Before USC was comfortably coasting past UCLA, when the game was in the balance and the Rose Bowl crowd was still hanging onto every play, Sam Darnold showed why Saturday night was going to be a long one for the Bruins’ defense.
Facing third and nine and with the pocket quickly collapsing, Darnold ducked under UCLA’s Eli Ankou and what would have been a momentum-shifting sack. USC’s redshirt freshman quarterback then skipped a few steps to his left, squared his shoulders to the sideline while on the move and threw a dart to Deontay Burnett for 12 yards.