The eyes of Los Angeles were elsewhere, the city’s focus trained five miles up the 110 Freeway. The rest of the country, meanwhile, had presumably drifted off to sleep, unenthused by the late-night football between two bottom-half Big Ten teams.
But after three weeks spent unraveling for all the world to see, USC returned to a sparsely-filled Coliseum Friday night with its confidence shaken and egos bruised amid a three-game slump, only to do some of its best work of the season during a 42-20 win over Rutgers.
Whether anyone was actually watching as USC stopped the bleeding from its brutal month spent criss-crossing the country was of little concern.