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Alex Grinch’s defense lost the Cotton Bowl, but USC special teams failures contributed as well
The USC Trojans have a lot of reasons for falling short in the Cotton Bowl. Tulane came storming back and got the 46-45 victory in one of the best games of the entire season for neutral fans who just wanted a fun game. They got one.
It wasn’t good or fun for USC fans, however.
The defense had plenty of issues once again and defensive coordinator Alex Grinch was back on the roster in the social media world after a terrible performance.
That said, special teams also had a couple of miscues. For starters, kicker Denis Lynch was short on a 52-yard field goal attempt in a dome; that would have been the longest kick of his career, but he didn’t have enough leg. That was jarring.
The other miscue was the difference maker: Mario Williams botched a late kickoff return and the Trojans ended up with the ball at their own 1-yard line, which led to a safety.
Where do we even begin? The defense was bad, but special teams was another talking point after the loss:
NO REAL ANSWERS
NO LIES
DAMAGE DONE
BECAUSE HE DIDN'T DO WELL
CRUSHER
VIDEO
NO DOUBT
AGAIN
IT WAS
SO TRUE
SEEMS LIKE IT
SHORT! IN A DOME!
WHICH MAGNIFIES THE MISSED ONE
YUP
HARD TRUTH
TOO INTERESTING FOR THE TROJANS, AS IT TURNED OUT
REPEAT
GOOD IDEA
SHEESH
MAYBE SO
