USC football: The Trojans are looking fraudulent after another tight win

Another week, another shockingly tight win by USC football.

The Trojans entered Saturday night as nearly a three-touchdown favorite over visiting Arizona, but the Wildcats put up quite the fight against USC, taking it to three overtimes.

In the end, it was Caleb Williams who put the team on his back and scored the game-winning 2-point conversion in the third overtime to put the game away. The Trojans blew a late 28-20 lead, but they were down 17-0 to start so to even be in the game was a gift. Arizona just couldn’t score in the second half like it did in the first 30 minutes.

In need of a stop, up 28-20, though, Alex Grinch’s defense fell apart again. Even worse, the Trojans gave up the tying 2-point conversion to make it 28-28.

And then, with a chance to kick the game-winning field goal in regulation from almost extra point distance, a poor snap led to a failed attempt. The game shockingly went to overtime — and that was after nearly turning the ball over on two straight plays instead of safely taking a knee.

The Trojans ended up winning, but they looked fraudulent — again.

USC football may be the biggest fraud in the top 15

Sitting at No. 9 in the AP Top 25 heading into the weekend, another close win against an inferior opponent will likely drop the Trojans a couple of spots, but I’m not sure that this team right now is worthy of being even that high.

USC gave up over 500 total yards and 41 points to Arizona who dropped to 3-3 after the loss. That’s unacceptable for the No. 9 team in the country at home.

Outside of the first three games against cupcakes, USC struggled on the road against Arizona State as it was a one-score game late in the second half, it won by seven at Colorado last week after giving up 41 points, and it needed three overtimes to beat Arizona at home.

I don’t know about you, but that doesn’t sound like a top-15 team to me. This defense is going to hold this team back from great things.