After a huge road victory over in-conference rival Stanford, the young #9 USC Trojans ran into a buzzsaw against Boston College, losing 37-31 in front of a raucous crowd in Massachusetts.
Despite jumping out to a 10-0 lead after one, USC would watch Boston College run all over them to the tune of 414 rushing yards and four rushing touchdowns (two by RB Jon Hilliman). The biggest contributor to that was their first-down rushes, on which they gained over 10 yards per carry.
In comparison, USC managed just 13 yards on 26 rushing attempts over the first three quarters, falling into a one-dimensional rut as Boston College out scored them 27-7 over the middle quarters.
The Boston College defense would continue to sit on the Trojans' running game (which would move backwards for most of the fourth quarter), as USC QB Cody Kessler would be forced to run for his life with no rushing attack to back him up.
Down 30-17, Kessler would hit WR Nelson Agholor for a ten-yard TD strike with 4:32 to cut the Eagles' lead down to 30-24.
That wouldn't last, thought, as RB Tyler Murphy would put the icing on his huge 191-yard night with a 66-yard burst for a TD to extend the lead back to 13 at 37-24. USC would pick up a desperation touchdown, but it would be too late.
In the end, the mixture of a world-class rushing performance by the Eagles along with a beyond-impressive performance by their defensive front seven was enough to pull off the upset going away.
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