Holiday Bowl Review: USC’s Miller Moss shines in victory over Louisville
DirectTV Holiday Bowl – Petco Park, San Diego
Louisville 28 – 42 USC
USC had a glimpse of their potential future at QB when they made their way to San Diego to clash with the number fifteen ranked Louisville Cardinals at Petco Park. Louisville hoped to bounce back from their ACC championship game defeat to Florida State and take advantage of a USC team on five game losing streak. USC backup QB Miller Moss had other ideas.
Moss stepped in for Caleb Williams, who opted out of the game along with twenty-one other USC players who have declared for the draft or entered the transfer portal, including Brendan Rice and Marshawn Lloyd, and showed the nation why he should be the starting QB for the Trojans next season with a record-breaking performance in his first collegiate start.
In a game that was vaunted as a clash between Louisville’s rampant run game and USC’s electric aerial offense it was the passing game that came out on top. Moss demonstrated poise and precision as he accounted for 372-yards and six passing touchdowns setting a new USC, PAC-12 and Holiday Bowl record for TDs in a bowl game. USC found themselves 7-0 down after a slow start that included a three and out and a missed field goal. But then Moss turned on the gas, finding receiver Tahj Washington, who chose to play despite declaring for next year’s draft, for the first two touchdowns with catches of 17 and 29-yards. Washington finished with 99-yards and his first 1,000-yard season.
Moss faked a hand-off to Austin Jones before a sidearm pass to Kyron Hudson for the third, who had blocked Brady Hodge’s punt two plays earlier giving USC the ball in the redzone. Ja’Kobi Lane hauled in the next two, the first an off-balance pass from the 31-yard line that demonstrated Moss’s arm strength and the second a beautiful fade to the corner of the endzone that exploited the mismatch created by Lane’s 6’ 4’’ stature. Moss’s best throw of the game came on his sixth and final score when he dropped the ball over the defender and into the hands of Duce Robinson who had beat his man with a beautifully run route down the middle of the field.
However, Moss was not flawless. An early pass was broken up by a defender on what could have easily been an interception. Early in the third quarter Moss was picked off on the goal line as he threw the ball short on the back hip of the receiver. Quincy Riley jumped underneath for the interception, returning the ball to the UCS forty-yard line and was unlucky not to take it all the way for a pick-six.
USC’s defense has been haemorrhaging yards and points all season but found a new fire in San Diego, holding Louisville QB Jack Plummer to just 141-yards passing and no touchdowns. The Cardinals kept themselves in the game thanks to a career best performance from running back Isaac Guerendo who accounted for 161-yards and three TDs. Guerendo became the only RB in school history to record 150+ yards and three scores in a bowl game.
Despite their struggles on the ground, the Trojan’s defense finished strong. Late in the fourth quarter they forced a turnover on downs before sealing the game on what turned out to be Louisville’s final drive when Anthony Beavers Jr. punched the ball out of Plummer’s hands before Mason Cobb recovered it.
As we enter the offseason and players jump schools through the transfer portal, it remains unclear who will be starting under center for USC. Moss has said before he will stay and compete for the QB1 spot with whoever the Trojans bring in. If he continues to perform the way he did against Louisville it will be hard to argue against him leading the Trojans into the BIG 10 next season.