ET
Location: Stanford, CA
Stadium: Stanford Stadium
TV Info: FOX
Live Stream: FuboTV, FOX Sports Go
According to OddsShark, the Cardinal enter this game as the favorites, but by less than a touchdown. Given the proximity of these two Pac-12 rivals in the Top 25 poll, that would stand to reason. However, what’s interesting is that the odds also indicate that this could be a relatively high-scoring affair given the Over/Under line.
Betting Odds
Point Spread: Stanford -6
Moneyline: Stanford -230, USC +190
Over/Under: 56
Prediction
What we saw from Stanford against San Diego State last week isn’t going to be enough against the USC defense. While the Trojans showed some flaws against UNLV last week, they have too much talent on every level of the defense for Costello to air it out and Arcega-Whiteside to dominate in the manner that they did a week ago. Thus, this game for the Cardinal could really come down to whether or not Love is able to bounce back.
With explosive speed and talent, the potential for that to happen is there. With that said, the Trojans are surely going to be zeroing in on how to stifle the running back, namely keeping him from getting into space. With a playmaker the caliber of linebacker Cameron Smith in the middle, that’s seems like it could be in the cards for the Trojans.
Daniels might experience some growing pains, but I simply have more faith in the overall offensive arsenal of the Trojans to find success against the Cardinal defense than the reverse. At the end of the day, USC should emerge in a hard-fought battle as the early kings of the Pac-12.
Final Score: USC Trojans 27, Stanford Cardinal 21