LOS ANGELES — The Coliseum's mood was as dark as the halftime sky when Southern California went to the locker room soaked in nonstop rain and trailing Iowa by 11 points.
With their postseason hopes under a serious cloud, the Trojans gathered themselves and responded with a rally that didn't stop until they had secured a rarity in coach Lincoln Riley's tenure — a comeback win over a quality opponent.
Makai Lemon made 10 catches for 153 yards and a second-half touchdown, and No. 17 USC scored 19 straight points to keep its College Football Playoff hopes alive with a 26-21 victory over the Hawkeyes on Saturday.
Jayden Maiava passed for 254 yards and Bryan Jackson rushed for two touchdowns for the Trojans (8-2, 6-1 Big Ten, No. 17 CFP), who have won four straight Big Ten games for the first time.
“We don’t want to play catch-up,” Maiava said. “But this is a really dominant group, and we’re going to go out there and get the job done ourselves.”
The Trojans faced their largest deficit of the season when Iowa embarrassed their defense with a picture-perfect Philly Special for a touchdown to go up 21-7 shortly before halftime. USC didn't flinch, coolly mounting five consecutive scoring drives capped by Jackson's go-ahead TD run with 13:36 to play.
“You can't ask for a better response than that,” said receiver Ja'Kobi Lane, who had seven catches for 65 yards. “Both sides of the ball just jumped at that opportunity. I definitely think there were some realizations at halftime. If we were going to respond, there were some things that had to be done.”
Mark Gronowski threw a touchdown pass, made a TD run and caught a scoring pass during the first half, but his Hawkeyes (6-4, 4-3, No. 21 CFP) got shut out in the second half of another heartbreaking loss to a ranked team.
“Certainly we played complete team football in that first half," Iowa coach Kirk Ferentz said. “Went about as well as we could have hoped, and really off to a good start there. Certainly, the second half, just to flip on that a little bit. Wasn’t a matter of effort or any of that stuff. It’s just USC did a good job of coming back and maximizing their opportunities.”
Iowa finally mounted a decent drive in the closing minutes, but turned it over on downs at the USC 29 with 1:59 to play. The Trojans were able to run out the clock after an Iowa assistant coach was penalized for unsportsmanlike conduct with 1:25 left.
“To me, it looked like one of our assistants ran out on the field, apparently," Ferentz said. "Literally stepped over the line.”
Steady rain had been falling on Los Angeles for more than 24 hours before kickoff, and it didn't stop during the wettest USC home game in recent memory. The Hawkeyes appeared to handle it better early on, with receiver Reece Vander Zee's 5-yard TD pass to Gronowski on that Philly Special highlighting a strong first half.
USC persevered and won thanks to another phenomenal game from its two star receivers and a defense that held Iowa to 108 yards after halftime despite losing a handful of starters to injury.
“Getting points on that first drive (after halftime) was big, and we just got on a run from there,” Riley said. “It just felt like we were going to stop them every time. Felt like we were going to score every time. ... The energy in that room at halftime, I felt very strongly we were going to come back out and make a run.”
After Lemon's 12-yard TD catch late in the third quarter, USC defensive tackle Jahkeem Stewart adroitly intercepted a deflected pass in Iowa territory, leading to Jackson's go-ahead score.
“I tried throwing it away from the defender, ended up hitting (Jacob) Gill’s knee, popping up (to Stewart),” Gronowski said. "It’s just super-unfortunate in that situation and in that time of the game for that to happen. But again, it’s a little execution thing that I could throw that ball maybe 0.2 seconds earlier, and it might be a different outcome.”
Takeaways
Iowa: This is a very good team, but it's going to miss out on being a great one. A week after taking a lead into the final minute of a painful loss at Oregon, the Hawkeyes lost another gut-puncher in their school's first visit to the Coliseum since 1976. Iowa has been beaten by four ranked teams this season by a combined 15 points.
USC: Riley has a title-contending team in mid-November for the first time since his debut season in 2022. Showing team-wide resilience and the ability to make defensive adjustments, the Trojans improved to 6-0 at the Coliseum this season and put themselves in position for a hugely meaningful game at Autzen Stadium next weekend.
Up next
Iowa: Hosts Michigan State on Nov. 22.
USC: At No. 7 Oregon on Nov. 22.
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AP college football: https://apnews.com/college-football