Cal vs. USC: Score and Twitter Reaction

What happens when you combine the nation's worst pass defense with an offense getting 280-plus yards through the air? The result is a loss for the California Golden Bears, who fell to the USC Trojans, 38-30, Thursday night in Los Angeles despite a furious second-half comeback.

Cal nearly closed a 29-point second-quarter deficit after outscoring USC 21-7 in the third and fourth quarters. A 29-yard touchdown pass from Jared Goff to Stephen Anderson got the Golden Bears to within a score late in the game. The Golden Bears had to attempt an onside kick to have any chance at a comeback, but USC recovered it to close out the game.

Despite the win, the Trojans' offensive stagnation in the second half will do little to quiet head coach Steve Sarkisian and his staff's critics. NFL.com's Bryan Fischer believed that the team's inability to put Cal out for good speaks to a larger issue:

For Cal, it's yet another game in which the offense couldn't do enough to carry the rest of the team. The biggest constant for the Golden Bears this year has been an almost nonexistent defense. Coming into the contest, Cal was surrendering an average of 39.9 points a game (122nd) and 525.9 yards a game (123rd) so far in 2014.

The Trojans don't possess an electric offense, but Cal head coach Sonny Dykes knew that USC presented a matchup nightmare.

"(USC is) an explosive team, a team runs the ball well and can also get the ball down the field in their passing game," he said, per Riley McAtee of The Daily Californian.

Cody Kessler had a brilliant first half but petered out with the rest of the offense in the second half. The junior quarterback threw for 370 yards, four touchdowns and an interception.

The star of the night was junior wide receiver Nelson Agholor, who had 13 receptions for 175 yards and two touchdowns at halftime. He finished the game with 214 yards and the two scores on 16 catches. He was one reception short of setting a school record.

Still, this is the second game in a row Agholor's eclipsed 200-plus receiving yards, making him the first Trojans wideout to do so:

Fox Sports' Bruce Feldman highlighted how much the Golden Bears have struggled to defend talented wideouts:

Javorius Allen didn't have a great night, going for 60 yards on 21 carries, but he eclipsed 1,000 rushing yards for the season, making him and Agholor the first running back-wide receiver teammate combo to go over 1,000 yards rushing and receiving, respectively, in 2014, per Max Meyer:

As a team, USC amassed 448 total yards, compared to 384 for Cal. The Golden Bears offense came in averaging nearly 42 points and 509.1 yards a game offensively, so the Trojans defense deserves credit for slowing down Cal's high-powered attack.

ESPN.com's Ivan Maisel felt that having some extra time off really benefited the Trojans as a whole, given how few scholarship players they have:

Cal's only hope to win this game was Goff somehow keeping pace with the Trojans and turning it into a shootout. The biggest problem for Goff was that the Golden Bears' air attack could hardly get off the ground at times, courtesy of USC defensive end Leonard Williams, as shown by the USC Trojans Twitter account:

Goff wound up with 279 yards and three touchdowns on 29-of-46 passing.

Sarkisian and his staff couldn't have envisioned a better start to the game, with the Trojans holding a 31-2 advantage in the second quarter.

USC jumped out to a 14-0 lead in the first after two touchdown passes from Kessler. Cal stopped Justin Davis in the end zone to get the safety and make it a 14-2 game, but Davis immediately responded with a three-yard touchdown run to boost the Trojans' advantage to 19 points, 21-2.

Another Kessler TD pass and a 25-yard field goal put USC ahead 31-2 before Goff threw a six-yard touchdown pass to Chris Harper with nine seconds left in the half.

To understand the gulf between the two teams, one must only look at the first-half drive summaries, courtesy of ESPN.com.

Cal
USC
Plays	Yards	Result
3	2	Punt
4	25	Punt
3	1	Punt
7	34	Punt
3	0	Punt
1	17	Fumble
6	11	Turnover on Downs
9	60	Touchdown
Plays	Yards	Result
14	85	Touchdown
4	60	Touchdown
1	-1	Safety
4	61	Touchdown
8	36	Punt
7	28	Interception
2	17	Touchdown
8	24	Field Goal
1	-2	End of Half

A five-yard touchdown run from Daniel Lasco in the third quarter got the Golden Bears to within two scores, 31-16, which made things a bit interesting. The Trojans offense was largely listless after halftime, which wasn't helped by the volume of flags USC picked up. It was penalized 14 times for 160 yards over the entire night.

A 78-yard touchdown pass to Agholor was wiped off the board after a holding call in the third quarter, per Greg Beacham of The Associated Press:

The flag merely delayed the inevitable, as USC delivered a critical blow to Cal in the fourth quarter courtesy of a 16-yard TD pass to Randall Telfer. That again gave the Trojans a three-score lead, 38-16, with 11:19 to play in the game, which looked insurmountable given Cal's offensive struggles.

Goff picked up his second touchdown throw of the night after finding Bryce Treggs in the end zone from five yards out 6:36 from the final whistle. Then another Goff TD pass made it a one-score game, but it was too little too late for the Golden Bears.

Even with the win, USC still needs some help in order to make the Pac-12 Championship Game. With a 6-2 conference record, the Trojans enjoy a likely brief lead on UCLA, which is 5-2. Arizona State leads the Pac-12 South at 5-1.

Cal was eliminated from the conference championship long ago, but the 5-5 Golden Bears can still go to a postseason bowl game. All they need is one more win, which could be tricky with Stanford and BYU to close out the regular season.