In retrospect, the most surprising part of USC’s first offensive play in a 45-24 win over California on Thursday evening, a 61-yard Ronald Jones II run, was that the Golden Bears stopped him at all.
Jones had scythed inside left tackle Chad Wheeler, breezed past a linebacker grasping at air and flummoxed two defensive backs so thoroughly that they tripped over each other. By the time he ripped a tackler off his back and hightailed down the sideline, a final straggler could just manage to flush him out of bounds which, on Thursday, could almost count as a defensive highlight for the Bears.