{"id":915675,"date":"2026-10-04T09:48:16","date_gmt":"2026-10-04T09:48:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/915675\/"},"modified":"2026-10-04T09:48:16","modified_gmt":"2026-10-04T09:48:16","slug":"no-18-usc-football-rallies-past-washington-25-21-with-jahkeem-stewarts-fumble-return-td-more-big-defensive-plays","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/915675\/","title":{"rendered":"No. 18 USC Football Rallies Past Washington 25-21 With Jahkeem Stewart\u2019s Fumble Return TD, More Big Defensive Plays"},"content":{"rendered":"

LOS ANGELES (AP) \u2014 Jahkeem Stewart<\/a> returned a fumble 48 yards for the go-ahead touchdown, and No. 18 USC Football\u00a0overcame a double-digit deficit in the second half for a 25-21 victory over Washington on Saturday night.<\/p>\n

Jayden Maiava<\/a> passed for 245 yards and hit Tanook Hines<\/a> for a second-half score while the Trojans (5-1, 2-1 Big Ten) surged back with the game’s final 15 points for their first victory over the Huskies (3-2, 0-2) since 2016.<\/p>\n

Demond Williams Jr. passed for 198 yards and led Washington on a late drive from its 5 to the USC 12, converting two fourth downs and a third-and-11 along the way. But after Kameryn Crawford<\/a> sacked Williams on third down, Williams’ pass into double coverage in the end zone fell incomplete with 39 seconds left.<\/p>\n

The win eases some of the pressure on coach Lincoln Riley<\/a> and the Trojans, who improved sharply on defense after last week’s dispiriting home loss to Oregon.<\/p>\n

Coordinator Gary Patterson<\/a>‘s defense didn’t allow any more points by the depleted Huskies, who have lost two straight by a combined seven points.<\/p>\n

That USC defense turned the game around late in the third quarter when Stewart \u2014 the 295-pound defensive tackle nicknamed Thanos \u2014 picked up Williams’ fumble in a collapsing pocket and rumbled downfield for his first score.<\/p>\n

Receiver Dezmen Roebuck threw a touchdown pass to Baron Naone for Washington’s first points.<\/p>\n

Washington went up 14-10 shortly before halftime with an 80-yard drive ending in Kade Eldridge’s TD dive. After USC had two drives sabotaged by unsportsmanlike conduct penalties on either side of halftime, Decker DeGraaf took a short pass for a 42-yard score when multiple Trojans failed to push him out of bounds.<\/p>\n

But Hines ripped a 10-yard TD pass away from a Washington defensive back later in the third before the Trojans went ahead on Stewart’s TD.<\/p>\n

USC linebacker Desman Stephens sat out under suspension after his ejection last week for a late hit on Ducks quarterback Dante Moore. Ta’Mere Robinson<\/a> took Stephens’ starting spot.<\/p>\n

The takeaway<\/p>\n

Washington: Two heartbreaking losses put the brakes on the Huskies’ hopes of entering the AP Top 25, but coach Jedd Fisch is getting decent efforts out of a roster with injury problems. Their remaining October schedule is fairly friendly to a resurgence if the defense can get back on track.<\/p>\n

USC: The defense responded smartly to a poor September, holding the Huskies to 123 yards in the first half before making enough big plays to win it late. A series of crushing penalties prevented the Trojans from running away, but Riley will take any win at this point in his tumultuous tenure.<\/p>\n

Up next<\/p>\n

USC: At Penn State on Saturday, Oct. 10.<\/p>\n

Gallery: (10-3-2026) USC Trojans 25, Washington 21 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"LOS ANGELES (AP) \u2014 Jahkeem Stewart returned a fumble 48 yards for the go-ahead touchdown, and No. 18…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":915676,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[563],"tags":[64,63,596,85],"class_list":["post-915675","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-football","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-football","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/915675","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=915675"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/915675\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/915676"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=915675"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=915675"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=915675"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}