The USC Trojans suffered their first loss of this season on Saturday, falling 43-22 to the Arizona State Sun Devils in the team's first road test. The Trojans will look for redemption this Saturday against another Arizona team, the University of Arizona Wildcats. The game will be played at home, and the Trojans are favored by 13.5 points, according to Michael Lev.
That may seem like a bit much in light of the fact that the Trojans just lost by over 20 points to the Sun Devils, but keep in mind how the game played out. The Trojans fought back from an early 21-9 deficit and even claimed a 22-21 lead in Tempe before things went south. USC played well enough to stay in the game for three quarters (trailing 28-22 heading into the fourth), and it was merely a series of good plays by ASU coupled with a few errors by USC that broke the game open in the fourth. It's easy to blow the loss out of proportion, but the Trojans certainly played better than the 21-point defeat would lead you to believe.
In addition, the Trojans play an Arizona squad this week that has struggled over the past few weeks against top competition. Against a murderous row of then-No. 9 Oklahoma State, then-No. 6 Stanford and then-No. 10 Oregon, the Wildcats have been outscored by an average of 25 points over the past three weeks.
All of a sudden, 13.5 points doesn't look so bad. The Trojans should definitely have an upper hand against the Wildcats, and how they rebound after last week's loss could determine whether or not they cover come Saturday.