USC’s first-half meltdown could be the moment its playoff dreams died

While Week 13 of the College Football season isn't the most action packed slate of games, there are still some massive games with College Football Playoff implications. The game with the biggest stakes comes as the 7th ranked Oregon Ducks host the 15th ranked USC Trojans in a game that will determine the fate of both teams.

The USC Trojans are the underdog in this matchup, meaning Lincoln Riley needed to find a way to get his team the win; otherwise, it would hand them a 3rd loss, ending their Playoff hopes. When the game started 14-14, it looked like USC might turn this into a shootout, which is favorable for the Trojans.

The end of the first half is when things truly started to unravel for Lincoln Riley's team as they trailed 21-14. Just when it looked like USC got a stop, and Oregon missed a field goal, we saw that the Trojans took a massive penalty for leaping over the long snapper to negate the miss and give Oregon the first down. The Ducks then burned more clock while scoring a touchdown to take a 28-14 lead.

Needing a score before the half as the Ducks received the second half kick, Lincoln Riley's team marched down the field to set up first and goal. On the first two plays in the redzone, Riley called odd rushing plays for Makai Lemon which went for -2 yards. The third down play then had a ton of pressure and when it fell incomplete, Riley sent his field goal unit out to try and make it an 11 point game.

Instead, the USC Trojans missed the chip shot field goal when it would've made a ton of sense to go for it trailing by 2 touchdowns.

If USC is going to come back and win this game, they're going to need to play a much cleaner second half. The Trojans need to come out of the locker room and stop an offense that's clicking; otherwise, the Ducks' lead growing to 3 scores could be too much to overcome.

The Trojans then need to find a way to run the football after averaging just 1.7 yards per carry in the first half, putting far too much pressure on Jayden Maiava. Lincoln Riley's team has the talent to turn this game around, but they're going to need to play their absolute best football.