Penn State vs. USC, Rose Bowl 2016-17: Schedule, scores, and more

USC lost three of its first four games this season, then won its last nine and capped the year with a Rose Bowl thriller against Penn State. The Trojans finished the year ranked third in the AP Top 25, which is notable for one reason in particular.

Our staff put together a way-early top 25 for next year, and USC was third there, too, right behind Alabama and Ohio State. Personally, I voted USC to be No. 2.

It’s been a while since boxing had itself a titanic heavyweight battle, but we’ll continue to use college football as a proxy in the meantime. Two years ago, I graded the amazing TCU-Baylor game as a 12-round fight. As a nod to how ridiculous Monday night’s Rose Bowl truly was, I’m going to give it the same treatment here.

This, from 2014 TCU-Baylor, still applies:

The grass, which you’ll put your bare feet on the second you’re sure you can get away with it, didn’t come from here. It began as seedlings in Oregon in the spring, with months of exhaustive and annually tweaked plans delivering it in the fall as sod to Pasadena from a company 120 miles east. The entire playing surface has never been to the Rose Bowl before, just like every other year.

For a while, even the Rose Bowl itself hadn’t yet been to the Rose Bowl. 1923’s Rose Bowl Game between Penn State and USC was the first to move from a park and into the 40,000-seat Rose Bowl Stadium, a sprawling crater plopped onto a hilly, one-lane neighborhood’s golf course, all observed by the San Gabriel Mountains.

Numbers cannot tell the full story of the 2017 Rose Bowl, which I think was the best game (so far) of this college football season. It was packed with emotional twists and turns, Saquon Barkley jukes, and Sam Darnold bullet passes.

But the game was so good and so loaded with offense that the numbers were bound to be astonishing, and they definitely are. Here are 19 of them, stacked up against other figures from 102 other Rose Bowls dating back to 1902.

Since Ohio State beat Michigan at the end of the regular season, it appeared that the “game of the year” moniker had been firmly taken hold of by the Buckeyes. Then college football played the Grandaddy of ‘Em All.

USC’s 52-49 win over Penn State in the 2017 Rose Bowl had absolutely everything you could want. From stem to stern, it was compelling, and it was exciting. Penn State wrestled a 20-7 deficit back to take the lead after a 28-8 third quarter. USC won the game with a 17-0 fourth quarter. There were incredible catches and runs throughout, and you could never truly look away.

USC beat Penn State, 52-49, in the Rose Bowl, the game itself turning out to be one of the most thrilling finishes we’ve seen all season. USC’s Leon McQuay picked off a long pass from Penn State quarterback Trace McSorley, and was able to return it to the PSU 33 with less than 30 seconds left.

USC then lined up for a miraculous game-winning 46-yard field goal. Placekicker Matt Boermeester nailed it, sealing the unbelievable Trojan victory. Here’s what that looked like from the field:

No. 5 Penn State and No. 9 USC meet in this year’s Rose Bowl, which is celebrating its 103rd anniversary. The game was a classic that we’ll be talking about for a long time.

FINAL: USC 52, Penn State 49.

What a game, and what a win. USC won the 2017 Rose Bowl, 52-49, with a dramatic field goal by Matt Boermeester as time expired.

The kick capped off a 17-point fourth quarter in what may go down as the game of the year. Penn State iced him, and he still stepped up and knocked this one through. Boermeester more than redeemed himself for two missed FGs earlier in the game, including a 51-yarder on USC’s first drive. He also missed a 49-yarder as time expired in the first half.

USC linebacker and top tackler Cameron Smith got kicked out of Monday’s Rose Bowl after a targeting penalty for a hit on Penn State quarterback Trace McSorley. It’s unfortunate to see a player disqualified from the Rose Bowl, but the call here was pretty cut and dried, and officials got it right.

The play:

USC decided to get tricky on a two-point conversion attempt in Monday’s Rose Bowl against Penn State. Here was the Trojans’ unusual formation:

The play is designed for USC quarterback Sam Darnold to check Penn State’s defensive alignment. At that point, Darnold can either call for a standard kicked extra point (kicker Matt Boermeester, No. 39, is across the field and ready for action), or he can take the snap and try to get the ball into the end zone.

Okay, this is just getting out of hand. Penn State wide receiver Chris Godwin is having an absolutely ridiculous game against USC in the Rose Bowl. His latest brilliant play came on this amazing 72-yard touchdown catch, his second score of the night. He jumps up to get it, somehow pulls in the bobbling ball, and then spins around once his feet touch the ground before running into the end zone.

His first big play came on this amazing 30-yard touchdown that required Godwin to tightrope on the sideline of the end zone.

Penn State receiver Chris Godwin has been wrecking USC’s life in the Rose Bowl, and he scored a monstrous 72-yard touchdown in the third quarter.

The catch is awesome. Congrats to Godwin, and condolences to out-jumped USC cornerback Iman Marshall, who did his best but couldn’t do anything about it.

Penn State sophomore running back Saquon Barkley is electrifying. He’s never been more electrifying than on this 79-yard masterpiece of a touchdown run that gave Penn State its first lead of the Rose Bowl on Monday against USC.

What an incredible mix of patience, burst, and agility. There’s no way to game plan against someone who’s untouchable, and as Barkley darted left, right, and then straight ahead, he looked pretty close to untouchable. It’s a positively gorgeous run, and it comes during Penn State’s biggest game in years. This is football artwork.

Oh my, this could have ended horribly. During halftime of the Rose Bowl between USC and Penn State, the USC Trojan mascot came very, very close to stabbing himself in the toe with his own sword. I mean just look how close this was.

Look, I’m sure this Trojan is a trained professional who does this trick multiple times per day, but this was quite the close call. The most amazing part (to me) is how he literally doesn’t hesitate whatsoever and continues on with his celebration.

USC receiver Deontay Burnett scored a touchdown at the Rose Bowl on Monday on a pick play. That’s often illegal, but in this case, it’s not.

USC receiver JuJu Smith-Schuster (No. 9) ran a slant pattern that doubled as a way to obstruct Penn State cornerback Christian Campbell (No. 1), freeing up Burnett to score.

Just minutes after Penn State WR Chris Godwin hauled in this beautiful 30-yard touchdown catch, he made another spectacular play. In Penn State’s next drive, he made this unbelievable one-handed grab, one that he practically pulled in from behind his body. It almost looked like he reeled it in using The Force.

Along with the touchdown grab from earlier, Godwin is having himself a game. Even former NFL receiver Chad Ochocinco took notice, giving Godwin a shoutout on Twitter shortly after he used The Force to make the one-handed grab.

Penn State got within six points of USC in the second quarter of the Rose Bowl on a beautiful touchdown throw. Nittany Lions quarterback Trace McSorley was flushed out of the pocket, and somehow managed to pull off an incredible 30-yard touchdown bomb to Chris Godwin.

The play was reviewed to ensure Godwin remained in bounds, and the touchdown stood, making it a 20-14 game. Godwin was matched up against one of the nation’s most talented cornerbacks in Adoree’ Jackson, and he was able to haul it in even as he was running out of space to make the touchdown.

USC all-purpose superstar and human bolt of lightning Adoree’ Jackson had a nice punt return in the first quarter of Monday’s Rose Bowl against Penn State.

The return was cool, but it didn’t count. USC’s Jack Jones drew a flag for blocking some Nittany Lion in the back. (Jones is not the No. 14 you see in the image above.)

Penn State’s Rose Bowl could’ve gotten off to a smoother start.

The first play of the game was a USC kickoff, and Penn State returner Miles Sanders misjudged it, allowing the ball to bounce away from him. Sanders fell on the ball at his own 3-yard line, setting up his offense with terrible field position.

In early December, we learned the tragic news of former USC and NFL running back Joe McKnight passing away at the age of 28 after a shooting in Louisiana. Prior to NFL stints with the New York Jets and the Kansas City Chiefs, he was USC’s running back from 2007-09. During his final college season, McKnight rushed for 1,014 yards and eight touchdowns.

USC will face Penn State in this year’s Rose Bowl, and current Trojans running back Ronald Jones is honoring the late McKnight by wearing McKnight’s USC No. 4 he wore when playing for the Trojans.

Perhaps you’re looking at your TV on Monday in bamboozled wonderment. Surely, a Big Ten champion like No. 5 Penn State should be in the College Football Playoff, right? Especially one that beat one of the Playoff entrants, Ohio State, in the regular season, and especially because that Playoff team didn’t even win its division, much less the Big Ten.

Plus, the Buckeyes got blown out by Clemson, so what gives? What gives is that Penn State had two regular season losses, and there’s no getting around it.

Penn State and USC look to cap off very successful seasons with the Grandaddy Of Them All, otherwise known as the Rose Bowl. This year’s game falls on Jan. 2 — while usually the matchup has traditionally been played on New Year’s Day for several years. Besides the different timing, this game is definitely not without intrigue.

Penn State got the bid as the Big Ten Champion — defeating Ohio State earlier in the season ultimately punched the Nittany Lions’ ticket to Pasadena in the end. Although there are some who believe Penn State should have earned a spot in the Playoff due to the OSU win and Big Ten title, the Rose Bowl is the next best thing to a Playoff spot.

USC is a really, really good place to be a football coach. It’s a well-heeled private school in a huge market, and it’s in one of America’s three best recruiting states for elite talent. There’s a ton of football history there, including some recent greatness behind Pete Carroll, Matt Leinart, and Reggie Bush. The weather’s nice. It’s a desirable job.

When USC fired Steve Sarkisian last season, the Trojans could’ve tried for a blockbuster hire to replace him. But they decided to promote from within, elevating offensive coordinator Clay Helton, who’d been the interim head coach, to the permanent lead job. Helton took control of one of the sport’s biggest legacy programs, which at the time was coming off five sub-10-win seasons in seven years.

The 128th running of the Rose Parade is set for Monday, Jan. 2. While typically held on the first of the year, the parade has a strict “no Sundays” rule, meaning every time the first of the year falls on a Sunday, the event gets pushed.

On Monday, the parade will get underway at 11 a.m. ET, a few hours before the Rose Bowl game between Penn State and USC at 5 p.m. The parade will be broadcast on ABC, NBC, HGTV, the Hallmark Channel and KTLA-5 locally, among other broadcasts. The primary way to watch online will be via ESPN3 through WatchESPN, though several of the other broadcasts will also feature their own live streams of the procession.

Penn State and USC didn’t start well, but they sure finished well. Now they’re in Monday’s Rose Bowl, pairing up for the 103rd playing of the Granddaddy of Them All.

The Nittany Lions were 2-2 after four games. The Trojans were 1-3. Neither has lost since, and both head into the Rose Bowl firing well on any number of cylinders. Penn State got healthier, started playing defense, and rode a combination of thrilling upsets, smooth wins, and comeback triumphs to get here. USC’s season turned around after redshirt freshman Sam Darnold took over at quarterback.