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This Saturday USC and Utah meet in a huge Pac-12 south showdown. This game will give the winner control of their own destiny in the division going forward. USC is coming off a 38-10 victory over Oregon State while Utah lost their game last week to the Stanford Cardinal. Before these two step on the field, we’ll break down some match ups to keep an eye on in this game.
USC Offensive Line vs Utah Defensive Line: These games are usually pretty physical in the trenches. Utah is known to have a physical defensive line. The USC offensive line currently has some injuries and has had penalty issues that would hurt some USC drives.
Utah Defense vs USC Run Game: This is where things will be interesting. Utah is ranked No. 2 in the conference in run defense, however last week Stanford rushed for 196 yards in the Utes 23-20 defeat. Bryce Love rushed for 152 of those yards alone. This week they’ll see Ronald Jones II who has looked pretty good coming off the injury. USC tends to rotate carries with a number of running backs, but USC will be without freshman Stephen Carr due to injury. You can bet that the Utes defense will be ready and adjusted to the Trojans rushing attack.
USC Defense vs Troy Williams: This particular match up intrigues many because Troy Williams last year gave the Trojans fits in their last meeting. USC still has last year’s loss to the Utes in mind and Troy Williams was a good part of that as he hurt the SC defense on the ground and through the air. This year the USC defense has played better and has really disrupted teams in the backfield. One player to keep an eye on today will be USC linebacker Uchenna Nwosu. He has been a thorn to opposing offenses side, getting into the backfield, deflecting passes, and intercepting passes.
Utah’s offensive line will have to do their best keeping him away from Williams. The Trojans secondary will also be pretty busy, as well because Williams can pass, he also is interception prone. Williams threw two picks against Stanford last week.