The lowdown: The first half of this installment of the USC-Stanford rivalry went briskly, but fell right in line with what the Cardinal wanted to do. Christian McCaffrey showed off his skills with a 56-yard touchdown catch, and Stanford scored 17 points on three-straight drives, amassing 197 yards on 29 plays.
On the other side of the ball, USC’s offense was hit and miss. Despite having a 6.3 yard-per-play average, the Trojans struggled to finish drives thanks to five false start penalties. The infractions repeatedly put USC behind the sticks and prevented them from converting a single third down conversion.